We're all hyped and excited about the upcoming Microkia partnership taking full swing and seeing Nokia CEO Steve Elop pleading with the audience at a preview demonstration of 'Sea Ray' to not release material to the media (we still haven't posted anything about it, Steve - we promise), it got our taste buds tingling at the sight of a Nokia WP7 handset.
However, it seems there's some slight confusion with Nokia and their release dates. To cut a long story short, Nokia have never led us to believe they would begin shipping numbers this year. 2012 was always the given date. The fall of 2011 (when Mango is being rolled out) was only ever a possibility for us to see a single Nokia handset available, which Steve explained in a video a few months back. So today, when they tweeted
"The first volume shipments for Nokia phone with Windows Phone OS are expected that start early next year."
...well, that's the same story they've been telling, no news there. Nokia's WP7 portfolio is to be in full swing next year, but as Steve mentions in the video linked above, the pressure is on not only the company, but also himself to push a device out this year at least. In an interview with Forbes, Jo Harlow, head of Smart Devices at Nokia, mentioned that they were indeed ahead of scheduele but no promise was evidentially made.
Who are we kidding anyway? This is only July, early July at that. We've just entered the summer holidays and have a good number of months to go until Mango along with the fall of 2011. Let's just see what Nokia has to say closer to the date for more accurate detail.
Could their first device come this year? Possibly, but don't be disappointed if it arrives early 2012. It's still going to be one incredible ride and Nokia know they need to hit the nail on the head to survive.
We hope that clears up a few things as we wouldn't want you all to get the wrong idea about anything, would we?
Source: GeekSailor, Twitter (Nokia)
