So this didn't concern anyone. No thread about this? Or did I just miss it? Anyway, this month Nokia has sold more phones than ever. In fact, they sold 100% of them to Microsoft.

Steven Elop got some 18 M ($ or €, who cares) out of the deal, which has annoyed a lot of Finns. People (me included) have had a hard time figuring out what Elop's task was in Nokia. No matter what the reason for hiring him was, what he did was he packed up a nice package of Nokia Company, which Microsoft is about to buy. And got the 18 M reward. The funny thing is that if the deal has to be cancelled due to any legal reasons, Elop can return to his job as CEO of Nokia. To do what?

Another funny (well, sad, really) thing is that Elop is in the middle of a divorce struggle. And therefore he can't refuse to accept the 18 M award, even if he wanted.

I want their tablet, it's the first tablet I actually find useful, I mean the one with windows 8, not RT, of course. Being able to use all my desktop apps, and most importantly, games, means a lot to me. However, there is no way I'm going to throw so much money for it. I'd rather buy a new computer.

Holy. Crap. What a douchebag.

I will saw that his comment about going Windows Phone because Nokia wouldn't stand out since they were too late to the Android game... that's a somewhat reasonable thought process. But I don't think Windows Phone ever panned out and they should have jumped ship. But what would I know, I've never run a multibillion dollar company.

The whole idea was that Microsoft needed a way to push Windows Phone. I don't see how that statements makes any sense if not viewed in that light. Who wouldn't want to buy a Lumia with Nokia's version of Android on it? At the very least they could have made Android phones mainly, and then one or two Windows phones to see what would happen. And when nobody wants to buy them, they are still in the game because the also bet on the safe horse, Android.

How long has he been with Microsoft? Hope he's doing well.

In above posts I see you people a totally confused in the benefits for Nokia in using windows.

So, two paths.

I. Nokia immediately makes Lumia on Android.

1. It is a more developed ecosystem, and due to Nokia's bardname, and actual quality of their Lumia phones, Lumias would be bought by people. Arguably more so than if they were based on Windows.

2. Nokia would be all alone, GOOG would not provide any special treatment for Nokia, as there would be no benefit for GOOG in doing so.

3. Market share within the Android ecosystem would be rather small, although it would probably be growing, but it'd be pure hardware and marketing race with Samsung.

4. Should NOK fail, and go bankrupt there wouldn't be a company as interested as MSFT to buy it's phone division, and the shareholders would be doomed.

II. Nokia starts with Windows, and joins Android later.

1. Windows is an undeveloped but rapidly growing ecosystem, which Nokia easily dominates. This way Nokia benefits hugely from growth of the ecosystem. Within years, when Windows phone becomes one of THE ecosystems(with at least 33% share), Nokia still holds at least half of that.

2. Nokia is assisted by MSFT, both directly (Microsoft was directly paying 250 000 000$ per quarter to Nokia), and indirectly by marketing efforts. They did pay for advertisements. It is overall important, and especially important if you're short of $.

3. Well I touched this in #1. Nokia dominates Windows Phone, which is a rapidly growing ecosystem.

4. As an almost exclusive Windows Phone maker, Nokia is of interest for MSFT to acquire. It is an insurance from bankruptcy.

P.S:
The sales of Nokia Asha & other phone lines deteriorated extremely quickly, way faster than one(me for example, and well.. All analyst I've read) would be expecting. So I do believe it is likely that Nokia did find itself with a lot less cash than it would like.

P.P.S:
The deal is not yet finalized. And taking in to consideration it is a HUGE, & FREE advertisement for brand-names of both companies, I would not be surprised if the deal gets canceled(after a good hike in the phones sales in Q3 2013).

Seems more likely that Nokia's executives were offered a whole lot of money by Microsoft and suddenly decided that Nokia's future was less important than those money. If everyone else (that didn't already suck) can make a lot of money by selling Android phones, surely Nokia could do so too. I don't think their earlier success was just random luck.

Turns out though that there's really only two handset makers that actually make a significant amount of money off android phones. That being Samsung and Microsoft (go figure).

Which is an incredibly small portion of the over all phone market. 20% of 0.1% is not a lot

Mostly licensing dodgy software patents.

That's not likely. The user base is really small still.

If that were a viable business model, people would have already done so.

It's well over 1%. And it has about doubled over the latest 12 months, with growth rate accelerating. In a still rapidly growing market.

Essentially over the past 12 months Lumia gained market share in an ecosystem that is gaining market share in a growing mobile phone market.

On this chart you can see the actual growth rate. The Q3 2012 is when they actually started to make phones which are worthy to buy, on an appropriate OS(the Windows Phone 7.X is shit).

I see no reason for the latest trend to slowdown or whatsoever. The phones are good, and the only reason I didn't buy a Lumia at my latest upgrade was lack of apps, still. But the disadvantage is getting smaller & smaller. All big apps are generally available, however I needed Oanda's trading platform hence I went for an android.

You're right, but the data is correct. I held NOK shares for almost a year, and yes official NOK reports were these. I assure you the next one is not going to disappoint. I'd be say.. 3:1, Q3 growth is over 25%. There are speculations if it is to reach 10m. If so current deal is likely to be reassessed.

Ooh, and.. There is another thing. Perhaps NOK doesn't plan to sell anything at all. Just free marketing never harms..