Nokia Ditches its own OS - Adopts Windows Phone

Looks like Nokia has thrown their hat into the ring. On Friday in Italy, Nokia CEO Stephen Elop, along with Microsoft CEO Steve Balmer, announced plans to partner together that “combines the strength of the two companies and build a new global mobile ecosystem”. Nokia has written that the partnership will increase their sales, resulting in “significant benefits for consumers, developers, mobile operators and businesses around the world.”

Nokia announced that they…

…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.

From what they said, Nokia will have a say in what goes on the Windows phone and will bring the phone to a mid-range to budget cost to consumers.

Also, Nokia’s and Microsoft is partnering in other ways than just phones. Nokia announced that

Bing will power Nokia’s search services across Nokia devices and services, Nokia Maps will be a core part of Microsoft’s mapping services, and 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.

For right now, Nokia partnership with Microsoft sounds like a good idea for the company. Combining a company that has a lot of experience in hardware design for phones and an international market with a company that has the experience of making good software. Lets hope this happens.