I'm really hoping they can bring out phone quicky at a lower price point. Current phone all cost above € 500 ) which is to high. I'm hoping for stunning Carl Zeis camera's beautiful hardware and keyboards (E7) and long battery life.

I'm always liked Nokia phones and now have a Samsung and aren't happy about it. My next phone would have been a Windows Phone and now I'm pretty sure it's going to be Nokia one. If they ship this year. My hope is they will deliver a 'basic' WP7 device and not wait for all the nokia differentiation to be finnished before shipping because I don't feel like I would need it.

Also: wouldn't it be a great illustration of their work of at WMC the demo device for WP7 would be a Nokia device. (Just to show us they got it working allready). (Nokia stock is down 14% today)

Still, I worry what this means for Qt's future. It's a nice platform but Nokia really has no reason to pour resources into it anymore. Maybe the KDE project will take on its stewardship.

I think the WP7 platform will open up there eyes. The tools stay free, the apps look better and can be developped faster. It does have it's painpoints but I'm sure Microsoft will address them.

I've worked on a Qt application for the N900 and it was not unpleasent. But the tools still don't compair to Visual Studio. They were great and very visual, and brought some good stuff to the table. But nothing compaires to Visual Studio.

Also, Qt had just released a language based on JSON to discribe layout elements. Much like XAML discribes the layout in WP7 apps. So if they choose to transition to the bigger ecosystem they should be in for a treat.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/technologybrierdudleysblog/2014195522_htc_exec_on_nokia-microsoft_de.html

3 minutes ago, Ian2 wrote

@wkempf:presumably under $100 is the contract lock in price? (otherwise, can you get me one please!?)

Yes, it's the subsidized price (and promotional price to boot). For most consumers (in America) that doesn't matter much.

I understand the desire for cheaper non-subsidized prices, especially if you can't get subsidized prices, and I agree. I'm just saying for adoption of WP7, in America, I don't think price is the issue. Of course, if they could get the overall price down to where the "with contract" price was free or nearly so, like with most non-smart phones, it would be a game changer. I'm not sure that can be done and still maintain the hardware requirements specified by Microsoft, though. However, if anyone can do it, it would be Nokia.

The cheap plastiq looking devices need to go.

If you read down in the comments to that article, there is a post from a Nokia employee indicating that the devices wouldn't be on the market until 2012.  If so, that's wayyy late.  They should be running WP8 by then.

The MS/Nokia pairup was the only reasonable option, and should be good for both of them.  Time will tell if they screw it up or not.  My guess is that HP/Palm will go down in flames before Nokia/WP7.  RIM is going to be in trouble before long if they don't do something significant too.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/11/exclusive-nokias-windows-phone-7-concept-revealed/

I'm sure it will result in short term profits for Nokia, since Microsoft tends to be very generous in the short term in their deals. Long term it will be bad for Nokia and good for Microsoft. Microsoft tends to play the long term game.

I am pretty happy with this deal being announced.

Let's see how expensive the phones will be

5 hours ago, Max Power wrote

So, at the moment I can walk down to the supermarket and buy a pre-paid Nokia with no contract for $25. How the hell can Nokia do that in 3 years abandoning Symbian?

AFAIK, Nokia's low end phones (and maybe even mid ranged) don't use the Symbian based S60 OS, they use a Series 30 or Series 40 OS

Looks like Apple, all over again.

Apple bought NeXT because their operating system strategy was in tatters. 

Jobs returned and took over, replacing key Apple management with people from NeXT, effectively devouring Apple from the inside until only the name was left. Now, looking back, no one can say that this wasn't a good move.

Nokia's operating system was in tatters, so they take on an ex-Microsoft man to get steer them back to relevance. He junks Symbian and MeeGo, turns his nose up at Android, and goes to Microsoft for an operating system. A few days later, the head of Nokia US is shown the door and is replaced by…another ex-Microsoft man.

Yes, it's a conspiracy theory, but I think Nokia is slowly being assimilated from the inside. 

Arguably, Microsoft's biggest successes come when they can emulate Apple: control both the hardware and the software. Look at the XBox Kinnect, for example. But they also have to watch their relationships with their partners. This distant control of Nokia will allow them to go out and make their own phones on the sly.

Brilliant.

Uncle Sam

I will see what they really did.

I also think it will be quite likely we'll see other features I can't really understand why are currently missing in WP7, such as thetering and Sync with Outlook.

In other words, I think this degree of exclusivity may be enough to generate that uniqueness that is indeed needed to compete against the iPhone.

Check this to see what other developers have to say:    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfWFvCJJaNs

To say that MS "does not get" the mobile space is the understatement of the century( remember The Kin?) on the other hand Nokia IS a commodity phone manufacturer. That's how they became the world's largest mobile phone manufacturer. Mass producing decent quality phones on the cheap is the one thing they do well. Had they gone Android, they would be able to undercut the competition very effectively and take share. The problem is, there ain't even any market share to take in WP platform. I mean It's not like MS is a new entrant. They have been trying to enter the mobile space since the late 1990's. The fact that two new market entrants (Android & Apple) have remade the entire mobile space in under two year's time. And M$ has failed repeatedly for over a decade in the same space.

I'll give a few examples:

• Ericsson (ERIC). Sept. 2000. What happened? Ericsson divested itself of the mobile division, forming a joint venture which would go on and make more strategic alliances with Microsoft over Windows Mobile, culminating in a loss of profits and eventual flight to Android.
• Sendo. Feb. 2001. What happened? Sendo, after litigating IP issues with Microsoft, went bankrupt in 2005.
• Motorola (MOT), Sept. 2003. What happened? Motorola launched a series of Windows Mobile phones culminating in the Motorola Q "Blackberry killer." As Motorola hit the rocks in profitability, new management reached for the Android life raft. The company now relies exclusively on the Droid franchise.
• Palm (HPQ), Sept. 2005. What happened? Palm shipped a few Windows Mobile, famously dismissing Apple's potential entry as something "PC guys" could never achieve. A new CEO, a private placement and an acquisition later, the company is a division of HP making its own operating system.
• Nortel, July 2006. What happened? Nortel declared bankruptcy two years later.
• LG, Feb. 2009. What happened? LG made a few Windows Mobile devices but with WinMo uncompetitive, they abandoned the platform and moved to Android, losing years of market presence and all their profits.
• Verizon (VZ) Jan. 2009. What happened? Bing did ship on some devices, but in October 2009 Droid came to Verizon.

And finally,

• Nokia. No, not this deal, but the Aug. 2009 plan [announced by then Microsoft business division president Stephen Elop] to bring Microsoft Mobile Office to Nokia's Symbian devices. What happened? Two and a half years later the same Stephen Elop [now CEO of Nokia] announced that Symbian will be deprecated.

This was some really stupid decision Nokia has made. This switch to inferior mobile platform will only bring more delays until their next smartphone and it will not be what users were waiting fore. They should just step up their existing strategy of moving to MeeGo and phasing out Symbian. It would bring new smartphone faster and would enable them to differentiate in the market.

Hard not to read this as both an indictment of Nokia and Microsoft'ssoftware as a game-changer.

I'm guessing this was NOT the market reaction that Nokiawas hoping for.

2 hours ago, CyberPunk​News cut and pasted...

That list sounds awfully familiar.