Will Microsoft turn out to be Nokia’s saviour?

Rumours regarding Nokia's fate have been 'swirling' for more than a year now. Initially, the whole company was seen to be a target, with Microsoft and Samsung named as potential buyers. But Nokia will retain its networking interests; presumably, Microsoft didn't want to wade too far into markets it's not familiar with. Nokia's performance will, one day, be the stuff of business management case studies. From being the leading mobile phone company which seemingly couldn't put a foot wrong, it ignored the Apple iPhone and turned into a shadow of its former self, losing market share and burning cash as it belatedly tried to turn its fortunes around. It cut the workforce, got rid of executives and admitted that it had 'fallen behind, missed big trends and lost time'. In what appeared to be the last throw of the dice, it tied itself to Microsoft's Windows Phone platform. While there has been some degree of success, the move remains very much work in progress. Chief executive Stephen Elop departs to Microsoft along with the phone business and is one of those being tipped as the successor to Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer when he retires shortly. Microsoft, despite forays into gaming consoles, MP3 players and tablets, remains a software company at heart and displays – at least to the outsider – a suspicion of hardware. The question is whether Elop will have any better luck in turning around Nokia's fortunes within Microsoft than he did at Nokia?