Don't Expect A Nokia Windows Phone Anytime Soon

By now I'm sure you've heard that Nokia has announced a partnership with Microsoft to release Windows Phone OS based mobile products and services. What you might not have heard is that Nokia is not adopting Microsoft's current Windows Phone 7 platform – which means that there is no chance of any handsets running Microsoft's software before the end of summer.

According to reports Nokia has decided to forgo development of a new handset or any other mobile devices based on WP7, the current version of the Windows Phone platform. Instead the company is going to wait until the next major release of the operating system, codenamed "Mango", is made available this coming October – and that is expected to have a slightly different name from the current Windows Phone 7 name.

The reports cite the odd exclusion of “Windows Phone 7,” only the mention of a new “Windows Phone” in last weeks announcements. That coupled with Nokia's refusal to confirm a likely release date for its first Microsoft-powered handsets has many convinced the company will be waiting until at least fall of this year. Stephen Elop, CEO of Nokia, has stated that we will see the Windows Phone operating system on a Nokia device this year, but the company will be shipping them "in volume" in 2012. So its possible we won't actually get hands on the device until early next year.