Nokia looks to Europe operators alliances to drive WP8 new smartphone.

WorldWide Tech & Science. Francisco De Jesùs.

Nokia looks to Europe operators alliances to drive WP8 new smartphone.

Nokia is looking to work closely with a small group of operators for the launch of its first device powered by Windows Phone 8.

It was also suggested that the ailing device maker is set to offer its partner operators “a financial stake in the success of the range”, in order to provide an incentive to give devices as much sales and marketing support as possible.

According to the paper, Nokia has held talks with France Telecom about offering a smartphone through its Orange-branded businesses. This could also involve availability through Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile units, through the procurement joint venture of this company and France Telecom, the newspaper said.

It was also suggested that Nokia’s strategy “reflects recent success in the US, where it struck a similar sales agreement solely with AT&T”. However, it is not immediately clear how much of a success this has been – the operator has already cut the selling price of the flagship Lumia 900, and according to Nokia’s most recent results it only sold 600,000 devices across all of North America during the second quarter of 2012.

The proposed strategy contrasts with Nokia’s standard practice of making its devices available through the broadest possible sales channels.

According to reports last week, Microsoft's Windows Phone 8 platform may not make it to market until November,  which could put the smartphones running the new software into an extremely tough fight with Apple's next iPhone, thus making Nokia's job even tougher.