THE marriage announced this month between Nokia Oyj and Microsoft Corp has raised eyebrows in the information technology industry. Some analysts bet the new partnership won't be strong enough to take on Apple Inc and Google Inc in the smartphone market.

In my opinion, that's an overly pessimistic assessment.

It's true that Nokia and Microsoft face some serious challenges in what is a highly competitive market, but they do have corporate strengths to pit against Apple's iPhone and phones using the Google's Android system. Those strengths are particularly obvious in China, the world's biggest mobile market.

Microsoft and Nokia announced two weeks ago a partnership in which Windows Phone 7 software will replace Nokia's Symbian platform on the Finnish company's new smartphones. The Nokia-branded Windows phones are expected to be available next year, according to Jorma Ollila, Nokia's board chairman.

But investors poured cold water on the announcement as Nokia's share price plummeted 14 percent to 7 euros (US$9.52) after the news.

A Google executive's Twitter web page comment received widespread attention: "Two turkeys do not make an eagle." Other industry commentators said it was regretful the partnership is turning the world's largest cellphone maker into a pure hardware player.

But I tend to agree with those analysts who have noted that it was time for market leader Nokia to change direction as its share of the smartphone market was slowly being eroded by Apple and Google.

"This is a bold decision by Nokia but absolutely the right one, both for itself and for Microsoft, given the drastically changed landscape for smartphones in the past couple of years," said Tony Cripps, a principal analyst at research firm Ovum.

Nokia is still the biggest handset maker, but the market share for its Symbian phones has tumbled from 41 percent in 2008 to 31 percent at the end of 2010. In the same period, Apple's iOS and Google's Android have each gained a market share of 20 percent from just single-digits only two years ago.

Nokia really had few short-term options to recapture its dominance in the face of competition from Apple and, especially, from the increasing number of smartphones using Google's Android, which looks set to overtake Nokia in terms of smartphone shipments in 2011, Ovum said. Investors who may not be happy with the Nokia-Microsoft linkup would be a lot unhappier if Nokia just stayed on its same own solo path.

By taking risks and accepting challenges, Nokia and Microsoft have the potential to succeed.

Many people have underestimated three critical factors: the demand for data-sharing between personal computers and phones, the real quality of Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 (WP7) system, and Nokia's market influence and localization in the Chinese market.

Let us pause and consider the three elements.

1. PC and phone compatibility

We all know that sharing data between PCs and handsets is still a headache, whether you use a BlackBerry, an iPhone or an Android device.

Relatively speaking, RIM's BlackBerry services offer a better user experience among all current models, but BlackBerry's niche in the China market has been confined mainly to business executives, not the mass market.

At the same time, iPhone's synchronized service MobileMe is impressive, but it's not available in China at all. Yes, you can use Google Docs and Gmail accounts to synchronize between your PC and Android phones, but those channels can be a nightmare because of the serch giant's unstable servers in China.

In contrast, High-end Symbian models like the Nokia E7, released last week, allows users to easily exchange data through Microsoft's Exchange and Office suites.

We have enough reasons to expect huge improvements in data sharing and compatibility between PCs and phones after the marriage between the world's biggest handset maker and the world's biggest software vendor.