Nokia May Use Windows Phone 7 as Additional Platform for Its Phones, Unnamed Sources Say

By Ed Silverstein, TMCnet Web Editor

Nokia is likely to use Windows Phone (News - Alert) 7 as an additional platform for its phones, according to a report on VentureBeat, which was attributed to several unnamed sources.

VentureBeat also reported that Nokia’s board has given new ex-Microsoft CEO Stephen Elop the go-ahead to change the company’s strategy if needed, an unnamed source said.

This new mandate includes decisions on OS strategy or alliances.

Prior rumors of either Nokia dropping Symbian or adopting the competing Android (News - Alert) platform have been unfounded, according to the report. It’s only now that such strategic options are becoming viable to a Nokia CEO, the report added.

VentureBeat explained that Nokia embracing Windows Phone 7 would be a key win for Microsoft and would make it the third major platform behind Apple’s (News - Alert) iOS and Google’s Android at a time when there’s a major OS landgrab going on.

Microsoft recently has faced serious setbacks attracting device makers to the new platform, with only HTC, Samsung and LG, Asus and Dell as launch partners, VentureBeat said.

Hewlett-Packard (News - Alert) has shifted its strategy to its own platform, and Sony-Ericsson has gone Android for 2011 .

In a related matter, VentureBeat reported Nokia just announced a family of new-generation Symbian phones, including its new flagship device, the N8. Pre-orders for the N8 are the strongest the company has ever seen, the report said.

Unnamed sources are telling VentureBeat that at the upcoming CTIA (News - Alert) trade show Nokia and AT&T will announce that the US carrier will sell the N8 in the US. This would be a major win for Nokia’s Symbian operating system, according to the report.

Amongst the questions Elop will have to answer is the role of Symbian. Since 2008, key to Nokia’s strategy was to transform Symbian into a modern-day OS and make cross-platform development software Qt the main tool for its developers, according to VentureBeat.

(source: http://fixed-mobile-convergence.tmcnet.com/topics/mobile-communications/articles/104115-nokia-may-use-windows-phone-7-as-additional.htm)