“Sea Ray” Bringing Microsoft and Nokia Back to the Surface

Microsoft has gotten the short end of the publicity stick for a long time.  Ever since Apple started its comeback, Microsoft’s appeal has dwindled—a trend only precipitated by the Windows Vista and other similar disasters.  Even when Microsoft released the Windows Phone in a last ditch effort to join the smartphone race they weren’t given much credit for their hard work.

At the same time, you are probably getting tired of the same old features and style offered by both Apple and Android’s mobile operating systems. Then, earlier this year Nokia, the Finnish mobile phone developer and manufacturer, partners with Microsoft, and the whole game could be changing.

Nokia made some bold statements about the partnership that has generated a lot of buzz around the future of the smartphone race, and people are starting to recognize Microsoft again.  The partnership could represent the ascent back to popularity for both Nokia and Microsoft, who have fallen on hard times.

The exciting news is the release of the new Nokia smartphone, the Nokia 800 (codename “Sea Ray”).  Yesterday Nokia announced that the Sea Ray is scheduled to be released in India sometime during the first quarter of next year, which means that the American release is not far behind. In the past month, there have been two or three (intentionally?) leaked videos of the new device, which will run on the Windows Phone 7.5 OS, and which have generated a lot of buzz and excitement around the partnership.

A decade ago, both Microsoft and Nokia were giants in their respective fields.  This partnership, with all the software, hardware, app, developer, and mobile carrier benefits it gives to both companies, could be the thing that brings them back into the fight. And, best of all, if you are fed up with the hype over Apple and Android, there are some truly excellent developments within Nokia and Microsoft both that could provide a very attractive alternative to the two (in my opinion, over-rated and inflated) mobile OS providers.

The companies are working in close quarters with one another to produce seamless  and outstanding user-experience, and are also working extra hard against common conception and an over-saturated market, which means that what they release will have to far out-perform the competition.

And if recent talk is any indication of their success, I think we can expect an amazing line of devices as soon as mid-2012 from Microsoft and Nokia that might just disrupt the calm waters of the smartphone