ESPOO, Finland – This afternoon Stephen Elop announced that Nokia has “shifted from a mode of developing our strategy to one of putting our strategy into action”. But what’s the evidence to support this? Here’s plenty. Today we’ve had updates on the progress with Windows Phone, delivering Symbian smart devices and new mobile phones for the next billion users. All the details after the cut.

As we reported earlier today, Nokia and Microsoft have now signed a definitive agreement on their strategic partnership to create Nokia devices using Windows Phone. Stephen described a number of details that reveal more about the nature of the new offering:

• Nokia will supply mapping and location-based services for the Windows Phone ecosystem, building on the success it’s experienced with Ovi Maps.

• Nokia and Microsoft will deliver a new, Nokia-branded application store, that combines the Windows Marketplace back-end with the convenience of operator-billing from Nokia – this billing method already extends to 112 operators in 36 markets.

• To drive the attractiveness of developing for Windows Phone, the Windows Phone developer registration fee – normally $99 – will be waived for the first year for all published Nokia developers.

• Concluding on the Windows Phone deal, Stephen said that, in recognition of the value that Nokia was bringing to the deal, Nokia would receive payments “totalling billions of dollars” over the next five years.

In the meantime, Stephen said that Nokia has a “laser focus” on delivering great Symbian smartphones. In the last Quarter, Nokia has launched the Nokia E6 and Nokia X7, as well as announcing the coming of the Symbian Anna software as part of “an ongoing pattern of software enhancements”.

Cseries mobile phones have formed a strong part of the business, he continued. Nokia shipped more than eight million C3 and X2-01 devices so far. Stephen announced that a Dual-SIM device, the Nokia C2, would also be released during the second quarter. More Dual-SIM mobile phones will follow over the rest of the year, he revealed.

The future of Nokia’s next-generation devices was also touched on.  Stephen said there’d been progress in this department and that strand of developments would “define some of the future disruptions in our market.”

That’s all for now. Hope you’re as excited by this news as we are.