It seems that Nokia's CEO, Stephen Elop, has finally found a solution to save the company's burning platform.
Nokia announced today a strategic partnership with Microsoft where it adopts Windows Phone 7 for its line of smartphones.
As part of this strategic partnership, Nokia will have the freedom to provide its own customizations on top of the existing Windows Phone 7 interface. In return, Microsoft's Bing search engine will be integrated in all Nokia devices and services, even those not running on Windows Phone 7.
The partnership also dictates that Nokia's Ovi maps will become integrated into Microsoft's mapping services and Nokia's application store will get integrated with the Windows Phone Marketplace. Nokia will also help Microsoft in hardware design and language support.
"Nokia is at a critical juncture, where significant change is necessary and inevitable in our journey forward," Nokia's CEO Stephen Elop said. "Today, we are accelerating that change through a new path, aimed at regaining our smartphone leadership, reinforcing our mobile device platform and realizing our investments in the future."
"Today, developers, operators and consumers want compelling mobile products, which include not only the device, but the software, services, applications and customer support that make a great experience. Nokia and Microsoft will combine our strengths to deliver an ecosystem with unrivaled global reach and scale. It's now a three-horse race."