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From the fall and “new dawn” of Nokia to the death of Steve Jobs, we look back at the stories that have defined the past 12 months

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Group sees large hike in revenues and profits for the first nine months of this year, with all acquisitions now fully integrated

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Outsourcery becomes O2 fixed and mobile data partner and appoints new director of mobile Read the full story

Realignment of brand and strapline supports company’s aims to be UK’s leading Cloud service provider and reflect decision to become a channel-led business

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Companies looking at ways of selling mobile and fixed line between Daisy’s customer bases before focusing on security solutions and applications

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Company acquires trading assets of Telinet and some of Ipitomi, claiming purchase will strengthen its presence within the corporate mid-market

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Purchase which cost £12 million is described as “strong strategic fit” by Daisy Group chief executive Matthew Riley Read the full story

Stephen Elop and Steve Ballmer have shaken hands on it but reaction is mixed; some think this can propel Nokia back to the top but others suggest this move comes too late

PWC UK technology leader Jass Sarai

My initial thoughts are “great Nokia has done something because it needed to” , however it’s too early to tell whether this will make or break Nokia’s decline in market share but, as with all good partnerships, if both are really committed to it then they should make progress.

Its great that Stephen Elop is from Microsoft, because if you are getting into a partnership it’s better that you get into a partnership that you know very well. My thought on this is: “Hopefully this partnership is more like an ‘Ant and Dec’ partnership rather than a ‘Katie Price and Peter Andre’ one.

The analogy is that partnerships really work really well or they wither and die but in this case I think it will be an ‘Ant and Dec’ partnership, because both companies would have thought long and hard about why they are partnering and I think both have tried to do what they are doing on their own, so they really need each other.

I think that need will drive them to do the right thing to be market leaders. Both have come from a position where they see themselves as market leaders. Both like being market leaders and both see their position as a threat, so both see this as business critical.

The only phone manufacturer that has really taken the market by storm is Apple and that’s about consumer preference and I would say consumers can be quite fickle. Its about having the best product and somewhat about having the best marketing and I think if Nokia can drive innovation at a quicker pace than everybody else, then they can get back the ground they have lost.

You also have to think about the amount of potential cross selling that could come from this partnership. Yes Nokia is getting into a partnership for a device and a platform but think what else is potentially there?

Think about Nokia producing a tablet -what software is that going to run? Think about Nokia maybe producing a laptop – what software would you run on that?

Equally if Microsoft is getting into developing countries and they were thinking about devices where would that go?

The other important thing here is LTE and 4G. There is a lot of talk about the emerging markets, but think of a developed market. The US for example is going to be at the forefront. What is going to happen there? Could that be an opportunity for this partnership to really flourish initially?

In terms of the market they are in – there are lots of opportunities for Nokia and Microsoft. I think what you are seeing is that when people talk about ‘lost ground’ – this is lost ground in the world we live in today. But tomorrows world is 4G and LTE, so if you are deriving innovation ready for that world, you can make a change.

Things in this industry move so quickly as well. We are expecting an iPad 2 by Spring and an iPhone model number five is not that far down the road, so if Nokia can make two or three steps forward they can really be back at the top.

The other thing about this is that consumerization is all about hype. What you see here are two big names coming together and that creates some hype and expectation. If you can deliver on this hype and expectation then you have got a real opportunity.

Only time will tell if this was the wrong choice and Nokia should have in fact gone with Android. No one has a crystal ball. You have something with this deal that looks and smells and feels like the right answer. Now its about them having that full commitment and having great execution. Both have got great history in delivering both, so why wouldn’t you expect it to be a success?

I think a year from now, I would expect Nokia to focus on fewer handsets, but more world class leading handsets. Nokia has historically had a lot of handsets, I could see them saying “this particular handset is our number one” and really driving that one market leading handset in the future.

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Mobile News polled 73 industry leaders for their views on the year ahead. The result is a sector fighting to renew itself, putting its entire focus on smartphones and data to arrest a decline in traditional revenues Read the full story