"In the long run, Nokia's contract with Microsoft -- to be Windows Phone system exclusive and in return to get funded from Microsoft -- makes it impossible to be a takeover target. Big players like Apple (AAPL) or Samsung will not purchase Nokia, because their bid will be deemed as anti-competitive. Small or new players such as Amazon (AMZN), Huawei, or ZTE, will not purchase Nokia, because they cannot easily get out of the exclusive contract with Microsoft. And they perhaps wouldn't want to have a confrontation with Microsoft either."
I knew the deal Nokia made with Microsoft was bad, but I didn't know it was that bad. Basically, they bet the company on Microsoft's ability to grow WP7, an OS which back then had 2% market share with no real chance of improvement (and so far it still hasn't shown it can do much better).
Having complete control over the development, able to allocate as many resources as you have towards improvement and complete knowledge as to how the product is coming along > hoping, praying, begging some 3rd party to do the same.
Microsoft cares greatly about the success of WP, however certainly not as much as Nokia does. Microsoft's always fought long battles to eventually succeed in new markets. They've been competing in mobile for what, 15-20 years (CE, PocketPC, win mo, wp, ??)?
"In the long run, Nokia's contract with Microsoft -- to be Windows Phone system exclusive and in return to get funded from Microsoft -- makes it impossible to be a takeover target. Big players like Apple (AAPL) or Samsung will not purchase Nokia, because their bid will be deemed as anti-competitive. Small or new players such as Amazon (AMZN), Huawei, or ZTE, will not purchase Nokia, because they cannot easily get out of the exclusive contract with Microsoft. And they perhaps wouldn't want to have a confrontation with Microsoft either."