Prices for Windows Phone 7 Smartphones Will Drop, Nokia Says

Nokia's presence at the 2011 Mobile World Congress was rather based on the recent partnership with Microsoft, instead of focusing on new mobile phones announcements.

Those who were still waiting for the company to showcase a MeeGo device were surely disappointed by the fact that the Finnish company gave up all hopes to make MeeGo one of its leading mobile platforms.

Even though a Nokia device running MeeGo is still expected to be launched by the end of 2011, Nokia's CEO, Stephen Elop said that the Windows Phone system will be the main operating system that the Finnish manufacturer is actively betting on.

Furthermore, it seems that Nokia has been granted the right to modify Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 mobile platform, unlike HTC and other manufacturers who are not allowed to make any modifications to the operating system.

According to Nokia, the company's engineers started to work with Microsoft two months ago and the concept device that was leaked before the 2011 Mobile World Congress is on the results.

Apparently, Nokia's decision to adopt Windows Phone 7 instead of going forward with projects such as Symbian and MeeGo, or to simply team up with Google and make Android smartphones, was closely related to the fact that Microsoft's mobile platform has a small market share and is a rather 'young' eco-system that still has lots of features to offer.

Even if Nokia and Microsoft manage to turn Windows Phone 7 into a third major player on the mobile platforms market, their smartphones are still having a hard time competing with Android devices because of their higher price.

In this regard, Stephen Elop said last week that it managed to convince Microsoft that the Finnish company can make cheaper Windows Phone 7 smartphones and still have the same hardware requirements imposed by Microsoft.

Microsoft is also planning to open up its Windows Phone 7 mobile platform to other chipset makers, other than Qualcomm, so it can better compete with Google's Android and Apple's iOS devices in terms of prices.

As Nokia's CEO mentioned, the agreements might be signed by both parties in a couple of months, but it may take longer.