Nokia partners with Microsoft, adopts Windows 7 Phone

In a much speculated and quite expected move, Nokia is finally moving past Symbian.

Today, an open letter from Steven Elop and Steve Ballmer, both companies declared partnership and vowed to bring "stellar hardware, innovating software and great services" to mobile phone customers.

As I wrote in November, this will be a perfect match between Nokia's hardware capabilities and capacity, and Microsoft's innovative mobile OS and tight integration to most popular desktop environment, Microsoft Windows.

With hardware giant like Nokia in their allies, Microsoft is sure to make a major dent in mobile marketplace. Mobile users will win from improved innovation rate, better compatibility and increased usability, and simpler integration between mobile devices and desktops.

Nokia Ovi suite could be reformed and re-incorporated to bring value to all Windows 7 Phone customers. That would be an important step to increase it's market adoption rate and usefulness.

Vendor-specific social platforms are doomed, that's why Ovi must go beyond Nokia to really succeed and compete with the best.

The deal will invigorate mobile market even more, adding to the battle between Google's Android and Apple's iPhone ecosystems.

It's a great day today for both companies, and I am looking forward to help them improve their act.
I used to be a Symbian fan, but it's been long time to move on.
Nokia hardware was quite competitive, but sad truth is that Nokia simply could not make first-class software for few recent years.
When that is changed and outsourced to a partner as great as Microsoft, everybody wins!