It looks as though an unlikely partnership may be in the offing – Nokia Corp., whose smart phone efforts have been flagging in recent years due to the weakness of their Symbian operating system, may be looking to introduce Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Phone 7 to their range of high-end devices.
On paper the move makes a lot of sense – although Windows Phone 7 was well received by the press, it has struggled to make the kind of impact Microsoft would have hoped and could desperately use a new injection of decent hardware. Conversely, Nokia have some of the best hardware around – but their Symbian operating system has been dying a slow death for the last two years or so.
Many will likely point to new Nokia CEO Stephen Elop as the source of the rumoured alliance – Elop is a former Microsoft man and doubtlessly would like to help out his old company. There has been some speculation that Nokia could announce they will be using Android given the OS’s increasing momentum, however the general consensus now is that WP7 handsets will be announced.
The speculation began when Elop revealed that part of Nokia’s strategy was to “create and/or join other ecosystems.” Currently, analysts seem fairly keen on the idea of a Nokia/Microsoft double feature – the Finnish firm’s shares rose around 4% during trading yesterday, but have since settled back down.
The announcement of which ecosystems Nokia will be joining will come at a meeting with analysts on Feb. 11. Of course there are many variables still unknown at this point – it seems unlikely Nokia will ditch Symbian entirely, and how widespread their adoption of whichever OS they choose will be. A good bet seems to be that they are aiming this new partnership at the U.S. market, where Nokia smart phone sales have all-but collapsed in recent years.
