During a media event today, Nokia unveiled its first Windows Phone-powered mobile device.
But before the company’s CEO Stephen Elop revealed the phone, he asked everyone there to refrain from taking any pictures. It was strictly to be for the eyes of the invited media only.
Given how much hullabaloo there is surrounding Nokia’s deal with Microsoft, however, it’s not surprising that someone just had to covertly snap a couple shots.
Originally posted on the Hungarian blog Technet, the pictures reveal a phone that looks remarkably similar to the upcoming Nokia N9 handset, which is likely to be the first and last (that is, the only) phone powered by Meego – the mobile operating system that was to be Nokia’s last-ditch effort before signing up for Windows Phone 7.
A slick Gorilla Glass screen and an 8 MP camera including a Carl Zeiss lens are among the first known technical specs of the phone, which reportedly goes by the code name Sea Ray.
Of course, Nokia and Microsoft entered into a partnership earlier this year. In exchange for a huge wad of cash, Nokia agreed to abandon its decades-old Symbian operating system and start using Windows Phone 7 on all of its future phones.
Nokia has a huge, almost monopolistic presence in emerging parts of the world, and it employs some of the most heralded mobile phone designers and manufacturers on the planet. So the company is by no means irrelevant now, even though it has for the first time slipped to below the #1 position on the list of global mobile phone companies.
As expected, neither Nokia nor Microsoft has been willing to comment on when the first Windows Phone 7-powered Nokia handset will be shipped to stores, but it is noteworthy that means they haven’t officially ruled out a 2011 launch.
Here is Elop’s announcement:
