Nokia executive criticises Microsoft – and it’s not Tomi Ahonen

A senior Nokia figure has criticised the fallen smartphone giant’s Windows Phone partner Microsoft – and it’s not former executive Tomi Ahonen.

In an interview with the International Business Times, Nokia vice president Bryan Biniak has said Microsoft needs to do more to make its Windows Phone 8 platform a success.

“To give you a reason to switch, I need to make sure the apps that you care about on your device are not only on our phones, but are better. I also need to provide you unique experiences that you can’t get on your other devices,” Biniak said.

“We are releasing new devices frequently and for every new device, if there is an app that somebody cares about that’s not there that’s a missed opportunity of a sale.

“We are trying to evolve the cultural thinking [at Microsoft] to say ‘time is of the essence’. Waiting until the end of your fiscal year when you need to close your targets doesn’t do us any good when I have phones to sell today.

“People rely on applications for their day-to-day life and if you don’t have something which I use in my day-to-day life I’m not going to switch [operating systems] because I don’t want to compromise the way I live my life just to switch to a phone… You can’t sell a phone without the apps, you just can’t.”

Nokia recently revealed second quarter smartphone shipment figures of 7.4 million smartphones, well below those of Samsung (72.4 million), Apple (31.2 million), Lenovo (12.1 million), LG (11.3 million) and ZTE (10.1 million).

Biniak’s comments mirror some of the comments made by former executive and independent analyst Tomi Ahonen.