Windows Phone Thoughts: Nokia Loses Interest in CDMA; Helps Windows Mobile?

"Nokia announced today that it will not be forming the new CDMA device company with SANYO it preliminarily announced on February 14, 2006. Nokia decided not to pursue its earlier plan as it concluded the terms and conditions of the proposed partnership were not satisfactory and in the best interests of Nokia's long term success. In addition to an already financially prohibitive CDMA ecosystem in general, recent developments may indicate that the CDMA emerging markets business case is looking more challenging."

I've been meaning to post on this news for the last week, for an angle that I don't think others have thought about: the continued lack of Symbian devices on CDMA. I was looking forward to seeing more competition in the PDA phone/Smartphone market in the US, but it looks like Windows Mobile or PalmOS will remain the choice for about 50% of the population thanks to Nokia's about-face on the technology. CDMA adoption rates aside, there's a large userbase out there that uses the devices (myself included), and Windows Mobile's support of all the network protocols out there may be a factor in long-term adoption rates. And we're unlikely to ditch the service; Verizon has the lowest churn rate amongst carriers in the United States.