Whither Nokia?

All Things D's Ina Fried reports on Nokia's latest earnings call. "The company said that its smartphone business is even weaker than expected amid stiff competition from Apple and Android products." As expected, Android is squeezing them on the low end, according to Elop:

The strength of Android, particularly as it pushes down in price point, is clearly something that has caused a lot of challenge.

In choosing Windows phone Nokia jumped from a burning platform into the fire. Nokia is closing facilities and firing tens of thousands of workers in an effort to stay afloat, but cutting staff won't win people over to the Windows phone platform. Sales of the Lumia 900 haven't had any impact on Windows phone market share, even after massive promotion from Nokia, Microsoft and AT&T. News of Nokia restating earnings and Q2 forecasts undercuts their claim that the phone is performing as expected.  They must change course to survive in the market. Nokia can't become Apple, so their choice is to adopt Android or fade out.

Update: Dan Rowinski at ReadWriteWeb weighs in on Nokia's options:

Elop today said during a conference call that Nokia needs to “compete with Android aggressively.” To do that, it must develop not just one great Windows Phone in the United States, but several. The Lumia 900 is a good device, but it is available only through AT&T. Nokia needs at least one major device on every U.S. carrier and then a mid-range device that spendthrifts will look to if the top phone proves too expensive. And it means teaming with Microsoft (which has said it will help) to create Windows Phones that are available across the world at entry-level prices.

 But there's no such thing as a great Windows Phone, much less several. The Windows Phone kernel is wince, app developers won't adopt it now any more than they did a decade ago, and squeezing it down to work well on entry-level hardware is a fantasy.