There's lots of opportunity left in the phone market, there's no reason Microsoft and Nokia couldn't become big smartphone players again the way things are now.

The only thing that can help Nokia now is god

Don't mention "give away" consoles!  That's an inviation for thread maddness and a huge debabate about how only Sony or MS (but never both) use this practise unfairly despite the fact that both do it more or less equally.

A free console is a pretty nice sweetner though.

It's a fair practice Reasonable, yhe issue rather, is that when msft has to do this kind of thing, you quickly see that the sales would be close to nothing otherwise

With the phone becoming available in most European countries ( Nokia's biggest market) it is going to sell very well. Example: Here in Belgium WP7 isn't very known and advertised... Lumia becomes available: a 2min during spot on the big commercial tv posts, ads everywhere... Friends saying it is a sweet phone and they'd buy it. Windows phone is getting more and more known and sold here ( shops offering more wp7 phones). It is in markets like Belgium microsoft needs to sell well too and not only in the US because the smartphone market is booming everywhere. In countries where it stills doesn't dominate but is rising very fast they need a good position. A phone like the lumia can bring that to them

You know even less about business if you think that its 'laughable' for Microsoft to pay for a 'carrier' to push their mobile platform.

For one, Nokia as an OEM and not a carrier.

Secondly, Nokia is providing various services for the Windows phone ecosystem, such as Nokia maps and turn by turn GPS services which is being integrated in to Bing and will be available for all Windoes phone users. These services cost money.

Lastly, Microsoft is in complete control of the Windows Phone ecosystem and makes money on the OS license, app store, search, advertising exchange... It makes absolute business sense to give the largest phone OEM in the world financial compensation in order to have them push their ecosystem. If you find this strategy laughable, then you must be laughing at Sony for a decade now since they are selling hardware at a loss in order to make money on the games.

I have no issue with the practice at all - I just live in fear of what normally happens to threads were it becomes discussed!

You know more than Microsoft for sure, Xbox was also a failure and all you know my friend

As a WP7 users, I must say WP7 is an amazing OS. MS and Nokia, I will support you.

Lastly, Microsoft is in complete control of the Windows Phone ecosystem and makes money on the OS license, app store, search, advertising exchange..

     --Can you please link me a financial statement where Microsoft has many any money on any of their online (bing, ad revenue) or windows phone ventures? I and the market would like to know.  Of course I and the market know that microsoft lost $458 million dollars in their online services division last quarter, so what ever you write is not true.  Kin cost them a billion dollars, they overspent for skype (8 billion) and aQuant (6+ billion) now they are giving Nokia 1+billion (dont even know what the true amount is... undisclosed special access, development assistance, comarketing and social advertising) and nokia still cant give the phones away. $15b in 5 years and nothing to show for it. Overspending, underdelivering.

It makes absolute business sense to give the largest phone OEM in the world financial compensation in order to have them push their ecosystem

     --I dont see how its possible for there to be windows phone 7 on the the 90+ million dumbphones that nokia sold last quarter.  Their smartphone business only shipped 19.6 million smartphones in Q4 (and falling of course), how many of those are windows phones?  We dont know. Mr. Elop is too embarrased to publish the actual numbers and this will be the last year that Nokia will be the largest cell phone OEM as Samsung will easily pass them in 2012.

So all and all, Microsoft cant save Nokia and Nokia cant save Microsoft.  Nokia was a company that rested on their laurels and have been outclassed by both Americans and the Koreans and Microsoft is desperately trying to mimic the monopoly profits that Google and Apple enjoy in their respecitive business and is failing on both account.  They think they can buy their way to marketshare, its not working.  Thei NOK/MS relationship is going to put strains on Microsoft attempts to get more carriers and manufacturers on board and to retain them as those vendors are going to want similar terms that Nokia gets from Microsoft (Im sure ZTE is non too happy they have to pay $27 per a WP7 license when nokia gets a free ride), especially if they phones dont sell (and of course they are not,)

Dont know why you listed sony, they are not out begging for a billion dollar a year to keep their business afloat.