i guess, this actually was "plan B"...

Nokia are non-exclusively licensing their patents to Microsoft. They retain ownership.

NOKIA became a necessity as the largest producer of WP devices. MS strategy is to get into mobile space by all means possible, they had to buy NOKIA so that they could control it. I wouldnt be surprised if they Blackberry too.

On the other hand, I suspect that good people will leave. Marko Antisaari is departing in November. That is a blow.

I really, really hope that this means that Nokia starts to license their best tech to everyone interested. Pureview cameras and native Here Maps also on non-WP phones, I would like that.

Next generation Sailfish phone with Pureview Pro and Qt Here Maps

Lumiaman is single-handedly redeeming himself in this post enough for me to consider removing him from my ignore list.

I agree with his point, I'd like see more focus about the several years pre-Elop where Nokia struggled to get traction with smart phones. I feel like this is when the battle was really lost, and I was as critical of Elop as anyone.

Sentimentalism aside for the lost Devices and Services arm of the business, Nokia got paid nicely to partner, got MSFT to bite on acquisition, got to unload that struggling part of the business, got out from beneath Microsoft's thumb (Elop) without losing much (naming rights for a few years?), retained their patents (without an exclusive license to MSFT?) AND retained the other core parts of the business.

As much frustration as I've had towards Nokia over the years, I think they made a great move to solve the struggling smartphone vendor issue (tho love my N9 til this day) and they used Elop/MSFT to do it (worst case in that scenario was Windows actually was successful, however unlikely).

Though I will say if they want to get back in the devices game, I don't know how I would feel if they tried to acquire Jolla, considering what the BOD chartered during the Nxxx days, but if that happened, maybe they could focus on it more and not have to worry about what to do with Symbian etc. I'd prefer Jolla to stay independent for the time being.

They already made the map applications for iOS and Android if i'm not mistaken, so could happen.

Why wouldn't they license to anybody that is interested?

I have not used those myself but my friends told me that both versions suck (no ofline mode etc.). I am not certain but I suppose that those versions are just a frontend for their web service for Here.

However, N9 Maps should be quite straightforward to port for example to Sailfish...

I don't know the specifics about the contract. What does Nokia really keep? What is theirs to license to other companies? Is it even possible to license something like Pureview (who can manufacture a Pureview camera module?) which is a complicated technology?

Now of course I cannot be absolutely sure but based on what I know about Nokia MoO the camera module is specified by Nokia but made by some subcontracting plant in China.
Nothing special there, nothing complicated, it's just a camera module.

There are some clever algorthms used in the image processing though, and those can propably be licensed to 3rd parties.

So far for the new European camera brand that Nokia could become.

Leica's and Hasselblad are way beyond me reach and I think Nokia could make some nice compact network enabled camera's together with Zeiss and their software pattents.

Ground Nikon and the likes are only beginning to explore is now given to MS to do with as they please (usually just destroy) ?

Microsoft, as the part of strategy, may acquire remaining parts of Nokia i.e patents, name or other services from time to time...