Microsoft has revealed that Nokia will announce its first Windows Phone handsets next week, though the exact date remains a mystery. Long speculated about, these first Nokia phones (only one is confirmed, but we’re fairly sure there will be at least 2) will be Nokia’s first major play to return to the U.S. market in some time. The company used to have a decent relationship with AT&T when flip phones dominated the market, and made a bit of headway with the T-Mobile Astound earlier this year, but has been largely absent from the United States for a couple years.
“We are very excited about them (Nokia) being in the market,” Andy Lees told the All Things Digital AsiaD technology conference in Hong Kong, reports the AFP. “They have a lot of resources throughout the world and they will be a major accelerant to us.”
Why might these Nokia phones be exciting? Well, the company’s survival depends on their success. There’s nothing like being backed into a wall to get a company to rethink its priorities. One of the Nokia phones is codenamed “Sea Ray” and is said to look like the Nokia N9. A mockup of how it might look is above.
Because Nokia and Microsoft have a “special relationship” back-ended by a multibillion dollar contract between them, we’re expecting some cool devices and software from the Nokia announcement.
