Microsoft-Nokia Deal Doesn't Guarantee a Spike in Smartphone Market Share

While two major research firms predict that the February deal struck between Microsoft Corporation (Nasdaq: MSFT ) and Nokia Corporation (NYSE ADR: NOK ) will result in a huge jump in smartphone market share for Windows Phone, such gains won't come easily - if at all. The two companies announced on Feb. 11 that they would jointly enter the mobile smartphone market - in what some might call a "shotgun marriage" - with Nokia making the hardware and Microsoft proving the operating system (OS). Each company has lost significant market share over the past few years, starting with the debut of Apple Inc.'s (Nasdaq: AAPL ) iPhone in 2007. When Google Inc.'s (Nasdaq: GOOG ) Android landed the next year, its meteoric rise created a crisis for both Nokia's Symbian and Microsoft's Windows Mobile operating systems.