Nokia to Enter Strategic Partnership with Microsoft, Adopt Windows Phone 7

From DailyTech: We’ve been talking about it for the past few days, but Nokia and Microsoft made it official this morning – the two companies will enter into a “strategic partnership” when it comes to smartphones. There are a lot of things going on with this announcement, so let’s get one thing out in the open right away – Nokia will not be abandoning its Symbian and MeeGo efforts.

That being said, Nokia will adopt Windows Phone 7 as its “primary smartphone platform” from this moment forward. Here's a list of things that will happen under this new guidance that will build a new "global mobile ecosystem" around Windows Phone 7:

* Nokia will have the freedom to provide its own customizations on top of the existing Windows Phone 7 interface.
* Microsoft’s Bing search engine will become integrated into Nokia devices and services. Although it's not directly stated, we’re assuming that this will include not only Nokia's Windows Phone 7 devices, but also those running Symbian and MeeGo. Microsoft's adCenter platform will also find its way to Nokia devices.
* Nokia Ovi Maps will now be integrated with Microsoft's current mapping efforts.
* Nokia will work with Microsoft to lend a hand in hardware design and language support to help "define the future of Windows Phone", and bring it to more price points and market segments.
* Nokia application store will be integrated with the Windows Phone Marketplace.

Given that Stephen Elop, Nokia's current President and CEO, was a high-ranking Microsoft executive just a few months ago, we're wondering just how long this move has been in the works. Although no one envisioned that Elop's new position at Nokia would lead to such a drastic shift in smartphone strategy that links him back to his former employer, both companies seem to think that this new alliance will shake up the current smartphone race.

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