"We must indeed all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall hang separately." Benjamin Franklin reportedly said this during the signing of the Declaration of Independence. But this quote can also be used to explain the Microsoft-Nokia deal, which cedes Nokia's smartphone business to Redmond for a tad over $7 billion.
Don't like the Franklin quote? Then you can adopt a much more pessimistic school of thought: Microsoft and Nokia may have simply thrown a rope to one another, cried "Save me!" and jumped off a cliff in unison.
In the wake of the deal's announcement, a number of stories have been generous in reporting Microsoft's acquistion—or have at least failed to reality-check the tenability of the deal's greater goals. That's fine. Frankly, Benjamin Franklin's take on the matter is probably a reasonable, fair interpretation of Microsoft's and Nokia's motivations. But the Franklin philosophy is also predicated on the notion that both sides end up winning—and there's little guarantee that will be the case.
Ballmer and Elop, together again.
Windows Phone is the world's third most popular smartphone platform, and, as Microsoft notes, outsells BlackBerry in 34 markets around the globe. But trumpeting these numbers is like praising Windows Phone with thinly veiled criticism. Worldwide, Windows Phone commands a paltry 3.3 percent market share, up from 2.6 percent a year ago. Yes, BlackBerry fell from 5.2 percent to 2.7 percent during the same period. But with 79 percent market share, Android is outselling WIndows Phone by 25 times.
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