Nokia embrace Windows Phone

Nokia today announced that they will be adopting Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform as their primary smartphone strategy. In an open letter by Nokia’s CEO Stephen Elop and Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer, Nokia and Microsoft announced plans for a strategic partnership to build a new global mobile ecosystem.

This, is a good thing.

See, I am a fan of Symbian, due to the flexibility and features it brings to power users. I also happen to like Windows Phone 7 a lot. I've always maintained that Windows Phone has a bright future, not in its current state, but after a couple of updates.

Not only that, Nokia will have a degree of control over Windows Phone platform. Microsoft currently have a strict requirement on hardware and software. A LG, Samsung and HTC Windows Phone 7 looks a like and has almost nothing to differentiate between all of them. Not with Nokia. With Windows Phone, Nokia will be able to change almost anything with Windows Phone, including the UI - though the won't as this will likely break app compatibility.

I also admire Stephen Elop's attitude. It takes a lot of guts to create so much disruption when Nokia is still top of the industry. He, I believe, is the right person to lead Nokia out of the deep hole their former regime (OPK and Anssi) dug themselves into.