[partoa]

If they fail with MS, which seems to be it's fate, in retrospect it would have been a bad bet.

They chose the easier route, given that Windows Phone 7 wasn't ready for prime time either, and sat out of an emerging handset segment for years and for this they will pay dearly. They have to build themselves as a brand in the new smartphone market, a game that seems to be already taken. IMHO, short of a major innovation from Nokia in the near future, their smartphone business will go the way of the Blackberry; I have no idea is they will still want to keeps their low end models after the dust settles.

[wvenable]

Nokia quite simply didn't have the technology to compete -- Symbian isn't up to the task their Linux offerings needed to be solid about 4 years ago to be relevant now. I'm not sure they sat out, they just didn't get it to together.

I think if they fail with MS, they would have failed with every other option as well. MS is the best option but it is perhaps much too late.