Today a ‘leak’ from Nokia turned up on the Web and showed details of Nokia’s first Windows phone. Judging by the professional quality of the video, it hardly feels like a leak. As so many others have guessed, the ‘leak’ was most likely the work of Nokia’s PR department. Apart from that, the phone (code named Sea Gate) looks quite impressive. I personally would love to try out the Office products on one of these phones. Many of the early users of Windows Phone 7 have reported good things about it. Although many people seem to write off the Windows-Nokia partnership, I think that Windows Phone will gain a decent share of the smart phone market.

The car market is flooded with many manufacturers and hundreds of models. One of the reasons for this is quite simple: people like choice and are attracted to different car models. Will the smart phone market also end up like the car market? In the US, cell phone carriers typically have a two year contract with every new phone purchase. And people tend to change their phones after that period. There is plenty of anecdotal evidence to suggest that people will try out different platforms while renewing their contract. To me this seems to suggest that there might be plenty of room for more than two dominant platforms.

Nokia-Microsoft might not get more than one chance at staking a claim on this market. It all depends on Nokia’s first Windows Phone 7 product.