Top 5 Most Wanted Tech Industry Mergers

Nokia and Palm

“Here’s what the two manufacturers have: Palm possesses a really nice touchscreen operating system and a good sense of the U.S. market, and then Nokia has the rest of the world,” says Segan, jokingly, trying to explain why this merger could work. He believes such a pairing would be beneficial because Nokia owns less than a five percent share of the U.S. market and Palm could help it wrestle a greater piece of the pie. Segan thinks Nokia’s Symbian OS, although technically sound, lacks the luster and appeal the U.S. is used to courtesy of current iPhone, BlackBerry and Android interfaces. Palm’s webOS would help solidify a small space in the American market. In agreement, Frost & Sullivan industry analyst Todd Day says the Nokia-Palm merger could present a lot of potential competition in the smartphone market, especially with Windows Mobile phones.

Contrary to Segan and Day though, MobileCrunch’s Kumparak believes this is an irrational merger and describes it as an “altogether weird” idea. He says that Palm’s webOS is the only thing it has going for it and that alone won’t strengthen Nokia’s cash flow. In fact, he says it would most likely drain Nokia’s pocketbook just to acquire Palm. The merger could strengthen Palm, however, because it’s currently banking on the Pre and Pixi—both good, but not great phones—to fix its financial woes. Meanwhile, back in real-life, rumors of a Nokia-Palm merger continue to swirl, but alas, nothing became of the suspected mobile coupling.

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