Nokia CEO: "We're encouraging of HTC and Samsung and Microsoft to have devices in the market"

Nokia’s chief executive Stephen Elop bet the farm on Windows Phone as Nokia’s main and only smartphone platform in February 2011, and then this looked like a decision that was supposed to bring Microsoft out of its mobile gutter and establish it as the third smartphone platform.

Things didn’t quite turn that way. Nearly two years after its launch, Windows Phone is still suffocated by Android and Apple devices. What’s worse, we are continuously hearing rumors that Microsoft is not happy about it and is planning to release its own Surface phone in 2013. This move should probably worry Nokia, and for the first time today Elop admitted such a possibility, and weirdly enough welcomed it.

Here is his response to how Nokia would react to a potential Surface phone:

"It's certainly a stimulant to the ecosystem. We're encouraging of HTC and Samsung and Microsoft or whomever to have devices in the market and to be making whatever investments that helps spur the ecosystem on.”

Of course, that does not endorse the rumor for a Surface phone, but admits the possibility. And if the Surface phone follows the same logic as the Surface tablet, it would be that Microsoft is not happy with what its vendors are bringing to market. And this should worry Nokia, don’t you think?