Nokia has done its best to keep the details of its debut Windows Phone handset(s) under wraps, despite the growing number of rumours zinging around the web over recent weeks.
We're now taking it as a certainty that the debut WinPho Nokia will be unveiled next week at Nokia World, but Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer of all people may just have confirmed that Nokia will be revealing more than one new face at the event.
Ever since Nokia announced its decision to team up with Microsoft and its Windows Phone OS back in February, we've been hearing the same consistent message: the first phone will go on sale before the end of the year.
Most people – ourselves included – took that to mean there would be a single debut offering shown off ahead of the holiday season. If we were lucky.
As the year has progressed Nokia boss Stephen Elop has insisted that everything is running perfectly on schedule, and it's got to the point that there will be an awful lot of angry people if there isn't a Windows Phone-powered Nokia unveiled at Nokia World next week.
But which handset will it actually be? The Sea ray? The 800? The Sabre? The Ace? Are they all different devices to begin with?
Well, Nokia fans – the answer could well be “all of the above”. Speaking at the Web 2 Summit in San Francisco, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer commented that he is really looking forward to seeing the “bunch of new devices running Windows Phone” set to touch down at Nokia World.
Now we're not sure what the exact definition of a “bunch” is in Ballmer-speak, but it's a safe bet that it's more than one. And given how important Nokia is to Windows Phone's future, there's just no way Ballmer would get his facts so obviously wrong this close to launch day.
The two-day Nokia World event takes place in London and kicks off on October 26 – exactly a week from today.
