Nokia Has No Plan B If Windows Phone 7 Fails

Talk about putting all your eggs into one basket, it looks like in a rather bold move, Nokia has apparently no plan B should their strategy to partner up with Microsoft to product Windows Phone 7 devices fail. In an interview with CNBC:

Griffeth: Here’s the question I have, Mr. Elop. As you transition from the Symbian platform – the operating system you’ve had for so many years there – to the Windows operating system, you are already scaling back research and development. Trying to cut costs as you make this transition. But you’re making the transition to an operating system that’s been used for handsets for ten years and has failed to gain traction at this point against the likes of an Apple or Android. I guess my first question to is, you know what if it doesn’t gain traction? These new Windows phones that you’re going to bring to market later this year? You’re already abandoning Symbian for down the road? What’s Plan B if this doesn’t work?

Elop: Plan B is to make sure that Plan A is very successful. The critical ingredient for success are there, consumers are saying the Windows brand operating system is very good. Better in terms of their satisfaction than the competing platforms, but Microsoft hasn’t had a partner doing its best work for Windows Phone. That’s the commitment Nokia made through this processor. By bringing together our hardware, software and services assets with the strengths that Microsoft brings, we have a formula we believe will drive great success.

However with the announcement of Mango, it looks like the upgrade has been rather well received by many and carriers have started to pile on the number of Windows Phone 7 devices on their shelves, combined with Nokia’s reputation for producing quality hardware let’s hope that Nokia CEO Stephen Elop’s gamble pays off.