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"FORTUNE &amp;#8212; On Monday Nokia unveiled the Lumia 900, its latest attempt to take on the iPhone and Android smartphones. The Windows Phone-running device has all the makings of a popular smartphone &amp;#8212; sleek hardware design including a large 4.3-inch screen, a major carrier partner in AT&amp;amp;T and super-fast network capabilities known as LTE.\nBut that doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s a slam dunk for Nokia \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tNOK\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t. The market is already flooded with devices that do all of the above. And despite Nokia and Microsoft\u2019s \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tMSFT\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t best efforts, both companies still have an insignificant piece of the U.S. smartphone pie, which belongs to Google \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tGOOG\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t and Apple \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tAAPL\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t. To take on the competition, the duo will have to prove that their partnership can result in a truly different &amp;#8212; and better &amp;#8212; mobile experience for consumers. that&amp;#8217;s easier said than done.\n\u201CDifferentiation matters,\u201D Stephen Elop, CEO of Nokia, told Fortune in an interview following the company\u2019s announcement on Monday. \u201CMany of those other devices &amp;#8212; if you squint your eyes a little bit &amp;#8212; are blurring over because they\u2019re all the same experience. They all have the same static collection of applications that don\u2019t do much when you just look at it.\u201D\n\nNokia chose to partner with Microsoft because it didn&amp;#8217;t want to become just another Android phone manufacturer. But while the Lumia 900 is a good-looking piece of hardware and Microsoft\u2019s \u201Ctile-centric\u201D user interface has gotten good reviews, it\u2019s hard to see how that alone can be enough of a differentiator for Microsoft and Nokia. Even exclusive application partnerships with brands like ESPN and Sesame Street Workshop are unlikely to help give the Lumia 900 an edge, because many developers still feel there&amp;#8217;s no compelling reason to create apps for Nokia&amp;#8217;s Windows phone devices. At least not yet.\nAt the company&amp;#8217;s press conference on Monday, Elop called the Lumia 900 a \u201Cbeachhead\u201D in the war of ecosystems. It\u2019s clear Nokia realizes it\u2019s no longer about coming out with one \u201CiPhone killer\u201D &amp;#8212; it\u2019s about coming out with a killer ecosystem that encompasses hardware, applications, a dedicated developer base and more. It&amp;#8217;s also clear that Nokia and Microsoft realize that they will have to fight with all their might to become a viable &amp;#8220;third platform.&amp;#8221;\nMicrosoft has already said it will give developers a slightly bigger cut of app revenue than Google and Apple do. And since February, Nokia has moved as fast as possible to churn out new Lumia smartphones that run Windows Phone.\nTo be sure, there is room for a third ecosystem, especially with the weakening of Research in Motion&amp;#8217;s \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tRIMM\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t hold on the enterprise. Nokia devices could take advantage of Microsoft&amp;#8217;s success in the office to try and appeal to IT departments as an alternative to both BlackBerries and the &amp;#8220;bring your own device&amp;#8221; trend.\n&amp;#8220;The Windows Phone environment on Lumia devices has many of the capabilities required in a business setting,&amp;#8221; Elop told Fortune. &amp;#8220;Microsoft provides much of the software that businesses use for office productivity like Microsoft Office.&amp;#8221;\nBut even Elop admitted there was still plenty of work for Nokia to do as it tries to crack the U.S. market yet again. The Lumia 900 will be out &amp;#8220;in the coming months,&amp;#8221; although it&amp;#8217;s still not clear exactly when and (for how much) it will sell, let alone whether it can help Nokia in its battle against iOS and Android."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://fortune.com/2012/01/10/can-nokias-lumia-take-on-apple-and-google/>