Nokia and Microsoft today announced that they have completed negotiations and signed a definitive agreement for their Windows Phone partnership. The agreement follows an announcement made on February 11th that Nokia would adopt Windows Phone as its principal operating system for upcoming smartphones.
A number of details around the partnership were revealed:
- Nokia will contribute its expertise in areas that include mapping, navigation, certain location-based services, operator billing services, hardware design and language support.
- Microsoft will provide Bing search services the Nokia device portfolio.
- There will be a Nokia-branded global application store that will allow developers to offer apps for Windows Phone, Symbian and Series 40 devices.
- Nokia will pay royalty fees to Microsoft for the use of Windows Phone.
- Nokia will receive billions from Microsoft “in recognition of the unique nature of Nokia’s agreement with Microsoft and the contributions that Nokia is providing.”
The two companies also announced that they have made progress since the original announcement. Hundreds are already working on new Nokia devices, porting applications over to Windows Phone, and reaching out out to third party developers.
Nokia Windows Phone devices are expected to hit the market in 2012 although the company is trying to have at least one model out by late 2011 according to past rumours.