Monday, February 14, 2011

Snarky Google tweets reveal Microsoft-Nokia hookup?

Google's apparently not going to be dancing with Nokia.

Nokia's preparing to make a big announcement Friday, presumably about whether it will partner with Microsoft or Google to help revamp the Finnish phone giant's smartphone business.

But over the last few days, a few prominent Google employees have posted snarky comments on Twitter that imply Google's Android platform is no longer in the running. That implies that Nokia's going to announce that it will use Microsoft's Windows Phone software instead.

Fortune blogger Seth Weintraub and others called out the first, a coded Feb. 8 pronouncement from Google Vice President Vic Gundotra. He tweeted "#feb 11 "Two turkeys do not make an Eagle."

February 11 is the date of Nokia's partnership announcement. Weintraub noted that the "two turkeys" comment also echoes a 2005 comment by a Nokia executive, dismissing a competitive challenge from Siemens and BenQ.

If that wasn't enough, today Google's Android developer advocate, Tim Bray, trashed the judgement of Nokia Chief Executive Stephen Elop, former president of Microsoft's business division until last September.

Weintraub also spotted Bray's snark:

"Poor Mr. Elop. Has to make the big tech call not ever having written a line of mobile code or done system bring-up work."

Elop has a degree in computer engineering and management and worked at Lotus, Juniper, Adobe and Macromedia before joining Microsoft in 2008.

Bray tried to downplay the comment with followup tweets, saying that "I have no inside info on Nokia. What I said is also true of every other handset-maker CEO. Core prob in technology management."

Poor Mr. Bray and Gundotra. Their tweets also reveal something about Google.

Nokia's deal with Microsoft may not last forever. How enthusiastic is Mr. Elop going to be about Android the next time around?

CYPRESS SEMICONDUCTOR ACCENTURE ACER ADOBE SYSTEMS ADVANCED SEMICONDUCTOR ENGINEERING

No comments:

Post a Comment