Not only did Nokia manage to secure a partnership with Microsoft, announcing recently that it will be bringing the Windows Phone 7 OS to its phones, but it has also been granted almost complete freedom by Microsoft to customize the mobile platform. It's a surprising move, considering the fact that Microsoft had previously made it clear that it had no intentions to allow licenses to make significant changes to the Windows Phone 7 operating system.
Moving Cautiously
Nokia Executive VP Niklas Savander, in an interview at the Mobile World Congress, maintained that the right to customize the OS is one which Nokia intends to capitalize sparingly; the company does not want to implement any changes that would result in Nokia customers getting operating system updates later than everybody else.
Rather, the customizations that Nokia intends to make to Windows Phone 7 will fall under one of two categories, Savander said. One type is high-level customizations that can still be easily implemented into updated versions of the operating system, and the other type is deep customizations that will be "implemented in cooperation with Microsoft, folded into the OS, and made available to competing manufacturers."
The first Nokia models running Windows Phone 7 are expected to be released in 2010.
Source: Brighthand
