Software giant Microsoft has started a discussion with Nokia last week about plans to have the handset maker add Windows Mobile-powered devices to its portfolio. Practically all Nokia phones currently run the Symbian operating system and such a move would be a major change for the industry leader. At the moment Windows Mobile currently only has just over 6% of the smartphone operating system market compared to more than 70% for Symbian. However, it is gaining acceptance among smartphone manufacturers such as HTC and Samsung that have released Windows Mobile based handsets offering similar features to the Apple iPhone which runs a mobile version of Mac OS X.

Now it is too early to say that Nokia will be making Windows Mobile phones any time soon but keep in mind that Nokia internally was running Windows CE (with use of Platform Builder tool) on some of their phones - for testing purposes, and secondly: such move would be wise particularly in the huge American market, where Symbian is not particularly popular, but Nokia phones powered by Windows Mobile would certainly sell there well.

I hope that more news on this issues will emerge soon.