Nokia seeks MS partnership to battle Google, Apple

Following this morning’s posting of the ‘burning platform’ memo, Nokia Chief Executive Officer Stephen Elop is said to have held talks with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer about putting Microsoft’s WP7 mobile operating system on Nokia phones.

According to a Bloomberg report, Nokia “is close” to announcing the software partnership. Both companies are currently losing the mobile battle against Apple and Google.

Elop is also reported to have held talks with Google head Eric Schmidt about using Android software.

Nokia is expected to unveil a new strategy for the company at an event in the UK later today.

Analysts aren’t hopeful of Nokia’s chances of staging a winning comeback this late in the day though.

“Very few companies regain their leadership once they’ve lost it,” an analyst told Bloomberg. “It’s a very difficult thing to do because their demise tends to originate from a combination of problems rather than one or two issues.”

You can read Elop’s frank and candid thoughts on Nokia’s future here.