Microsoft and Nokia have announced a new partnership that will put Windows Phone 7 on the Finnish manufacturer's future smartphones. Oh yeah, and they're killing off Symbian, too.
Despite remaining the biggest cellphone maker in the world (they own 28.2 percent of the market), the outlook for Nokia's smartphone future hasn't been the peachiest for a while now, with Android and iOS fast chomping at their market share. They did appear to be putting in the effort with the planned Symbian reboots and that Meego partnership with Intel. But all that is moot now.
In a new strategy that will, in the words of Nokia CEO Stephen Elop, "transform the company," they are ditching all present and future work on Symbian. In its place will be Windows Phone 7, Microsoft’s currently less-than-successful mobile platform.
Aside from being the OS of choice for Nokia's 2012 smartphone lineup, the company will also be adding Bing as the default search engine on all phones they produce. Nokia Maps will live on, though, folded as part of Bing Search, while the Ovi App Store will be integrated into Microsoft Marketplace.
There is no guarantee, of course, that this move will change the current standing of both companies' products. However, it does appear like a good move -- one that could prove beneficial to both company's futures in the ever-competitive mobile space.
[Microsoft Press Release]
