There wasn't much new information coming out of Nokia's Mobile World Congress Press Event concerning the company's new partnership with Microsoft. However, two interesting things did happen during the presentation given by Nokia's CEO Steve Elop.
Someone at the presentation yelled, "Are you a trojan horse?". Elop didn't dodge the question but answered it directly.
"I'll take that question. The obvious answer is no. We made sure that the entire management team was involved in the process, and of course the board of directors of Nokia are the only ones that can make this significant of a decision about Nokia. They made that final decision on Thursday night."
More after the break
The other item of interest involved the hardware. Early indications were that we wouldn't see a Nokia Windows Phone until 2012. However, during the presentation Jo Harlow, Nokia's Senior VP Marketing, commented,
"My boss has told me he would be much happier if that time was in 2011. "We are the partner who will bring innovation in design and hardware to make great mobile products with Windows Phone -- and we've already started. We've had teams working together in interesting places such as Reykjavik, for example, and they're meeting to decide the timing of the first Windows Phone product."
While Nokia has pledged to begin shipping Windows Phones in significant volume in 2012, could we see some volume hitting the shelves by the 2011 Holiday Season?
There are still a lot of curiosities about the Nokia/Microsoft venture. Nokia did state that they weren't giving up on Symbian with plans to still ship "volumes" of Symbian devices in the coming months and years. We're still curious how Nokia might customize Windows Phone 7 but we might not see anything concrete on this front for some time.
Oh and those conceptual photos we shared with you the other day also made an appearance during the event. These stills seem a little different but they do have the extra Start Screen tiles (compass and clock). Not sure if this design will be what the final product looks like but it sure is making the rounds.
Dan's on-site at the 2011 Mobile World Congress covering the full 142,000 square meters of the exhibit hall (hope he packed his roller skates) and if we pick up on any new developments with Nokia, we'll pass it on.
Source: Engadget
