Elop is right that there is now one horse less in race (Nokia).
However, I could 4-5 remaining horses, all more market share than WM7:

- Android (Linux-based)
- Apple iOS
- RIM
- WebOS (Linux-based)
- Bada (Samsung-own, besides WM7 and Android phones from S.)

hoops ... yes, good old WM.

Guess the Nokia CEO did a good deal with his big bunch of MS stocks. Ok, he will buy Nokia stocks NOW.

That 3 horse race marginalizes RIM and WebOS and improves the positioning of WP7.

Only, if all Symbian / Maemo customers (now) will buy WP7.
Other calculation: they will distribute according market shares of OS, not changing relations between the 4-5 horses and leaving WP7 as horse 6.

WebOS and Android are closer to Maemo/Symbian than good old Windows Mobile is.

Nokia + Microsoft = racing on a 3-legged horse!

iOS is also linux based.... just for the record

Actually BSD - the Unix clone before Linux. But close enough.

The big benefit here is that the number of people who buy Symbian/Maemo for the sake of Symbian/Maemo is probably miniscule compared to the number of people who need a new phone and think "Nokias are good, sure, I'll get one of those."

As much as we may hate the thought, Microsoft is about to leap over the others thanks to tying themselves to a high-market share company.

Nokia are a default good choice for someone who doesn't know much about phones. That will continue.

I´m starting to think that might Elop and Board of dir. underestimate how highly appreciated open systems currently are in Europe and what kind of momentum is behind them. Some nations have changed their office system to open office and schools have started to use linux based OSs. Companies are making analyzes on how they could cut their license fees to proprietary software companies. I agree that it´s hard to measure these things and I might be completely wrong about this.

Just some links:
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/0...70324F20110104
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenOff...#Notable_users
Also one big player is that:
"In January 2011, Russia President Vladimir Putin signed a government order that forces Russian Authorities to use free and/or open source software. This will mean Microsoft Office will no longer be used as a key office suite and it is speculated that OpenOffice.org may be its replacement by 2015."

Here's an interesting take: Nokia needs plastic surgery not a brain transplant