Report: Nokia eyeing Microsoft's phone OS

Microsoft and Nokia are said to be working together on bringing to market Nokia-made smartphones that run Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 operating system.

The report, which is the second such rumor in the past three months, comes from Eldar Murtazin--editor in chief of Moscow-based Mobile-Review.com, who some of you might remember making headlines earlier this year for a review of Nokia's N8 long before the device ever came out. This was followed shortly thereafter by Nokia reportedly going to the Russian police to get the prototype unit back.

Murtazin's post, which was picked up earlier this morning by blog Unwired View, goes into some detail about Nokia's new management (which includes former Microsoft Business Division President Stephen Elop as CEO) initiating discussions with Microsoft about creating a Nokia-made device that will blend technologies from both companies--specifically Microsoft's recently released Windows Phone OS running on Nokia's hardware.

Murtazin says the move (roughly translated) is desperate--especially for Nokia, which he compares to a diving plane with pilots who don't know what to do.

This would not be the first time rumors of Microsoft and Nokia discussing a phone collaboration have cropped up. In September, VentureBeat had a report from several sources saying that Nokia was planning to use Windows Phone 7 as "an additional platform," for its phones. This was refuted by Nokia a day later.

At the same time, these rumors do not exactly jibe with the company's talk of continuing to use Symbian and up-and-coming mobile OS MeeGo. Earlier this month, Nokia Vice President of Eseries Ilari Nurmi told ZDNet UK that the company would stick with Symbian for use on its business phone platform as a "primary"--that's even after MeeGo OS begins its mainstream roll-out in 2011.

"It's very important to note that Symbian is the primary platform today and will also be the primary platform in the future," Nurmi said in that interview.