PCR Tech and IT retail, distribution and vendor news
Following Nokia’s announcement that they will partner with Microsoft to produce new phones, both tech giants have now confirmed remaining speculation in an investor/strategy event.
It has been announced that hardware is already in production, and we should see the first phone from the partnership soon, although no date is yet to be set. Roughly, it is Nokia who will focus on hardware, while Microsoft will be responsible for software, with Windows Phone 7 to run on the new phones, Electricpig report.
Nokia CEO, Stephen Elop seemed confident of the move and said that Nokia was working “faster through this partnership than [they ’ve] ever done before.”
It was also revealed that Nokia considered using Google’s Android platform on their phones, but eventually decided against it on a number of terms. Elop said that Nokia “would have difficulty differentiating within the [Google] ecosystem” but this was not the case with Microsoft.
Nokia’s current platforms, the Symbian OS and MeeGo will take some changes. Nokia expects to sell more than 150million more Symbian devices but the first MeeGo device shipping this year looks like it may be the last. Elop called MeeGo “an opportunity to learn”.
Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s CEO said that more information (and maybe even dates) can be expected in following weeks and months, so stay tuned.
