Nokia and Microsoft announce Windows Phone partnership!

The news everyone has been waiting for has finally come out today: Nokia, the biggest handset maker in the world, both for “dumbphones” and “smartphones” announced a strategic partnership with Microsoft using its Windows Phone platform.

Based on Nokia and Microsoft’s latest deal, Windows phone will be the primary operating system for Nokia’s smartphones. This news shook up the mobile world, especially Intel that has just been thrown under the bus. The Nokia/ Intel strategic partnership a while back to create the MeeGo platform for smartphones was Intel’s effort to partner with the handset maker, but with Nokia dating Microsoft right now, it seems that Intel was just stood up!

Stephen Elop and Steve Ballmer announced the news on Nokia’s blog in a post. Below is the detail from the blog:

»  Nokia will adopt Windows Phone as its primary smartphone strategy, innovating on top of the platform in areas such as imaging, where Nokia is a market leader.

»  Nokia will help drive and define the future of Windows Phone. Nokia will contribute its expertise on hardware design, language support, and help bring Windows Phone to a larger range of price points, market segments and geographies.

»  Nokia and Microsoft will closely collaborate on development, joint marketing initiatives and a shared development roadmap to align on the future evolution of mobile products.

»  Bing will power Nokia’s search services across Nokia devices and services, giving customers access to Bing’s next generation search capabilities. Microsoft adCenter will provide search advertising services on Nokia’s line of devices and services.

»  Nokia Maps will be a core part of Microsoft’s mapping services. For example, Maps would be integrated with Microsoft’s Bing search engine and adCenter advertising platform to form a unique local search and advertising experience.

»  Nokia’s extensive operator billing agreements will make it easier for consumers to purchase Nokia Windows Phone services in countries where credit-card use is low.

»  Microsoft development tools will be used to create applications to run on Nokia Windows Phones, allowing developers to easily leverage the ecosystem’s global reach.

»  Microsoft will continue to invest in the development of Windows Phone and cloud services so customers can do more with their phone, across their work and personal lives.

»  Nokia’s content and application store will be integrated with Microsoft Marketplace for a more compelling consumer experience.

Here is the video where Stephen Elop announces Microsoft partnership. Nokia & Microsoft partnership

Elop and Ballmer didn’t give any more details of the partnership so we don’t know what’s going to happen to Microsoft’s other partnerships for devices, such as HTC, Dell, and Samsung; or what’s going to happen to Symbian and MeeGo. We don’t know the answers to our questions yet, but we know one thing for a fact. As all the eyes are on the Nokia right now, if the company doesn’t get it right, this could send the company into freefall. We believe for Nokia, this is going to be tough; so let’s await the future and see!

We don’t know if the OS is good enough to steal the thunder from iPhone, Android, and Blackberry, but it is definitely getting Microsoft back into the game.

Yesterday was the first day in North America that Windows Phone 7 went on sale. There are plenty of phones to choose from both in US & Canada.  In US,  AT&T offers Samsung Focus and T-Mobile offers HTC HD7; they are being sold for $199.99 with a two-year contract.
In Canada,TELUS, Rogers and Bell are all offering the new Windows Phone 7 supported devises.

TELUS is offering the following two devices, HTC 7 Surround & LG Optimus 7, at the following prices:

• HTC 7 Surround costs $99.99 with a three-year contract, $349.99 with a two-year contract, $399.99 with a one-year contract,  $499.99 with no contract.
• LG Optimus 7 costs $99.99 with a three-year contract, $399.99 with a two-year contract, $ 449.99 with a one-year contract, and $499.99 with no contract.

Bell is offering  LG Optimus Quantum, at the following prices:

• LG Optimus Quantum for $99.99 with a three-year contract, $399.95 with a two-year contract, $424.95 with a one-year contract, and $449.95 with no contract.

Rogers is offering  Samsun Focus, at the following prices

• Samsung Focus for $199.99 with a three-year contract, $499.99 with a two-year contract, $549.99 with a one-year contract, and $599.99 with no contract.

Windows phone 7 is a fresh software platform; yet, it is surprisingly fully completed. One of the great features of Windows Phone 7 is the personalization of home screen. Check out this Link for a recent post I did detailing a comparison of the newest smartphones. It allows users to add people, games, music, and videos directly to the front of their phone, instead of just configuring apps. Another good feature is that it allow users to see calendar appointments, e-mails, and message counts, from the lock screen; and from the home screen, they can even get more details before going into a single app. As for games, all games with Xbox Live support will have free demos, mirroring the policy of Xbox Live Arcade. Windows Users can log on to Xbox Live on the go.

Despite the great features it has, it misses couple of things at this point such as: Flash video, cut & paste, and multi-tasking for third party apps.

Here is good video that shows you some of the features and functionality of Windows Phone 7.
Microsoft’s big bet on its mobile comeback is definitely going to compete with iPhone, Android, and Blackberry, with its $100-500 million marketing campaign (all sorts of rumors out there on their marketing spend). However, the company will not only have to gain consumer’s vote in order to break through, but also it has to build up its developer community.  Currently, Microsoft’s Windows Phone Marketplace has around 1,600 apps, compared with around 100,00 in the Android Market and over 250,000 in Apple’s App Store.

Greg Sullivan, Microsoft’s senior product manager for Windows Phone 7, told CNN “Our message is going to be clear: This is a phone that does stuff for you.” I guess we have to wait ant see  “if  and how it’ll do stuff for USERS”.