Mobile phone company Nokia has confirmed a much-rumoured deal with the software giant Microsoft and Windows Phone 7 will now become Nokia’s primary smartphone operating system.
Nokia say that its strategic partnership with Microsoft will build a new global mobile ecosystem to compete with Google Android and Apple iPhone.
Nokia’s own Symbian OS has been rather stumbling along in recent times under stiff competition from Google and Apple, but the company says it still expects to sell another 150 million Symbian-powered devices over the next few years.
MeeGo, Nokia’s operating system partnership with Intel, is set to become an open source project and Nokia are still planning to ship a MeeGo related product at some time during 2011.
The deal will see Nokia’s application store integrated with the Microsoft Marketplace.
Nokia said that its current mobile operating system, Symbian, would become “a franchise platform”.
A look at the new Nokia Windows 7 concept phone