Module
Corporate Strategy

Assessors Marie Kerr, Dr David Pollard

Report Title
Critically examine the rationale of the recently announced Nokia and Microsoft strategic partnership

Presentation Deadline
13 April 2011

Student Name
Gul Aliskan
Hammad Hafeez
Ufuk Can Cindioglu
Umer Zia
Zhenhua Ma

Contents
1. Introduction-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------3
2. Market analysis -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------4
3. Financial Performance----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------6
4. Needs of
4. Need for Partnership
One of Nokia’s core strategies was to produce cheap mobile phone with limited functionality, it’s very popular in developing countries, that is the reason for big market share but less profit. Moores said that, ‘Microprocessors double in computing power every 18 months’ the first mobile phone were just designed to make conversation and text message, as microprocessors become more powerful and mobile phones are changing into hand-held computers, even Nokia realized the world is changing and produced a touch-screen mobile phone in 2004, but the software technology Nokia had which is not as good as their America competitors, such as Apple’s App store.
“We are standing on a burning platform,” Stephen Elop, Nokia’s new boss wrote in a memo to all 132,000 employees of the world’s biggest handset-maker. The company must change its ways radically.
Nokia is the one of the most popular cell phone around the world and it is famous due to its cell phones’ design and high quality. Because of the rapid changes and advancement in other companies, Nokia lost a huge percent of profit from year 2007 to 2010. Nokia also had to face a loss in market share which was mainly taken by Apple after year 2007 when Steve Jobs entered the market so Nokia decided to make a strategic partnership with Microsoft (MSFT). Both companies could not be successful and get ahead of their rivals so Nokia and Microsoft