What an exciting moment as the new strategic partnership between Nokia and Microsoft was announced at a joint press conference in London with Steve Ballmer, Chief Executive Office at Microsoft, and Stephen Elop, President and CEO of Nokia!  Here, I thought I would pull together several of the resources around this thrilling development so that you can learn more about it.

In addition to the replay of the press conference, there is an open letter from Nokia’s CEO, Stephen Elop, and Microsoft’s CEO, Steve Ballmer, that talks about this strategic partnership and what it brings to the market.  You can read this joint letter in its entirety here.

On the Microsoft News Center, we also have the official press release regarding the newly announced partnership between Nokia and Microsoft that you can read in its entirety here.

I highly encourage you to check out all of the resources included above to get all of the details announced to date on this fantastic new partnership.  Below I have included just a few of the summary points around this announcement for your browsing enjoyment:

• Nokia will adopt Windows Phone as its primary smartphone strategy, innovating on top of the platform in areas such as imaging, where Nokia is a market leader.
• Nokia will help drive and define the future of Windows Phone.  Nokia will contribute its expertise on hardware design, language support, and help bring Windows Phone to a larger range of price points, market segments and geographies.
• Nokia and Microsoft will closely collaborate on development, joint marketing initiatives and a shared development roadmap to align on the future evolution of mobile products.
• Bing will power Nokia’s search services across Nokia devices and services, giving customers access to Bing’s next generation search capabilities.  Microsoft adCenter will provide search advertising services on Nokia’s line of devices and services.
• Nokia Maps will be a core part of Microsoft’s mapping services.   For example, Maps would be integrated with Microsoft’s Bing search engine and AdCenter advertising platform to form a unique local search and advertising experience
• Nokia’s extensive operator billing agreements will make it easier for consumers to purchase Nokia Windows Phone services in countries where credit-card use is low.
• Microsoft development tools will be used to create applications to run on Nokia Windows Phones, allowing developers to easily leverage the ecosystem’s global reach.
• Microsoft will continue to invest in the development of Windows Phone and cloud services so customers can do more with their phone, across their work and personal lives.
• Nokia’s content and application store will be integrated with Microsoft Marketplace for a more compelling consumer experience.

Again, I highly encourage you to check out all of the resources included above to get all of the official details announced to date on this fantastic new partnership and I hope the links and information above is helpful as you look to learn more about this very exciting announcement!

Thank you and have a wonderful day,

Eric Ligman – Follow me on TWITTER, LinkedIn, and RSS and see “What I’m thinking”
Global Partner Experience Lead
Microsoft Worldwide Partner Group
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights