[sliverstorm]

This is actually why I love Nokia phones. They have fantastic hardware.

I'm really hoping that letting someone else do most of the heavy lifting for the software will allow Nokia to focus on what we already know it does best.

[bad_user]

Yeah, but Microsoft?

If this partnership succeeds it would be the exception.

[greyman]

What is wrong with WP7, except of the lack of apps? Or what is wrong with Microsoft in terms of providing developer tools or marketing support for their products and 3rd party programmers?

[pilif]

IE is what's wrong.

Because up until WP7, doing mobile web apps for smart phones meant being able to write standards based code plus some webkit specific CSS for fluff.

But now we got to deal with this frustrating piece of crap that is IE on a mobile platform with significant deployment. Gone are the days where at least in the mobile world you were able to write code and have it work in all browsers with spending hours after hours working around bugs in IE.

[bad_user]

      what is wrong with Microsoft in terms of providing 
      developer tools or marketing support

Nokia doesn't lack development tools, neither marketing support. They also have all the resources they need to produce an operating system / platform to rival iOS and Android.

They lack focus.

Android also had lots of flaws when launched, but Google & partners kept iterating. Nokia could have taken the world by storm simply because they can push lots of cheap smartphones all over the world. And the Ovi Store could have been the most popular app store. If only they provided enough consistency across what they are doing.

And Microsoft?

When choosing a partner you have to take into consideration the company's track record. Microsoft has been caught resting on its laurels several times over the years, with Windows, with IExplorer, with Windows Mobile. It also has been caught screwing several of its partners.

Microsoft transformed PC-makers in cheap complementaries to Windows and bloatware. Microsoft also forced PC-makers to only bundle Windows with new PCs.

For us (devs and consumers), Android and Windows Mobile may be good things, but for Nokia this will be a disaster.

[tomjen3]

The price.

Nokia now has to pay for the license to their mobile software as well as the hardware while everybody else only have to pay for the hardware.

[aaronbrethorst]

Nokia is going to get licenses for WP7 at essentially zero cost from Microsoft.

[tomjen3]

They can't keep doing that forever - Microsoft makes money selling software, they will have to sell it to do so.

[gojomo]

Microsoft's 1997 investment/software-commitment with Apple, then in dire need, worked out pretty well for Apple.

[danilocampos]

They provided capital and ongoing development of existing products, not the heart and soul of the Apple user experience.

Thank god.

[gaius]

Wintel?