Nokia to Release First WP7 Handsets This Year

Friday during Mobile World Congress 2011, Microsoft and Nokia announced a joint venture that will bring Windows Phone 7 to Nokia-based handsets. Steve Ballmer and Stephen Elop followed up with a keynote presentation on Monday, revealing that Windows Phone 7 smartphones from Nokia will indeed arrive this year.

"In this partnership, Microsoft is providing our powerful Windows Phone platform and our back-end services," Ballmer told the audience. "Nokia has incredible capabilities that are well-known to everybody in the audience, whether it's industrial design, deep expertise in key areas like camera and sensor technology, broad, very efficient supply chain capabilities, we're sure from that base that Nokia is going to be able and will deliver absolutely phenomenal Nokia Windows phones."

Previously on Friday, Microsoft and Nokia highlighted eight key factors that the partnership will bring to consumers:

• Nokia will adopt Windows Phone as its principal smartphone strategy.
• 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 collaborate on joint marketing initiatives and a shared development roadmap.
• Bing will power Nokia’s search services across Nokia devices and services.
• Nokia Maps will now be a core part of Microsoft’s mapping services.
• 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 Phone.
• Nokia’s content and application store will be integrated with Microsoft Marketplace.

"Microsoft and Nokia together represent a natural partnership," said Nokia president and CEO Stephen Elop. "People are getting it, and they're getting it for a variety of reasons. Nokia brings iconic hardware, incredible industrial design, and we're matching that up and bringing that together with the leading operating system platform for the future (Windows 8?). Between the two of us, we have the understanding of what it means to take it from where it is today even more broadly down through the pricing continuum so that we have the opportunity to deliver an entire portfolio and range of devices the world over."

The partnership is also an opportunity for Nokia to re-enter the North American market "in a compelling way," according to Elop. In turn, Microsoft will be able to leverage Nokia's global reach, distribution, brand power and the manufacturer's sheer volume to strengthen the Windows ecosystem. Additionally, the combination of services provided by Microsoft and Nokia (Ovi Maps, Bing etc) will only strengthen Microsoft's position as a heavy contender in the mobile market. The partnership is expected to reduce the overall fragmentation suffered by "other platforms."

"We think this [partnership] is great for consumers," Elop added. "Iconic hardware, stellar software, combined with unique services.'

During the keynote, Ballmer returned to the spotlight and said the Nokia devices would arrive this year, but did not provide any specifics. More is expected to be revealed in the coming months.