February 11th represents a huge day for Microsoft and Nokia. Stephen Elop and Steve Ballmer announced a groundbreaking partnership that brings together Microsoft’s Windows Phone operating system, Nokia’s devices, and cloud services (maps, search, advertising, productivity, etc) to create a new ecosystem capable of competing with Apple, Google, and RIM. This is a significant step up from the previous August 2009 alliance Microsoft and Nokia penned to bring Microsoft Office to Symbian phones. Coincidently, Stephen Elop was on the Microsoft side at that time.

The combination will release 100+ million Nokia phones running a consistent operating system each year. This has huge potential for developers trying to bring their applications and services to market and we’re looking forward to the new devices from this partnership as soon as this year.

Lots of coverage on this but the main press releases are available here:

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2011/feb11/02-11partnership.mspx Microsoft’s press release on the Feb 11th partnership

http://www.nokia.com/press/press-releases/showpressrelease?newsid=1488007 Nokia’s press release