Nokia and Microsoft recently announced that they have signed a definitive agreement to partner and build devices based on Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 operating system. Nokia and Microsoft had first announced their partnership on February 11.
A press release says that hundreds of personnel from both companies are collaborating to develop a portfolio of new Nokia devices to be ready for volume shipments in 2012. Pressure is high to develop and launch the first product in 2011 itself.
This is what Kai Oistamo, Executive Vice President and Chief Development Officer, Nokia and Andy Lees, President, Mobile Communications Business, Microsoft jointly posted on Microsoft's developer blog Technet: "Developers like Angry Birds maker, Rovio; deal of the day supersite, Groupon; hot social app, Ditto; and UK mega-retailer, Sainsbury's, are all committing to the Windows Phone platform. And, to make joining the Windows Phone ecosystem even easier, in the first year we will make Windows Phone developer registration free for all published Nokia developers."
The joint press release also states that the partnership between the two companies will revolve around the following major points:
1. A range of development related agreements that will result in Nokia delivering imaging, mapping, navigation and location based services to the Windows Phone ecosystem. On the other hand, all Nokia products will feature Microsoft's Bing search engine. Nokia will have its own application store that will serve applications for Windows Phone, Symbian and Series 40 devices.
2. Microsoft will receive a royalty for all the devices that Nokia ships with the Windows Phone 7 platform.
3. Nokia will receive payments from Microsoft measured in billions of dollars for its contribution to the agreement. A specific amount was not mentioned.
The announcement was made after Nokia announced its recent quarter results. Nokia announced that its market share has reduced to 26 percent, down from 31 per cent in the same quarter last year. They also shipped 18 per cent less phones than the previous quarter.