Nokia ditches Symbian in favour of Microsoft’s windows mobile OS
Windows-powered Nokia handsets will enter the mobile industry by 2012, according to the Finnish company's board chair, who added that more partnerships are being worked on by the phone maker besides the already sealed deals with Google and Microsoft.
Nokia board head Jorma Ollila said on Thursday that the company's in-house Symbian mobile platform would be retired soon to make way for the Windows Phone OS that giant phone maker will deploy on its handsets by next year.
The transition, according to Ollila, will also transform Nokia into a company that mainly deals with hardware-focused products such as mobile phones and other gadgets planned to be released in the market soon.
Ollila told Finnish network YLE that "these Windows-based products will be on markets from 2012 onwards," and to follow that initiative are prospects of more alliances with the giants Google and Microsoft.
On Tuesday, Nokia chief executive Stephen Elop has admitted that market pressure is weighing down on the leading phone maker and revealed that it has plotted to issue a handset installed with Microsoft's mobile operating system by 2011's end.
In addition to that, Ollila said that the choice appears to be wide for Nokia and it is currently considering proposals pushed forward by a number of suitors, who expressed keen interests in partnering with the world's biggest mobile phone maker.
Also, the board chairman dismissed suggestions that Nokia shareholders campaigned hard to put Elop at the top helm of the company, who as a Canadian is the first foreigner to run the Finland-based tech firm.