Ballmer talks up Nokia Windows Phone 7 partnership

By Tom Warren, on 11th Feb 11 10:26 am with 12 Comments

Nokia and Microsoft historic partnership

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer took to the stage at Nokia’s Strategy and Financial Briefing on Friday.

The charismatic CEO spoke about the opportunities for Nokia and Windows Phone 7 in the future. “This partnership with Nokia will accelerate, dramatically accelerate the development of a vibrant and strong Windows Phone ecosystem,” said Ballmer. “Nokia’s Location and mapping services will improve our joint experience”.

“Nokia will work with us to push hardware advances” said Ballmer. “This alliance will unlock new opportunities for developers and service providers.” The partnership is non-exclusive and will involve Nokia manufacturing a new Windows Phone 7 device added Ballmer.

Ballmer also confirmed that both companies have been working on a Nokia Windows Phone 7. Microsoft and Nokia have both reached out to chip providers and Ballmer claims the company’s will share more information “over the next weeks and months.” Nokia CEO Stephen Elop later confirmed that the company will be able to create a Windows Phone 7 quickly thanks to joint-engineering efforts.

Microsoft and Nokia both announced a strategic partnership on Friday allowing Nokia to create a range of Windows Phone 7 devices. The announcement came days after Nokia CEO Stephen Elop issued a 1,300 word internal memo to the company’s employees recently spelling. Elop admitted throughout the memo that competitors are doing better and that Nokia’s current ecosystem is a “burning platform”.

Rumors of a Nokia Windows Phone 7 partnership were rife since Elop’s departure from Microsoft to Nokia in September, 2010. Speculation began when it was reported that Nokia was in talks with Microsoft to look at offering Windows Phone 7 devices. The talks were kick started by Nokia’s new management. Stephen Elop, ex-Microsoft employee, joined Nokia last year as the company’s CEO.

  • http://twitter.com/jamiet Jamie Thomson

    “The outgoing CEO ”

    Do you know something we don’t?

    • http://www.winrumors.com Tom W

      haha probably not the best phrase to use, re-worded :) thanks

    • http://twitter.com/jamiet Jamie Thomson

      No probs Tom :)

  • FATMAN

    its going to be an awesome ride !

  • Daniel

    Pretty sure he meant outgoing as in ‘charismatic’.

  • Steve Jobs

    Yes! Windows Phone 7 is going to dominat the market!

    • EuroSkeptiC

      Seeems you are extremely happy about… Do you have special interests? lol

  • Nick

    “The outgoing CEO…”

    Uuum. What? Is Ballmer leaving?
    If that is the case, that’s more good news for Microsoft.

  • http://twitter.com/JasonSCarter Jason Carter

    Now if we could only get a CDMA version of a Windows 7 Phone so I can get one, we would be in business! Sadly, I think Verizon is to focused on Android and the release of their iPhone.

  • Aethec

    “The charismatic CEO”
    Uh…there are lots of charismatic people at Microsoft, but…Ballmer?

  • http://twitter.com/jayinatlanta J. Ian Irby

    I’m a big fan of Windows Phone 7, and I do think it’ll solidly be the best smartphone OS after it works out some kinks (especially looking forward to HTML5 support in the Mango release). That being said, this Nokia deal was really hyped as the manufacturer dropping Symbian in favor of Windows. There was a clear “WP7 versus Android” theme in the buzz.

    Instead, there’s a “non-exclusve” partnership agreement. Okay….so Nokia can (and probably will) build both WP7 and Android devices. This whole thing was just for which device OS will be released first? SMH.

    • Joe05

      I believe the non exclusive partnership refers to Windows Phone 7, other phone manufactures will still get access to the OS.