Nokia and Microsoft have signed their partnership agreement today. The planned partnership was first announced in February.
The two companies say they’ve made “significant progress” on the development of the first Nokia products incorporating the Windows Phone platform. Nokia has also started porting key applications and services to operate on Windows Phone.
As part of the agreement, Nokia’s mapping and navigation services will be used on the Windows Phone ecosystem, while Microsoft will provide Bing search services across the Nokia device portfolio. In addition, there’ll be a new Nokia-branded application store for Windows Phone, Symbian and Series 40 devices.
Microsoft will receive royalties from Nokia for using the Windows Phone platform, while Nokia will receive “payments measured in the billions of dollars” to recognise its contribution to the partnership.
Stephen Elop, President and CEO of Nokia Corporation, said “At the highest level, we have entered into a win-win partnership. It is the complementary nature of our assets, and the overall competitiveness of that combined offering, that is the foundation of our relationship.”
The first significant shipments of jointly developed mobile devices are expected next year.