IDC Viewpoint: Nokia, Microsoft and Nokia World - The Enterprise Perspective
By Nicholas McQuire, Research Director, Enterprise Mobility Strategies EMEA
(PresseBox) - After over a week of digesting the announcements at Nokia World, several CIOs have approached us for our position on the short-to-mid term enterprise impact of the Nokia and Microsoft partnership. Before we do, let's recap the major headlines from the event:
- Nokia announced 4 new feature phones based on its S40 OS. The "Asha" line with multi-SIM functionality is largely targeted at growth markets such as India, Africa, China & LATAM. Asha devices are all about blurring the lines between traditional classifications of feature and smartphones with price points ranging from ?60-100. Nokia revealed it is experiencing ~10M app downloads a day on S40 devices and one of the Asha devices, the 300, is coming to market with a GHZ processor.
- Nokia announced two high end smartphones based on Windows Phone 7 (WP7) "Mango" operating system. Called the "Lumia" range, Nokia has delivered on its promise earlier this year on getting WP7 products out to market quickly. Supporting the Lumia phones are a base of over 30 operators worldwide committed to launching the 800 as a "hero device" in the coming quarters. 6 markets in Europe will get the devices in November; CEE & APAC end of this year with China in 1H of 2012 and US in 2H 2012 according to Nokia.
- "The Amazing Everyday" - Recognizing Microsoft's limited voice in the targeted 25-32 year old demographic, Nokia revealed how its brand values and marketing messaging will transition away from reliability towards inspiration, humanism and individualism through the theme "the Amazing Every day." Nokia did not reveal how much muscle will be behind this campaign (including how much subsidy from Microsoft) but it did reveal it will be spending 3X the amount spent on any other device range in its history.
What do these announcements have to do with the business segment? On the surface, little. In fact, the Enterprise market was a subdued conversation overall at Nokia World this year. Obviously, driving consumer adoption is priority #1 for both parties and this will create the necessary consumer scale to ride the consumerisation of IT wave into the enterprise much like Apple and increasingly Google before them. However, IDC believes a more comprehensive business strategy is emerging from both parties, based around the combined assets and opportunities both have, that, if executed, could speed up their incursions into enterprise mobility over the next 12-24 months.
Strengths and Opportunities
Why do we think this? First, let's consider what strengths both parties bring to the table:
1. Back-end Infrastructure. Microsoft has over 1bn Office installations, 150m Exchange inboxes and over 100m SharePoint licenses worldwide, all addressable targets for productivity-based mobilization. Additionally, Microsoft's System Centre Configuration Manager (SCCM) is a widely deployed IT infrastructure management platform. On the second day of Nokia World, (27th of October), Microsoft also announced the System Centre Configuration Manager 2012 release client with its improved end-point security, desktop and virtualization management capabilities as well as mobile device and application management for Symbian, WP7, iOS and Android devices. With SCCM 2012, enterprises have a single unified infrastructure to manage their entire IT estate including virtual and mobile environments - a capability unmatched in the market and what many CIOs have demanded from Microsoft for at least 12 months now.
2. The Office Productivity Hub: WP7 Mango comes to market with leading out of the box mobile versions of Office productivity tools including Word, Excel and Powerpoint as well as integration with cloud or on premise versions of OneNote, SkyDrive, Lync and Office365. Skype is also likely on the roadmap in future iterations of WP7 that carry front-facing cameras as well.
3. Position in the Business Fleet Market. Nokia has a virtual lock-down in the business voice and text segment in Europe due to a history of reliability and affordability with enterprise procurement. Feature phones and accessories such as car kits play a huge role in its position in this corner of the market. Business feature phones in fact, are double Nokia's business smartphone base and represent a sizable upgrade opportunity for smartphones, improved feature phones and Navteq location services in particular.
4. Symbian. Upgrades to Symbian this year with "Anna" and "Belle" brought UX enhancements, new features and business functionality at affordable price points for enterprises. This contributed to a growth in Nokia's business smartphone revenue of +7% last year (compared to a ~15%+ decline overall) which far exceeded expectations particularly in the mid-low-tier smartphone segments. Markets such as Germany, Spain, Brazil and Mexico played a big role in this business market success and will continue to do so through Symbian's declining lifeline over the next few years.
5. Channels. Nokia's significant retail distribution presence worldwide for self service and SME markets as well as operator support for corporate is well understood. As are Microsoft's direct sales and indirect channel capabilities on IT side. Leading up to Nokia World, Nokia claimed it had trained up to 26K operator corporate sales execs worldwide on Symbian and WP7 devices for instance.
The combination of these assets can be leveraged right across the B2B spectrum, from the one-man bands and SMEs, which represent over 2/3rds of employees in Europe, where Nokia's distribution is strongest, right up into large enterprise, where Microsoft's dominant position with IT departments around the desktop, IT management and UC domains and Nokia's strengths with procurement, fleet and operator sales are pronounced.
But there is more. Let's also consider what key opportunities exist for both partners:
1. Microsoft's Sales Force. Nokia's integration with Microsoft platforms on both Symbian and WP7 devices is well ahead of the competition. Should Microsoft's sales and channel resources embrace this fact to up sell/cross sell Nokia devices into enterprises, including Microsoft customers, both stand a great chance.
