Back in February of this year we reported on a Reuters story that quoted the CEO of ST-Ericsson (pictured above) as saying that the company is ready for Nokia whenever they want to make a Windows Phone. A few months later, in May, the CEO of STMicroelectronics told Forbes in an interview that Nokia will release a Windows Phone running on the ST-Ericsson U8500 chipset and that over the course of 2012 Nokia will release about 12 Windows Phones, each running on a more advanced version of the U8500. In July, when we interviewed Louis Tannyeres, Chief Chip Architect at ST-Ericsson, he even told us: “The NovaThor U85xx family will definitely support Window Phone.” So here we are, 9 months after we first started hearing about the Nokia, ST-Ericsson, Windows Phone ménage à trois, and it’s finally official. Here’s the sparse press release, published in full, from ST-Ericsson’s site:
NovaThor platform to enable Nokia to extend Windows Phone devices to new price points and geographies
Geneva, Switzerland, November 2, 2011 — Nokia has selected ST-Ericsson as a supplier for future devices it plans to introduce based on the Windows Phone mobile platform.
“We are pleased to have been selected by Nokia as a key partner for Windows smartphones, in line with our goal to be present in all segments and major operating systems,” said Gilles Delfassy, president and CEO of ST-Ericsson. “Our NovaThor platforms continue to gain traction as they enable customers to bring great smartphones to the market.”
This announcement is huge, not because Windows Phone will finally get dual core support, LTE, and all that jazz, but because this is confirmation that Qualcomm’s reign as the sole provider of system on chips for Windows Phones is now over. It’s not a coincidence that each and every Windows Phone on the market runs on Qualcomm designed silicon, that’s how Microsoft made the operating system.
Now it’s time for something different. Finally.