Is Yahoo! the perfect match for Nokia?
It is more than well known (and getting boring by now) the intentions of Microsoft to buy Yahoo! At the end, it seems that the Microsoft has given up but with all the turmoil Yahoo!’s CEO has stepped down and the company’s shares have taken a plunge. But everything is not bad news…
Reading an article from ZD Net, they commented on how Yahoo! could do a great match for Nokia, and viceversa. Although I didn’t feel an acquisition of Yahoo! by Microsoft made much sense due to a cultural shock, Nokia could be a very different story. Although Nokia comes from the hardware manufacturer point of view, they are recently trying to become a services company. They have launched the Ovi initiative, which hasn’t really had much success. Unless you are a Nokia fanboy (or happened to work previously at Nokia 
) chances are you have never heard of Ovi.
On the other hand, Yahoo! is a great services company which would get a great push by adding a hardware factor. This would ensure Yahoo! the access to mobile platforms it is looking for. And why should Nokia copy reinvent Flickr, Yahoo Mail, Search, etc…? Although Nokia might make good phones, they have always lagged on the software point of view, which is where Yahoo! could be very beneficial, providing the current services and software technology for phones. And it could make a better competitor against Google’s android, which although still doesn’t seem much of a threat, it could easily become one faster than it seems.
Even business-wise it seems as a good idea…. Nokia has been falling behind severely in the american market, where Yahoo! has not only a good brand name but also an important user base, and at the same time would help promote Yahoo! on the less popular Europe.
It all seems to good to be true…
50 years of NASA
This is a long forgetten post that got lost in the drafts section. Although I don’t intend to say what I originally wanted to say, I do want to point out that this year was the 50th anniversary of the creation of NASA.
Over the course of these 50 years a lot of things have happened… from walking in the Moon to driving RC cars in Mars, the Hubble telescope and the International Space Station.
But the history of space exploration also reflects the history on earth, from a race to space to an era of cooperation with an International Space Station. And now NASA has competition not only from Russia and Europe, but also China and India are investing heavily on their space programs. Last week even Australia announced they are planning on launching a national space agency. All this focus on Space exploration shows the importance it has for real life on earth…
However, although NASA certainly has earned the right to celebrate (despite the several unfortunate accidents that are always innevitable), I can only think of the ageing fleet of Space Shuttles. Built during the 1980s, only 3 remain (Discovery, Atlantis & Endeavour) but are scheduled to be retired in 2010, which is not that far away. They are planned to be succeded by the Orion Spacecraft, but with the current financial crisis and shrinking budgets, lets hope NASA can celebrate with as much pride in 25 years.