Any vendor could have done something, but they were content doing nothing. Mostly though they were locked into doing nothing thanks to the carriers as you say.

However, Nokia, RIM, and a few others could have done something. They chose to do nothing.

http://www.ubergizmo.com/2011/03/windows-phone-7-not-boosting-microsoft/

Yes. But that was true before Elop joined. Symbian was an old relic, and it showed. MeeGo was a bad UX and was going nowhere in the marketplace. Nokia had failed, year after year after year, to give themselves a credible roadmap from an OS and content standpoint. The company was/is too big, too slow, too disjointed to produce a good, integrated UX.

So pick your poison:
- carry on with Symbian 3 and have a second-rate OS
- continue to fracture your internal resources and work also on meego, which is slow to emerge, and somewhat ugly
- adopt android and be a commodity hardware vendor
- buy PalmOS (cheap)  to do something different and integrated with hardware…oops missed that opportunity
- partner with MSFT to bring together the synergies of a good OS with no OEM support, and a good OEM with no credible OS

I think the last option – IN 2011 – was the best. The synergy is clear, the possibility of winning is there. The question for me is how does Nokia make sure they get their share of the winnings if this partnership works out. It seems like MSFT benefits far, far more. Of course, I haven’t seen the confidential contract.

…in the same way that me and my fat cousin compete with Usain Bolt.

But you’re right that if Nokia succeeds with Windows OS, it’s unclear how they capture the fruits of that success vs. delivering it to Redmond.

“Verizon decided they could not access the iPhone, and they had to do something else.”

AT&T’s exclusive on iPhone was the catalyst for the emergence of Android as a market success. Carriers hate Google in so many ways, that adopting Android phones was a bitter pill for them to swallow, but they needed a decent market response if they could not sell iPhones. They tried Symbian. They tried Blackberry. Didn’t work. Then, they held their noses and tried Android.

The other posters may be taking it overboard but their sentiments are not misplaced.
If you were the CEO of HTC why would you start supporting Windows Phone 7 knowing full well that Microsoft has given a special deal to Nokia?  How is that a level playing field?

Next, Windows Phone 7 allows no OEM customizations on the look and feel.  The UI looks the same.  Great for users.  Terrible for OEMs who want to stand out from the pack.

All this together, means the other OEMs aren’t going to support Windows Phone 7 enthusiastically.  And if they don’t app developers won’t.  And if the app developers don’t consumers won’t either.  See where this is going?

Nokia could have easily customized Android while keeping Symbian alive.  They could have made Ovi maps a proprietary app pre-installed on Nokias for example. They could have the interface more Symbian like to have an easy transition.  Elop wanted the transition money.  So he took it and now he’s forced to talk up Windows Phone 7 because he’s bet the farm on it.

They’ll do okay.  But when all is said and done, Nokia will be a shadow of its self in about 3-5 years.  And you can blame Elop (and the other executives) for it.

The connotation on Elop Flop or whatever  others are writing is pure personal feelings from people that REALLY do not understand the mobile business or lack the respect towards great executives with an AMAZING track record.

Open your mind, Apple and Android are not the last cookie inside the package :) also, if one leaves the US centric world, you will notice that these OSs are not that powerful around the world and today we are all in a globalized culture if you like it or not.

Elop is right. Why he would choose to build 2 teams like mentioned in the comments (android and WP7) to have 2 bets while the first option does not bring anything new to the table as we already know how Google operates. Why provide a revamp solution to a company where others are already 2 years ahead in development and customization? Why create a phone that is basically the same as the one from your competitor? This is no secret, just good view of an outsider.  Its true that a lot of proprietary code in the android are creating more headaches than ever as well……any developer that created apps for it knows this very well. From the OEM stand point, that’s called “hand breaks” for future endeavors.

WP7 on the other hand has the power from the developers that lives off the Windows OS. That’s over 1 million “senior” developers that survives on the windows platform alone. which, in turn, makes WP7 much more robust in terms of support and future development. No wonder the Wp7 store reached 20k apps way before any other app store out there. And, I don’t have to remind you, that WP7 share still very very low compared to the other OS, which makes the announcement on the apps very surprising for the rest of the ecosystem.

Back to the strategy, why they should select an OS that will only power a player like google and nobody else. Why make ties with a company that is making “big waves” to get what they want with your number 1 partner (that’s the carriers btw which still counts for over half of handset sales in the world) Now, when you look at microsoft and his ties to it, the nokia share holder should be very happy (not with current stock price, but long term prospects). He is going to bring billions in up front revenue for its selection of WP7. Did I say BILLIONS? Yes, it seems everyone forgot this part of the deal. He will be able to customize the WP7 to the next level with consumers (it will be a closed platform as the others, but as MS needs this as much as anyone, they will/are making exceptions to Nokia that will create the differentiators). Also, on the business side, which matters most for shareholders, the upfront money that microsoft is providing will generate the necessary margins that Nokia needs to compete and survive on the short term. Once again, this is pure business and not a popularity contest.

Anyone that participates on the PC era knows how much this can be a differentiator. Take Intel for example, the “Intel inside” logo on PCs generated a healthy supply of parts and support for Wintel. Intel spends an average of $2 billion dollars paying OEMs to include that little logo outside their cases. This was all marketing budget from intel, that generate over $8 billion in revenues every year for it. That lilttle logo revenue was able to drop PC’s part prices in a whole new era because, like phones will be soon if not there yet, the PC became a commodity, and margins started to play a big part on the success of a healthy business.

On the carrier side, I would like to point out that, even though people like to bash the carriers (me inlcuded for their wallet garden), the direct billing makes a big difference for content providers. Maybe not so much in the US where all the population have credit cards nowadays, but for the rest of the world it is – Credit card penetration is less then 50% in over 90% of the countries in the world. Also, without the carriers, you would not be able to buy your iphone for less then $600 bucks btw. We would probably not even have this discussion right now if wasn’t the carriers that allowed that.

So, with these little details in mind, its safe to assume that Elop bet was well designed to bring the biggest handset maker in the world ready for a come back. if it will work or not, we will have to wait and see. But, as I am a WP7 VERY satisfied user, I think they will make Apple and Android a good run for their money.

Go Elop and show the world what a “visionary” you will be in a couple of years.