Nokia raising curtain on Windows Phone 7 devices next week

If you're thinking about buying a Windows Phone soon, you might want to wait and see what Nokia has in store next week.

The Finnish phone maker plans to reveal its first batch of Windows Phones at the Nokia World event, which begins Oct. 26, according to Andy Lees, Microsoft's Windows Phone boss.

"Nokia will announce its rollout plans with Windows Phone, among other things," Lees said at the Asia D conference. According to Engadget, Lees suggested that Nokia will introduce multiple Windows Phones, and said the company "will have differentiating hardware and software."

Nokia and Microsoft announced a major partnership in February that will see Nokia putting the bulk of its smartphone efforts into Windows Phone. The company has promised to launch some handsets in 2011, but has yet to reveal any hardware.

In June, a leaked video showed Nokia CEO Stephen Elop demonstrating a Windows Phone codenamed Sea Ray to employees. The prototype is similar to Nokia's N9, a MeeGo-based handset with a 3.9-inch touch screen, an 8-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics and polycarbonate build materials. The Windows Phone version may be called the Nokia 800, PocketNow reported, and may have a 3.7-inch display.

But the way in which Nokia will differentiate its hardware and software from other Windows Phones remains unclear, and rumors on other Windows Phones are still pretty shaky. Nokia should have a lot to talk about next week.

Microsoft's Andy Lees also had this to say about Nokia, according to Engadget:

"It made an evaluation early on, and saw our roadmap for this year and next year, and it decided to bet the whole company on Windows Phone based on that. We've seen that other hardware makers have seen this occurrence as an accelerant, which in turn helps both Microsoft and Nokia. I'm also excited about naming some new OEMs that will be coming onboard [with WP7]."

Sounds like more phone makers are interested in doing more with Microsoft's mobile operating system. Microsoft's patent threats against Android phone makers probably helped.

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