Intel CEO hits out at Nokia, Microsoft, Google
Claims handset maker's decision on platform was "financially motivated"
Intel CEO Paul Otellini has lashed out at handset maker Nokia and its new platform partner Microsoft, slating the decision to join forces as "financially motivated".
The decision to partner with Microsoft - dropping the company's own Symbian platform, and Intel's MeeGo - came last week.
It might seem like a truism, but Otellini claimed that both Microsoft and Google were offering vast sums of cash to bring the Finnish hardware company on board. Seeing the contract go to Windows Phone 7 is also a hefty blow for Intel's own MeeGo platform, which had been used for Nokia smartphones in the past.
"I wouldn't have made the decision he made, I would probably have gone to Android if I were him," Otellini told listeners to a conference call reported by Reuters. "MeeGo would have been the best strategy but he concluded he couldn't afford it."
Otellini also claimed that the choice of Windows Phone 7 as a platform would see Nokia blend into the crowd, denying the handsets any individuality. "It would have been less hard on Android, on MeeGo he could have done it," Otellini claims.
"We will find another partner. The carriers still want a third ecosystem and the carriers want an open ecosystem, and that's the thing that drives our motivation."
The partnership announcement followed a stark and revealing email from Nokia CEO Stephen Elop to staff last week, showing the company's awareness of diminishing market share and describing Symbian as a "burning platform."