During the World Mobile Congress in Barcelona, the biggest cellular phone event in the world, Nokia and Microsoft announced a new partnership that would bring the Windows Phone 7 operating system to Nokia devices.
After the announcement, there was both positive and negative feedback about the deal, including workers threatening to walk off the job site. There was word of another rumor about how much money exchanged hands for Nokia to switch, which was estimated in the billions of dollars.
The rumor started shortly after the press conference and the Q&A session on Sunday night. Nokia said that the deal would generate "billions, not millions" of dollars worth of revenue. This small quote quickly turned into Microsoft handing over billions of dollars to Nokia to get them to switch.
Engadget.com had a sit down with Nokia"s CEO Stephen Elop, who confirmed that the rumors were not true. Elop said that the partnership was a "very balanced relationship", which means very little cash or no money at all was involved in this partnership.
The deal between Nokia and Microsoft will phase out Symbian on future premium Nokia handsets, instead, loading new phones with the Windows Phone 7 operating system. Out of the partnership, Microsoft gets an expanded platform base, meaning more users, developers, and applications, while Nokia gets an operating system they couldn"t build themselves.