To be honest i'm getting quite sick of the hyperbole that this was all a Microsoft ploy to get Nokia when there's no evidence for that other than Elop used to work there. The article clearly states how Elop got to Nokia, that they head hunted him despite him just about to take another position. It was Elop who approached Microsoft, and he also approached Google. He openly said Google wouln't give Nokia the creative freedom it wants or deserves and in the meeting with MS he said Nokia want to be able to do things with and to the software. Reading the Business Week article really makes it clear Elop wants Nokia to succeed and succeed as a pioneering brand not just a profitable handset maker. I think he's a rich enough guy to not move across the world from his family just to do Ballmer's dirty work, especially as the collaboriation wasn't even Microsoft's idea.

Microsoft benefit here, probably more than Nokia in terms of profit - Nokia shift 24m smartphones a quarter and Microsoft sell what, none? All this crap about MS buying Nokia, when this partnership is the best of both - MS get Nokia's hardware and global presence without paying the overheads or salaries or coming up with the designs.

And this anti-Linux stuff, MS as a company may be, but Elop not only said that he told Nokia employees he wants them to get to work developing something that will change the mobile market and make Apple, Android and even the MS deal insignificant, he even took the interviewer around that section of the company to show current innovations like a phone that still works submerged in water.

Am I convinced WP7 is better than Symbian for this? No, but then i don't know how much actual software work Symbian needs to be easier to develop for. I am more confident and reassured that Elop is truly wanting Nokia to get back on its feet and not just sell it out, and am hugely relieved Elop fought for Nokia to add to WP7 software in its own way AND make it clear that Nokia will continue to strive forward with its own innovations.

Now, if the N9 is a part of that then the new patented technology we've been hearing about and 'our next sense' etc may actually be part of the future and not just another N900 situation.

We'll see as events unfold but i am pretty confident about the future consisting of WP7 being developed to be a competing OS with the missing features added, while the innovative power we want from Nokia is still being developed.

Nokia hasn't given up and Elop hasn't given up on Nokia. Reading that article, it does seem like he's giving the company the kick up the butt it desperately needed.

Not that that excuses his ballsing up the February conference though.