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Nokia/Microsoft Combination: Doomed?

Don't you love "we're collaborating" announcements from industry also-rans?  Highly-paid executives talking through their hats hoping nobody notices the lack of ANYTHING RESEMBLING AN EXECUTABLE STRATEGY!

How do I know this one's doomed?  From Yahoo! News and the Associated Press, Nokia's Elop likens his company's position to '..a burning oil platform with "more than one explosion ... fueling a blazing fire around us."'  And Microsoft's Ballmer has big plans:  "We need to, and we will, collaborate closely on development ... so we can really align and drive the future revolution of the mobile phone."

Let's see.  Collaborate, align, drive, future, revolution...and all in a single sentence.  Never a good sign. It sounds a little like "...pardon us while we mix and match from Nokia's toolkit and from Microsoft's..."  Never mind that the latter's next big idea in mobile technology will be their first.  

Worse, Elop goes on to say that "Nokia won't bury its own Symbian operating system or the new Meego platform that it is currently developing."  So, we'll collaborate except when we don't.  And we'll align except when we aren't.  Looks like a deal hastily assembled by deal-makers, someday to be painstakingly unwound by lawyers.  Typical. 

"Uh-oh Lucy!  Looks like we've got some 'splainin' to do!"

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