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Nokia: Using Android like 'peeing in your pants for warmth in winter'

Sometimes people say the daftest things ...This has to be the daftest quote of the month, from Nokia's outgoing head of smartphones Anssi Vanjoki.
Written by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, Contributing Writer

Sometimes people say the daftest things ...

This has to be the daftest quote of the month, from Nokia's outgoing head of smartphones Anssi Vanjoki (subscription required for full read):

Anssi Vanjoki, outgoing head of Nokia's smartphone division, likens mobile phone makers that adopt Google's software to Finnish boys who"pee in their pants" for warmth in the winter. Temporary relief is followed by an even worse predicament.

The argument that Vanjoki is making here is that handset makers are condemning themselves to permanent low profitability because the Android OS doesn't allow manufacturers to differentiate their product from the competition. Fair point, and a criticism that can be leveled at the Microsoft mobile platform too.

Problem is, the flipside though is fragmentation. Nokia certainly has the clout to push its own mobile OS, but it's an increasingly tough sell. Look at the profitability of PC OEMs compared to Apple, but you don't see PC OEMs all making their own OSes ... Taking an OS and fostering from that a platform takes time, effort, commitment, money and trust from developers.

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