Nokia W7 and W8 tipped as first Windows Phone models
If you can accept what we're about to tell you as rumor, and nothing more, then we'd like to let you in on the latest scuttlebutt surrounding Nokia's first dip into the shallow Windows Phone waters. Eldar Murtazin, the eternal Nokia antagonist …
Context & Ripple Effects
The rumor arrives two months after Nokia and Microsoft confirmed their smartphone partnership, a move foreshadowed as far back as VentureBeat's September 2010 question about whether Nokia would build Windows phones at all. In its March 11 SEC filing, Nokia said the transition would take roughly two years — but it has yet to name a single device.
Murtazin is the source here, which matters for credibility: he has been called Nokia's 'eternal antagonist,' yet his track record on pre-launch Nokia hardware makes this the first concrete device claim attached to the partnership. Engadget's own February concept reveal showed what a Nokia Windows Phone might look like; W7 and W8 are the first candidate names.
First-order effects
- Nokia faces immediate pressure to confirm or deny specific hardware while it simultaneously negotiates the workforce reductions rumored alongside the partnership — messaging discipline on both fronts becomes critical.
Second-order effects
- Carriers and Symbian developers now have a concrete device timeline to plan against within Nokia's stated two-year transition window, forcing early decisions about whether to stock or build for the new line.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, Nokia shifts from owning its smartphone platform to being a tenant on Microsoft's — a structural change in how the world's largest phone maker competes against Apple's integrated cadence and Google's Android coalition.
The trend: Handset makers under platform pressure are trading proprietary operating systems for licensed ones, converting device roadmaps into partner-dependent schedules.