The point is that Microsoft would no longer need to license WP7 (and quite frankly, I doubt they really care about those licensing fees when ecosystem market sh

The point is that Microsoft would no longer need to license WP7 (and quite frankly, I doubt they really care about those licensing fees when ecosystem market share is a far bigger revenue source). Both companies are at a point where they're about to enter irrelevance in the mobile space (Nokia actually entered irrelevance as soon as the iPhone launched, but it took them a while to figure that out due to pride and thinking all that matters is how many widgets you ship -- they're about to hit the bottom of the abyss). The problem Microsoft has is that all the existing licensees don't care at all about their platform. Samsung, HTC and LG all have their hands in multiple pies, not willing to commit to any platform because they don't care about who wins, as long as they make money. They need someone to focus exclusively on WP7, delivering the best integrated experience the platform can offer. Nokia's not going to go exclusive unless Microsoft does too. There are issues on both sides though: * Nokia used to build great hardware. They need to start doing that again to convince Microsoft it's worth acquiring. * Microsoft needs to recognize that WP7 isn't going to go anywhere unless something major changes. The upcoming announcement might be a precursor to the above scenario.