Nokia’s Windows Phone Coming Q4 (Oct-Dec) 2011. Accenture staff to be retrained for Windows Phone after Symbian is phased out

Feb 11 annoucement bears fruit: Symbian Fan's Nightmare Before Christmas. Who's playing Jack?

I received an email from Timo Kämäräinen (from YLE Uutiset, cool). There’s an interview with Stephen Elop that took place this evening:

http://yle.fi/uutiset/news/2011/04/elop_finnish_rampd_remains_heart_and_soul_of_nokia_2546663.html

There’s the usual Nokia-Feb-11 stuff on why not going Android, yadada.

1) The (3000) people who have moved from Nokia Symbian to Accenture, will come back to be retrained to support Windows Phone

When asked whether the folks who moved to Symbian will lose their job when Symbian is phased out, Elop replies

“No indeed, the prospects are very good, because they will first help with Symbian and then go through an extensive retraining programme so they can support Windows Phone as well as other mobile activities around the world.”

When Symbian is phased out. Hmm…seems to sound like a definite goodbye there rather than “letting it run as long as it’s significantly profitable”.

2) When asked about Nokia Windows Phones, it seems even clearer that we’re gonna get one THIS YEAR. Not 2012. And it’ll be here in Q4.That’s any time between October and December. And once announced, it will be available to buy very close to announcement date; an action so difficult for Nokia to do. If it weren’t for this move, it may be likely that we could have announcements RIGHT NOW for the handset, like we did for the Nokia N8 that subsequently did not appear till about October in shops.

“The year 2012 is when we’ll see a portfolio of [Windows Phone] products shipping in volume. The pressure is on all of us, myself included, to have those first devices this year but we haven’t announced a specific date yet.

Our pattern now is to announce launch dates of products very close to availability. In the past, there have been longer lead times and that hasn’t always worked out. It is possible [that we’ll] see the first new phone in the last quarter of this year”

via yle.fi

Category: Nokia, Windows Phone