Nokia today quietly initiated sales of the Nokia N9 in the United States. The phone joins the PureView 808 as being a non-Windows Phone being slated for sales in the American market.
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factors may have driven Nokia’s about-face.

First, is difficulty in taming Windows Phone for some of the market demands. It has been all-but-confirmed by Nokia that the PureView 808′s high-resolution camera could not function properly with today’s Windows Phone platform. The instant-photo requirements of Windows Phone are very rigid, and 41 megapixel capacities likely require extreme resources from the handset. Only a real-time operating system like Symbian, now known as Nokia Belle, can handle such tasks currently.

In pressure from European customers, Nokia’s board pressured CEO Steven Elop to back down and commit to further development in Belle. The company now has charted out Belle devices for at least the next three years. Belle platform development is also being spearheaded by software consulting giant Accenture. Hundreds of Nokia-transferees would likely be terminated in a demise of Belle, a questionable move if Nokia is struggling financially with Windows Phone. As Nokia has said their “Plan B” is for “Plan A” (Windows Phone) to succeed. With MeeGo abandoned, and Belle discontinued, Nokia would be without a Plan C.

But what does any of that have to do with the Nokia N9 launching, now?

This week, Nokia strategically timed the announcement of a US-bound PureView 808 with the CTIA technology show. It’s not a mistake that the N9 is launching stateside a day after CTIA ended.

With Nokia now admitting it needs to sell non-Windows Phone devices in the United States, in order to have a fighting chance at breaking even with technological investments in PureView superphones, the N9 then becomes okay to sell. Microsoft is not worried about the N9 being a threat to Windows Phone anymore, as the platform is now merely a skunkworks project for Nokia.

In fact, a thriving N9 actually gives more woes for smaller competitors, as it fractures the Tizen and Open webOS marketplaces, trying to be rebooted by Intel/Samsung, and HP, respectively. Still, neither Tizen nor Open webOS are on the market today. Hence, the N9 may become a haven for those looking for a sustainable, open phone environment.
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