I guess its no surprise that Nokia and Microsoft are pals now, as they announced their strategic partnership today.  After all, both have lost significant ground falling well behind in the high-end mobile space to that little green robot and the popular brand with a fruit as its logo. With Stephen Elop at Nokia’s helm, it has been decided to jump on icy waters rather than burn (see Elop leaked memo).

Maybe there was something to the N8 formatting a Windows Phone 7 MicroSD card back on November of last year after all. I know that the fan boys (including myself) are pounding their heads against their desks and crying foul. Heck, this was my first reaction. “Nokia is dead to me now!” Stephen Elop did say he was going to take the bull by the horns so to speak and ruffle some feathers. It is a good sign for the company that he is taking a proactive approach expanding and exploring various options. Nokia knows that currently they do not have anything to compete with the likes of Android and Apple’s user experiences and while we would love to see MeeGo as the primary smartphone OS, it is just moving too slowly to be competitive. The Windows Phone OS software is developed and available and is probably better than anything Nokia currently has in its arsenal.

Take the N9. An inside source told PhoneReport that Windows Phone 7 was tested on the N9 and presented positive results.

According to the same source, when the Finnish giant ran a build of MeeGo on it, the results were highly unsatisfactory, in fact, the system crashed “all the time”. When they loaded Microsoft’s latest smartphone operating system, the handset was working fine. Nokia isn’t simply testing a competitor’s platform, the company is actually collaborating with Microsoft, and Stephen Elop’s background may have something to do with the partnership.

[source: phonereport.info]

Obviously this is a slap in the face to Intel and its MeeGo platform. Most of us were looking forward to the Nokia N9 with all the goodies of the N8 plus MeeGo running the gorgeous hardware. Not an N9 with Windows Phone 7 as the engine. Intel however is “Not Blinking on MeeGo.”

While we are disappointed with Nokia’s decision, Intel is not blinking on MeeGo. We remain committed and welcome Nokia’s continued contribution to MeeGo open source.

Our strategy has always been to provide choice when it comes to operating systems, a strategy that includes Windows, Android, and MeeGo.  This is not changing.

MeeGo is not just a phone OS, it supports multiple devices. And we’re seeing momentum across multiple segments – automotive systems, netbooks, tablets, set-top boxes and our Intel silicon will be in a phone that ships this year.

[source: laptopmag.com]

I’m hopeful that Windows Phone 7 OS will only be an intermediate measure to remain competitive while the MeeGo platform is developed as the ‘secret weapon’ to really take the phone world by storm — But these are mere words of a Nokia fan boy. I’m still looking forward to the Nokia E7, especially now that it seems that the N9 will not be running MeeGo and while I will take some type of XBOX Live integration replacing N-Gageg in future Symbian releases. I will resist bing and you will not catch me with a full-on Nokia Windows Phone 7.

Long live the clumsy and cryptic Symbian OS!

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