I’ve been following the new Microsoft Surface initiative with great curiosity and seriously wondering about Microsoft’s capacity to manufacture them in volume.
Then comes this article from The Verge:Will Nokia become collateral damage in Microsoft’s battle with Apple?. I find it astounding that Microsoft didn’t profit from their partner’s well known expertise and competency in manufacturing at scale.
That said, I think that the logical next step for Microsoft is that if the Surface turns out to be a big seller would be to outsource the production to Nokia in order to both support their sole significant Windows Phone manufacturing partner and to hopefully skip the growing pains that come with ramping up manufacturing on this kind of scale, cf. xBox red ring of death fiasco…
But if they don’t, then Nokia is going to find itself in a real bind, along with all of the other OEMs that are fighting against Microsoft and themselves.
On the other hand, if Microsoft does decide to use Nokia as a preferred hardware manufacturer, Nokia is one step closer to becoming a Microsoft subsidiary in all but financial reporting. But given the current state of their stock, buying Nokia starts making more and more sense if Microsoft is truly serious about becoming a player in the hardware market.