Symbian is dead, long live Windows phone!

CAMBRIDGE, USA: The recent partnership of Nokia and Microsoft announced Nokia's adoption of Windows Phone (WP) as its primary smartphone strategy.

Symbian smartphones will still be shipped during its transition to WP7 over at least the next 6 to 8 quarters, and the long-awaited MeeGo device will eventually see the light, but there will be only one MeeGo device, according to a new research note from Stela Bokun, Senior Analyst at Pyramid Research.

According to Steven Elop, Nokia's success will depend on two paths of differentiation, notes Bokun in a research note posted at Pyramid Points. The first one will be differentiation of the WP platform from those of Apple (iOS) and Google (Android). To that end, Nokia will invest its resources and focus on growing the WP ecosystem.

The second level of differentiation will be within the WP ecosystem itself by leveraging Nokia's unique navigation, LBS and local advertising capabilities to effectively compete with other vendors that already use WP7 on their devices, notes Bokun. It remains to be seen how the today's announcement will affect Nokia, Microsoft and the industry as a whole.