2. Activesync on Feature Phones. Asha blurs the lines between feature and smartphones in the context of the consumer. Should Nokia implement some business productivity functionality into this strategy such as integrating ActiveSync for PIM email as standard on feature phones, it opens up a massive volume opportunity in the global enterprise mobility market.
3. Win8/Metro and the next-generation desktop. Given the symbiosis between WP7 and Win8, Nokia now has an obvious trajectory for a tablets but this may play out better for it in enterprise. As the desktop transforms over the next few years, Microsoft will certainly shape its evolution and this gives Nokia an active chance to participate.
Security and Management Challenges Remain However
At the same time however, key challenges in the context of enterprise security and management must be overcome for these strengths and opportunities to bear fruit. Lumia devices come to market dependent on Exchange Activesync for security and management which has not evolved fast enough to address today's holistic security requirements across the network, device and application domains of enterprise mobility. This is because:
- Centralized management of corporate and 3rd party applications on Exchange is not possible
- Lumia devices integrate out of the box with Skydrive and 25 gigabyte of free storage. Great for consumers but as an unmanageable app it is a data loss risk from an IT perspective
- WP7 devices lack native encryption and have limited VPN support
- 3rd party security and management firms cannot support nor innovate on WP7 due to a lack of native WP7 APIs available in these domains
In essence, an enterprise's ability to set policy, meet compliance, control access and manage data on mobile devices through Exchange Activesync is not where it needs to be today. Perhaps because of this, the business market opportunity both firms focused on at Nokia World was the SME market, driven by users and consumerisation of IT and where gaps in mobile security may not be deemed as critical. But enterprise mobile risk awareness and management is improving daily and the possibility that the partnership is not moving fast enough on enterprise security is a real one which could impact them across all segments.
Granted, improvements to security and policy management have accompanied WP7 Mango release including improved device access policies, information rights management, targeted distribution of business apps and the integration of device and app management into SCCM 2012 which are all steps in the right direction. However, little was said of Nokia in particular on how its security capabilities can help address some of the risks today, in particular F-Secure, or indeed if it could independently build a complimentary mobile security ecosystem (and narrative) through the likes of partnerships with 3rd party mobile virtualization, dual-persona or geo-location mobile security specialists for instance.
The Future?
On balance however, these challenges are not insurmountable and we expect progress from Microsoft in particular on enterprise security and management within the next 12 months, including critically, opening up WP7 APIs for third party management and security specialists. Additionally, we encourage Nokia to build a complimentary ecosystem in these domains with a range of third party specialists as it has done on Symbian in the past and in similar fashion as Samsung, LG and Motorola have done with the "enterprization" of Android in particular.
IDC believes WP7 will become a top 2 consumer mobile OS worldwide by 2015, having a substantial impact on consumer markets over the next few years. Provided both partners execute on leveraging the combined assets and opportunities before them in enterprise and address the current limitations, we should see both driving a similar transformation in the mobile enterprise ecosystem by that timeframe as well.
IDC ist der weltweit führende Anbieter von Marktinformationen, Beratungsdienstleistungen und Veranstaltungen auf dem Gebiet der Informationstechnologie und der Telekommunikation. IDC analysiert und prognostiziert technologische und branchenbezogene Trends und Potenziale und ermöglicht ihren Kunden so eine fundierte Planung ihrer Geschäftsstrategien sowie ihres IT-Einkaufs. Durch das Netzwerk der mehr als 1000 Analysten in 110 Ländern mit globaler, regionaler und lokaler Expertise kann IDC ihren Kunden umfassenden Research zu den verschiedensten Segmenten des IT-, TK- und Consumer Marktes zur Verfügung stellen. Seit mehr als 47 Jahren vertrauen Business-Verantwortliche und IT-Führungskräfte bei der Entscheidungsfindung auf IDC.
IDC ist ein Geschäftsbereich der IDG, dem weltweit führenden Unternehmen in den Bereichen IT- Publikationen, Research sowie Ausstellungen und Konferenzen. Weitere Informationen sind auf unseren Webseiten unter www.idc.com oder www.idc.de zu finden.
IDC ist der weltweit führende Anbieter von Marktinformationen, Beratungsdienstleistungen und Veranstaltungen auf dem Gebiet der Informationstechnologie und der Telekommunikation. IDC analysiert und prognostiziert technologische und branchenbezogene Trends und Potenziale und ermöglicht ihren Kunden so eine fundierte Planung ihrer Geschäftsstrategien sowie ihres IT-Einkaufs. Durch das Netzwerk der mehr als 1000 Analysten in 110 Ländern mit globaler, regionaler und lokaler Expertise kann IDC ihren Kunden umfassenden Research zu den verschiedensten Segmenten des IT-, TK- und Consumer Marktes zur Verfügung stellen. Seit mehr als 47 Jahren vertrauen Business-Verantwortliche und IT-Führungskräfte bei der Entscheidungsfindung auf IDC.
IDC ist ein Geschäftsbereich der IDG, dem weltweit führenden Unternehmen in den Bereichen IT- Publikationen, Research sowie Ausstellungen und Konferenzen. Weitere Informationen sind auf unseren Webseiten unter www.idc.com oder www.idc.de zu finden.
Datum: 11.11.2011 - 11:48 Uhr
Sprache: Deutsch
News-ID 86906
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