He stated that the Finnish manufacturer had three possible avenues for its future. Firstly, it could keep on the path it was headed on and rely fully on Symbian as well as MeeGo to put it back on top via further and faster development. Alternatively, the company could adopt Google’s mobile operating system (OS) by becoming a licensee of the Android platform. Lastly, it could become a licensee of Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7.

 

Elop said that Google and Microsoft were the only two realistic external choices and both companies were keen and were well suited to Nokia. But according to Elop, if Nokia became an Android licensee, the world of mobile phones would’ve become a “duopoly” of Google versus Apple.

 

The choice was made to go with Redmond because Microsoft needs Nokia to succeed with its new OS as much as Nokia needs to make a success of this OS adoption. Nokia would then get far better support from Microsoft than Google (who has more hardware vendors running its software).

 

Nokia will now be employing Windows Phone OS as its primary smartphone OS and pay royalties to Microsoft, and Redmond will also have access to services such as Nokia’s Ovi Maps. The Finnish company will obtain a crucial decrease in its operating expenses, have access to Microsoft’s service offerings, as well as a new revenue stream via mobile advertising and a huge potential sales boost from marketing support.

 

For Elop, this Windows Phone partnership means there will now be three thriving OS ecosystems and not just Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android (apparently he doesn’t think much of RIM’s BlackBerry OS).  

 

According to The Register, Intel remains fully committed to the MeeGo OS. "While we are disappointed with Nokia’s decision, Intel remains committed to MeeGo and welcomes Nokia's continued contribution to MeeGo open source," Intel spokeswoman Suzy Ramirez told The Register. Nokia will still be bringing out at least one device running on MeeGo before the end of this year. 

 

Interestingly enoug, the head of Nokia’s MeeGo division, Alberto Torres, has also stepped down from the management team, "to pursue other interests outside the company.”

 

Besides the explanation of the switch to Windows Phone 7, Nokia also showed off images of a new Windows Phone Prototype.