It has been reported on Venturebeat that Nokia may be considering Windows Phone 7 as a platform for its future smartphones.
Despite the upcoming release of Symbian 3^ on its promising N8 handset it still seems that it might not be quite enough for them to compete with the other OS big boys out there.
Nokia has also joined forces with Intel to develop the MeeGo mobile platform which has yet to appear on any handsets and doesn't show any signs of becoming a serious competitor.
If they were to make a Windows Phone 7 handset they would need to beef up the internal hardware, one area in which the N8 lacks. The 600MHz processor it features may just not be enough to cut it in the current smartphone/OS wars, so a more powerful option would be a necessity.
Nokia has seen a sharp decline in its company value since the release of the iPhone in 2007 and depending on how well the N8 does the move to Windows Phone 7 might be a strategically wise move.
Microsoft's mobile platform currently has five launch partners; HTC, Samsung, LG, Acer and Dell and is a significant improvement over the previous WinMo OS. With an app store which could potentially rival Apple's and Android's if the number of developers who have already downloaded the SDK is anything to go by, not to mention Xbox LIVE integration, then it would give Nokia the full smartphone experience on their handsets which the Ovi Store just can't compete with.