OEMs giving up on Nokia Windows Phone 7 handsets

Nokia have found themselves in a bit of a limbo. Aside from the fact that the company is going through a very rough financial patch, and that there are suspicions that the Lumia 900 isn’t selling quite as well as Nokia are hinting at, they are also in a rut over the Windows Phone fiasco.

After Microsoft announced last month that Windows Phone 7 won’t be upgradable to Windows Phone 8, Nokia remained resolute, saying that they’d continue supporting the soon-to-be-outdated OS while also pushing ahead with phones for the new one.

However, an anonymous Nokia employee has now suggested that the company are pretty much twiddling their thumbs waiting for WP 8 to come out, and are no longer committed to the OS that runs on their current flagship Lumia phones.

“Since current Nokia phones will only work on Windows 7, the OEMs have stopped supporting the phones. They are very close to stop manufacturing parts for the phones, with the anticipation that these phones will become entirely obsolete in three months. In the meantime, the new phones developed for Windows 8 are yet to start manufacturing. Without much funding budgeted for new product development, the whole company has been sitting somewhat idly waiting for business to start on with the release of Windows 8.”

This is a morbid outlook, with the only good news being that at least consumers won’t have to wait until mid-2013, as earlier suggested, to get a high-end, up-to-date Nokia Windows Phone.

It seems like a classic case of the Osborne effect is likely here, with sales of the Lumia 900 likely to suffer due to the fact that WP8 is coming out soon. At this moment in time, Nokia must be feeling a little like they’re dealing with the devil in the form of Microsoft.