As it’s the middle of the night here in Seattle, we’ll leave you for the night with a quick recap of the highlights of this momentous announcement by Nokia and Microsoft that they are forming a strategic partnership which will see Windows Phone as Nokia’s smartphone OS of choice moving forward:
- Microsoft and Nokia announced the partnership today, but the details have yet to be worked out, and no final agreement has been signed.
- No word on when we’ll see the first Nokia Windows Phone, but expect it sooner rather than later.
- Windows Phone will be the primary smartphone OS for Nokia. Symbian will transition to Windows Phone, but will be phased out.
- Nokia will be making significant cuts in employment as it retools.
- Nokia’s QT development tools are out, to be replaced by the free Visual Studio/Windows Phone development ecosystem
- Nokia will use Bing for its search services. Microsoft will continue, and expand use of Navteq mapping services
- Moving Windows Phone “downscale” (lower priced phones) is a big part of the strategy
- Nokia will remain in Finland
- Nokia chose Windows Phone over Android or staying in-house to be able to differentiate quickly and move into the North American market
- “This is a Three Horse Race”
Feel free to add to the list, or make changes, it’s 3 am here 