GLOBAL – Since last Friday, the blogosphere’s been a-flutter with ideas and opinions about Nokia, Microsoft and the Windows Phone operating system. We’ve taken a look at a broad selection of other blogs to see what’s being said, and to get a broader picture.

There have been an overwhelming amount of posts published on the story. Not everyone is convinced, of course, but we’ve seen some very thoughtful analysis of what the partnership might have to offer for both companies, their customers and their products. Here’s our pick of the current crop…

Brian X Chen from Wired.co.uk has six survival tips for Nokia and Microsoft, as well as adding this comment.

But if executed poorly, the new partnership will be a fruitless effort to catch up: a failure for both companies.

Adrian Covert from Gizmodo shared some thoughts on the matter.

Sure, partnering [with Google] had a certain allure to it. But Nokia’s coupling with Microsoft ultimately makes more sense. Looking past the fact that Elop served as a senior exec at Microsoft not so long ago, both companies really need each other. This is a necessary move for Nokia.

With a catchy title like this “I want a Nokia Windows Phone, and here’s why”, it’s no surprise that David Meyer’s story from ZDNet caught our eye. He tells how he likes the hardware Nokia produces, if only it had something else under the hood.

The E7 is a prime example. It really is a thing of beauty (I like a proper keyboard, me) but I don’t want one because it runs Symbian

Mike Butcher from TechCrunch is more sceptical, thinking Nokia’s days as innovators are over, adding these words:

It’s hard to say if this is a good or a bad day for the European startup eco-system, though I would argue that it is probably more good than bad.

Rita El Khoury from MobileRnR took some time to realise the benefits of what this partnership will bring, offering some words in helping us all undertand.

Now think of Nokia and Windows Phone, like the press release explained the alliance.
Stellar camera and video recording? Check.
Incredible reception and radios? Check.
Top notch hardware and build quality? Check.
Maps and Navigation everywhere in the world? Check.
Beautiful Email experience? Check.
High quality games? Friggin’ X-Box! Check.
Music? Check (as loyal Zune users would tell you).
Corporate facilities? Check.
Developer support? Gaining traction, check.
Devices all across the price bracket, for every budget? Check.
Support in every country with every operator, and even in countries with unlocked devices? Check.
The press release stopped there. I can’t believe it stopped there. I can’t believe they let everyone roll their eyes and look at it thinking “well… we have any of this everywhere else”. Except we don’t have EVERYTHING anywhere else. We have some things with Android, some things with Apple, some things with Samsung, some things with HTC… This deal? It has everything.

Ricky Cadden – The Guru from Symbian-Guru.com, now moved onto new adventures – also from MobileRnR writes on “Why Windows Phone 7 Is A Better Choice Than Symbian”.

With Windows Phone, Nokia gets a platform that has already been rewritten from the ground up, and they’re getting in on it early enough that they will be able to help guide its future. While they have essentially become just another OEM, they still at least have a chance at helping influence the future of the platform, whereas with Android, they wouldn’t have had that opportunity.

For Micky Aldridge from NokiaDNA, he expresses his thoughts in a post titled “The Nokia x Microsoft Partnership & My Thoughts on Nokia’s Future”, here are those thoughts.

For all your Nokia loyalists, and passionate Nokia enthusiasts, don’t give up on Nokia just yet, as what they have in store for you all is pretty much going to blow the competition out of the water. Not only has today created a 3rd horse in the three horse race by bringing a completely new ecosystem into the playing field, its bringing together most, if not all of the things Nokia users have been crying out for for years. Be patient, time will prevail. Exciting times ahead.

Engadget posted a whole heap of stories based on this new partnership, following the events closely. Vlad Savov tipped his hat to the social media guys involved in the day’s unfoldings.

Wow, we have to hand it those Nokia social media types, they’re on top of their game. A mere couple of hours after Stephen Elop and Steve Ballmer took the stage in London, the video of their joint announcement of a Nokia-Microsoft partnership is up and ready for repeated consumption

“If you think MSFT is bad news for Nokia, think again”, that’s the title given to a post by Ewan from MobileIndustryReview but he wants to see results:

Nokia, set your handset designers alight. (In, er, a positive manner). Set them free and get them really, really innovating. You now need to talk devices — and the story needs to be market leading, inspiring and compelling.

Robert Scoble from Scobleizer posted his thoughts on what this partnership can achieve, though we don’t agree with the controversial title, of course:

They needed to join the engineering teams at Nokia who know how to build great hardware with someone else who knows how to build services. That someone else is Microsoft. No one else was as strong a fit and if you think Google is it, well, sorry, no. That would be even worse for Nokia because Nokia needs to have something different than HTC has (Nokia can’t compete with China’s brightest minds).

[ADDED] Tomi Ahonen predicts a bleak future for Nokia in a series of posts that quote lots of figures from analysts:

…even in the most optimistic scenario for Nokia, its market share in smartphones will crash from 28% at the start of the year, to 12% by the end of this year, when it finally may find some recovery when the first Microsoft Phone 7 based smartphones might appear for sale.

image credit: Juanedc

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