In an interview with Forbes, Nokia's Jo Harlow, head of Smart Devices within the company, has some positive and interesting things to say about the scheduling of Nokia Windows Phones.
While earlier statements by Nokia CEO Elop said they were trying to get "a" device by 2011 out the door and that we would see a "portfolio" of devices in 2012, it looks like Nokia is slightly ahead of schedule. This was hinted at yesterday when Microsoft announced that Nokia would be launching their new phones with 'Mango' on board, as opposed to some later iteration (some rumors suggested Windows Phone 8).
Luckily, Harlow had this to say on the matter:
"I’m quite pleased with our progress...Our target is absolutely still this year…and the target looks good"
More importantly, it looks like they've moved from "a" device to multiple devices with Harlow mentioning a "small portfolio" to be released in the first batch.
Finally, don't expect old Nokia hardware with Windows Phone OS on board. Despite earlier rumors that Nokia, due to time constraints, was just using the same or similar hardware for Symbian in their Windows Phones, they appear to be using completely new designs, unseen by the public:
Harlow, however, says those early renderings are “not characteristic” of the first Windows Phone devices Nokia will release. “One of the differentiations we intend to bring to the Windows Phone platform is hardware innovation,” said Harlow. “You will see that in our first devices and our future devices.”
Other little mentions are that China may get a device, speeding up CDMA distribution greatly and Nokia's interest in Near Field Communication (NFC) technology for their devices.
Update: In a similar interview with PC Magazine, Harlow said that they were looking to release a Windows Phone every three months:
"We should be launching new devices in a rhythm that might be every couple of months, every three months, something like that....We're going to keep coming with new devices in order to have something to talk about."
Source: Forbes; PC Magazine (via BusinessInsider)
