There might be a chance for Nokia in the agreement with Microsoft.

I read all the news today (12 Feb 2011) related to the newly signed deal between Nokia and Microsoft.

Nokia could have done it by themselves. They did not need Microsoft. But nobody showed them how nor they asked for help. Below is my opinion on how.

Back in the days, I was an avid user of Nokia 6600, then 6680, etc (S60v2). If my memory serves correctly, there were 1 or 2 viruses around that could mess up the phones by replacing all icons on the software / change fonts etc. And what did Nokia do to fix this issue ? Force all the good developers to pay for certificates / third party approvals – and thus to filter out the bad guys. What ?

And because back in the days there were no real competitors to which the programmers to turn to, maybe some were courageous enough to get entangled in contracts, payments for app reviews, certificates, publisher IDs that had to be renewed each year, and so on.

HOWEVER.

When the moment came and alternatives appeared (iOS/Android), everybody flew there leaving Nokia to sign today’s deal …

There might be a chance for Nokia / WP7 to turn out good for both, but please somebody tell them not to start again with the certificate stuff, and really fix their problems instead of forcing others to pay for that.

If I’d be a big manager at Nokia, that’s what I’d do.