So the "strategic alliance" between Nokia and Microsoft comes to an end, and Nokia has opted out of renewing it.
On the one hand, this means that mobile devices marketed by Microsoft, such as the Lumia line of phones, can no longer be sold with the name Nokia on it, and on the other hand, Nokia itself (the Finnish company, the part that wasn't sold to Microsoft) is free to break away from using Windows Mobile.
Nokia hasn't really brought out any Windows Mobile devices, they just focused on other things besides devices that should run on Windows Mobile, and that was a good decision, given what a huge flop Windows Mobile is, and the fact that Microsoft is compelled to compete on price with the lowest-end Chinese devices to even keep their mobile products on shelves.
With the end of the strategic alliance, Nokia is now free again to use whatever they want, and of course, they want Linux, because they were very active developing Linux machines before the sell-out to Microsoft, their pre-Microsoft smartphones with Linux on them are - despite their age - still outright legendary in tech communities. Devices like the N9 are crazy expensive, despite their age.
While Nokia will not immediately be making smartphones, they are coming out with a new tablet, an Android tablet, called the N1. It will be an 8 inch tablet, with aluminium unibody, made by Foxconn, which also makes Apple's iPads.
With the expertise of Nokia behind it, this might mean the final breakthrough of the post-PC devices in the enterprise market.
I'm pretty excited to see enterprise IT environment certified Android devices, and I think that's exactly what Nokia will aim for.
What do you guys think, do you like the idea of Nokia returning to linux after the Microsoft strategic alliance?