'Burning' Nokia to make Microsoft deal Friday

Conspiracy theorists, start your engines.

Nokia has cancelled its first MeeGo smartphone, the N9-00, before launch according to a Reuters report, which cites a leaked memo from chief executive Stephen Elop. 

"Our platform is burning," Mr Elop told employees in the memo. The comment was widely seen as an oblique reference to Nokia's Symbian software platform, and its various versions' failure to staunch market share losses.

The Nokia boss compared his company to a man standing on a burning oil platform who jumps into icy waters to escape the flames, Mr. Elop said dramatic action is needed to reverse a decline that has left Nokia "years behind" the competition.

"It will be a huge effort to transform our company," Mr Elop wrote.

Microsoft deal Friday
To The Wall Street Journal, the move was clearly a precursor to a move to support Microsoft's Windows 7 Mobile or Google's Android software. Some kind of formal deal with Microsoft is likely to be announced Friday (US time), the Journal said. A software alliance would complement rather than replace Symbian, the Journal reported.

Meego, developed in partnership with Intel, was designed to be deployed on next-generation mobile devices.

It was seen as part of a push to regain the initiative at the smartphone/smart device end of the market, where the Finnish phone giant has been bleeding market share to Apple's iPhone, Google Android-based handsets and RIM's BlackBerry.

Mr Elop arrived at Nokia from Microsoft last September.

The move stoked speculation that Nokia might move some high-end phones from its Symbian platform to Windows Phone 7 software. But so far the company has yet to support Microsoft's latest mobile initiative.

Some pundits are picking a move to support Google's Android OS.

With the likes of HTC, LG, Motorola, Samsung and Sony Ericsson moving some or all of their smartpone models to Android, the Finnish phone company (still the world's largest handset maker) is a conspicuous hold out.

Yet Nokia has a lot of baggage around its own software, and its latest hero smartphone, the N8 (recently launched in New Zealand), runs on Symbain 3; a parallel initiative to MeeGo.

Mr Elop's memo said that Nokia is now likely to produce "only one" MeeGo device this year.

A prototype is expected to be displayed later this week at the World Mobile Congress in Barcelona.

Ironically, Nokia competitor LG looks set to release a MeeGo phone, using the software under license – at least according to an Engadget report.