The first was Sailfish from Jolla, effectively an evolution of MeeGo running (at least currently) on Nokia developer hardware.
But so far, Windows Phone sales have been terrible, despite some pretty sexy, well-reviewed hardware from Nokia (a company more or less on life support right now).
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It has just 4% market share, and its closest hardware partner, Nokia, has 8.2% market share.
On the hardware front, Nokia and HTC have both gone for a colorful experience.
Instead of competing with four big hardware companies, Nokia may shortly have to compete with dozens of little ones.
In keeping with the trend of Nokia's other Lumia hardware, the 510 will arrive in five colors -- red, yellow, cyan, white and black.
To allow Nokia finally to shed its hardware skin, Mr Elop, a former senior executive at Microsoft, was brought in and apparently given what Mr Kallasvuo never had: carte blanche.
Nokia has a good eye for hardware colors and the Lumia 620 offers the most shades yet -- seven in total.
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Despite dropping the ball on the operating system front, Nokia is the king of cell phone hardware.
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Nokia needs to produce world-beating hardware designs that tempt buyers away from rival devices like the iPhone and Samsung's Android-powered Galaxy S3.
If anything, the Lumia 800's hardware risks being left behind as Nokia develops apps and platforms based on NFC, front-facing cameras and other (unknown) features that are likely being prepared for Windows 8 Apollo.
Where HP's work bringing webOS to new platforms and architecture could pay off, though, is in licensing webOS. Effective licensing ultimately requires supporting a broad range of hardware configurations, a burden that Nokia, for example, has pledged to help Microsoft with as the phone maker brings Windows Phone 7 to less costly hardware.
Working very closely with Nokia will provide Microsoft a more holistic software-hardware design platform and give Microsoft a fair chance to come up with a decent, iPad-level tablet.
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As part of a co-operation agreement with Nokia, Microsoft is using the Finnish company as its hardware-maker of reference.
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Microsoft sets parameters for all the hardware companies that utilize its operating system, including Nokia.
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Nokia really does look different now, and has coupled its hardware strength with an OS that is swimming in good design and UI principles.
Nokia pulled off the strong early UK showing largely via the unusual hardware design of the Lumia 800.
Microsoft, for one, has a far-reaching licensing deal with Nokia, and which seems unlikely to want to be in the handset hardware business.
Nokia's Lumia 800 is a sophisticated and capable smartphone that melds its hardware beautifully with the Windows Phone OS. Whether it's the best phone for you right now depends on certain factors.
Jolla, the Finnish start-up with a significant number of former Nokia employees, is behind the Sailfish OS, which is expected to launch on hardware during 2013.
Historically, Nokia has been defined as much (if not more) by its platforms than by its hardware, which lacks Samsung's capability for end-to-end in-house sourcing.
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Investors and industry watchers like the idea of change at the company, especially the idea of an outsider steeped in software expertise taking the helm, but did Nokia really want the world to know about this shakeup just before revealing a new lineup of software and hardware products?
So, here's the question: can Nokia become another Samsung, LG, or HTC, betting its hopes and dreams on its chops as a hardware manufacturer alone?
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No disaster like Nokia, Motorola and Research in Motion but nevertheless destined to sell at 10 times flattish earnings, just another electronics hardware operator.
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