Skip to main content

Nokia CEO Stephen Elop: Google is making its open ecosystem 'more closed'

Nokia CEO Stephen Elop: Google is making its open ecosystem 'more closed'

Share this story

Stephen Elop Nokia CEO stock
Stephen Elop Nokia CEO stock

Speaking at a press conference to discuss Nokia's Q4 earnings, company CEO Stephen Elop said that Google is trying to close its "open ecosystem."

"The situation that Android is facing, where the amount of fragmentation that you're seeing is increasing as people take it in different directions, is of course offset by Google's efforts to turn an open ecosystem into something that's quite a bit more closed as you've seen quite recently."Despite name-checking Android, it seems likely that when saying "quite recently," Elop is referring to Google's decision to drop Exchange ActiveSync support, a Microsoft-licensed technology that Windows Phone relies on to offer push email for Gmail users. Although the move also affects iOS users, Google provides a dedicated Gmail client for iPhone and iPad; Windows Phone users don't have native apps for Google services like YouTube, Google Maps, or Gmail. Of course, he could also be referring to Google's expansion of the Nexus program, or its halting of Acer's Aliyun smartphone launch.