Microsoft and Nokia: Could there be another big takeover?

With the recent acquisition of Motorola by Google, the Android sphere has strengthened its case against potential lawsuits from companies like Apple and Microsoft.

Android smartphone manufacturers have a sense of security after the acquisition due to the fact that Motorola holds a bundle of patents (17,000 to be precise).

Microsoft shortly after the acquisition mentioned in a statement that the company aims to provide equal opportunities to all its partners, which isn’t actually true if we think about it. But speaking of acquisitions, there has been talks surrounding about a potential takeover of Nokia by Microsoft.

Well, Microsoft has invested a fortune on Nokia for the development of the Windows Phone platform under the Finnish company’s brand name. Microsoft is known to be very strict with the limitations for WP7 handsets, but there will be some exceptions seen with future Nokia smartphones.

The exclusion of Bing Maps in favour of Nokia Maps seems like a deal worked out between both the companies. And given the fact that Nokia’s current CEO, Stephen Elop has worked with Microsoft in the past, it wouldn’t be hard to speculate that a take over is possible in the future. Rumors in fact suggested that Microsoft could take over the smartphone manufacturer in 2012.

Nokia has already taken up WP7 as its primary operating system, leaving behind Symbian and to some extent MeeGo. This was not liked by many since Symbian has been one of the prominent mobile operating systems in the world before the likes of Android and iOS swooped in. But the Nokia-Microsoft tie up has sparked a lot of excitement among technology enthusiasts around the world.

The first Nokia Windows Phone was accidentally shown off by Elop in June, which put a rest on the rumors and speculations for once. Nokia has a bunch of other WP7 smartphones lined up for launch which could give us a clearer picture of how Nokia has worked with devs from Microsoft for the improvement of the platform. Windows Phone Mango only makes things better for Microsoft.

It will be interesting to see how things pan out for both the companies.