Can the Nokia deal save Microsoft?

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><script type="text/javascript"><!-- google_ad_client = "ca-pub-4973891917352186"; /* hotnewsof_main_Blog1_ */ google_ad_slot = "6959597717"; google_ad_width = 300; google_ad_height = 250; //--></script><script src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js" type="text/javascript"></script><br /><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">From <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/">http://www.cbsnews.com</a><br /><br /><br /></div><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/YGXYJCQOGaQ?feature=player_detailpage" width="640"></iframe><script type="text/javascript"><!-- google_ad_client = "ca-pub-4973891917352186"; /* hotnewsof_sidebar-right-1_AdSense1_ */ google_ad_slot = "8436330913"; google_ad_width = 160; google_ad_height = 600; //--></script><script src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js" type="text/javascript"></script><br /><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">(CBS News) LOS ANGELES -- One day after Verizon and Vodafone announced their break-up,<a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-500395_162-57601028/microsoft-buying-nokias-devices-services-unit-for-$7.2b/" style="border: 0px; color: #931f1f; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Microsoft said it's buying Nokia's line of mobile phones</a> in a deal worth more than $7 billion.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">There are now more than 1 billion smartphones in the world, but just a fraction of them are made by Microsoft and Nokia -- once the world's largest cell phone maker.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div class="cnet-image-div image-CBSNEWS_GRANDE float-left" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; float: left; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin: 0px 10px 8px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 244px;"><img alt="Outgoing Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer describes his hopes for his company's acquisition of Nokia's phone business at a press conference in Espoo, Finland." class="cnet-image" height="183" src="http://i.i.cbsi.com/cnwk.1d/i/tim2/2013/09/03/20130903_Steve_Ballmer_Msft_CEO_244x183.jpg" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 3px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="244" /><br /><div class="image-caption" style="border: 0px; color: #717171; display: inline; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 2px 0px 1px; vertical-align: baseline;">Outgoing Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer describes his hopes for his company's acquisition of Nokia's phone business at a press conference in Espoo, Finland.</div> <span class="greySplitter" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">/</span><span class="image-credit" style="border: 0px; color: #717171; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-style: inherit; margin: 2px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET</span></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"Today's announcement is a bold step into the future," said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505124_162-57599851/ballmer-to-retire-can-microsoft-change/" style="border: 0px; color: #931f1f; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Ballmer to retire: Can Microsoft change?</a></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Microsoft is buying Nokia's <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505124_162-57601043/microsoft-rolls-big-buys-nokias-phone-biz/" style="border: 0px; color: #931f1f; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">entire line of phones and its patents</a>. The plan is to help Microsoft attempt to catch up with its smartphone rivals.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"Windows phone has grown over 78 percent in the last year and is now clearly the number three offering in the marketplace," Ballmer said.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">But it is a very distant third in a market dominated by Apple and Android devices.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Android phones now make up 51 percent of U.S. smartphone sales. The iPhone makes up 43.4 percent of sales. Microsoft's Windows-based phone: just 3.5 percent, according to a July 2013 report by Kantar Worldpanel ComTech.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div class="cnet-image-div image-CBSNEWS_GRANDE float-left" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; float: left; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin: 0px 10px 8px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 244px;"><img alt="Brian Cooley of CNET" class="cnet-image" height="183" src="http://i.i.cbsi.com/cnwk.1d/i/tim2/2013/09/03/brian-cooley_244x183.jpg" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 3px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="244" /><br /><div class="image-caption" style="border: 0px; color: #717171; display: inline; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 2px 0px 1px; vertical-align: baseline;">Brian Cooley of CNET</div> <span class="greySplitter" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">/</span> <span class="image-credit" style="border: 0px; color: #717171; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-style: inherit; margin: 2px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">CBS News</span></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"Microsoft had to get more serious about mobiles," said Brian Cooley, editor-at-large for technology website CNET. "They can't check out and say we're just not going to compete in that business fully. That's not an option anymore."</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"We are right now in a place in the mobile electronics world where we are questioning: Are there two chairs at the table, or three?" he added. "There may not be a third. Microsoft needs to make the chair, and then sit in it. It's twice the work."</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Microsoft's fortune was built on its desktop software. But desktop computer sales have dropped 16 percent since the end of last year, in large part due to the explosion of smartphones and tablet computers.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Last summer, the company launched a tablet called Surface. It hasn't clicked with consumers, selling about 1.7 million units in the same time Apple sold 57 million iPads.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The deal between Microsoft and Nokia shows how far and fast Nokia has fallen. In 2007, Nokia had 48 percent of the cell phone market and was worth $10 billion more than Apple. Just five years later, Nokia's market share had dropped to about 3.5 percent.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div class="cnet-image-div image-LARGE2 float-none" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin: 0px 0px 8px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 610px;"><img alt="" class="cnet-image" height="458" src="http://i.i.cbsi.com/cnwk.1d/i/tim2/2013/09/03/163123084_610x458.jpg" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 3px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="610" /><br /><div class="image-caption" style="border: 0px; color: #717171; display: inline; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 2px 0px 1px; vertical-align: baseline;">A stand host holds up a Nokia Lumia 920 Windows enabled smartphone at the Microsoft stand at the 2013 CeBIT technology trade fair on March 5, 2013 in Hanover, Germany.</div> <span class="greySplitter" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">/</span> <span class="image-credit" style="border: 0px; color: #717171; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-style: inherit; margin: 2px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Sean Gallup/Getty Images</span></div></div></div><script type="text/javascript"><!-- google_ad_client = "ca-pub-4973891917352186"; /* hotnewsof_main_Blog1_300x250_as */ google_ad_slot = "9913064110"; google_ad_width = 300; google_ad_height = 250; //--></script><script src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js" type="text/javascript"></script></div>

Microsoft Nokia Can the Nokia deal save Microsoft?

From  http://www.cbsnews.com (CBS News) LOS ANGELES -- One day after Verizon and Vodafone announced their break-up, Microsoft said it's ...

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