Stephen Elop on Apple,Android and of course Windows Phone

In keynote at the Open Mobile Summit in London recently, Nokia CEO Stephen Elop again dismissed the Nokia sale rumors that they are baseless and repeating the fact that Nokia is not for sale. Also he is confident that Nokia will be a strong third player in Mobile with its primary focus on Windows Phone and operator friendly nature. He added that Apple is the reason behind Android’s growth,

“Apple created Android, or at least it created the conditions necessary to create Apple. People decided they could not play in the Apple way, and they had to do something else. Then Google stepped in there and created Android… and others jumped on the Android train.”

Why Windows Phone 7 has not done very well so far. Windows Phone scores better than Android and iPhone with consumers, but OEMs are doing their best work for Android. For Nokia our best work will be for Windows Phone. You will see waves of families of devices that deliver on the promise of Windows Phone 7.”

On the priority ahead for courting mobile operators and developers: “Apple has a [eyebrows raised] certain relationship with operators. Google is feared by operators because of the revenue opportunity. Our strategy is to be as friendly to the operators as possible.” Later, he says part of that will include helping operators create local, customized apps to take advantage of local services on offer. And he said that many want to take advantage of wireline infrastrucutre, in their data schemes using technology like RCSe. “We are very focused on working.” Obviously, the issue of carrier billing for apps will also be key. He claimed that developers that implement carrier billing get 60 percent better revenues from their apps than those who don’t.

Read the full transcript of his speech at moconews.net. Another Nokia related news is that Nokia CTO Rich Green is leaving the company for his personal/medical reasons, but there are reports that Nokia’s MeeGo issue is the reason behind the former Sun Miscrosystems employee’s departure from the company.