Stephen Elop (Chief Executive of Nokia) announced yesterday that he hopes to see the first Nokia Windows Phone 7 Devices in the marketplace for the beginning of 2012. The question is whether or not it’s worth waiting for them or not.

In short, I think the answer is no (assuming you’re in the position where you can upgrade today anyway). Although currently slated for release early 2012 there is huge potential for delay. Nokia are waiting for the Mango update of Windows Phone 7 to go live (the one with multi-tasking) as the aren’t interested in the software in its current form. If the delayed NoDo update is anything to go by there’s a good chance that the same could happen to Mango, making that wait for a Nokia WP7 device even longer.

Add to this the fact that no details have been announced about which countries will get the phones first, or which carriers will have them and I wouldn’t mind betting that you could be waiting over a year to get your hands on one. If you were to get an 18month contract now you’ll almost be ready for a refresh by then, and will have had the benefit of a new phone in the mean time.

Now don’t get me wrong, if the black phone shown above was on the market today I’d be all over it, it looks fantastic and I’ve always loved Nokia hardware. The thing is it’s not, and in my opinion there’s no point in buying any technology if you’re always worried about whether it will ever be succeeded by anything better.

I’m sure there’s an uncountable amount of reasons why not, but I’d much rather Nokia had waited until they had something ready before they announced this switch. How amazing would it have been if when the two Steves announced this it was followed up with “and they’ll be in your local shops in 3 weeks time”. Sounds like the sort of approach another Steve likes to take and it seems to work rather well…

Do you agree or do you think I’ve got hold of the wrong end of the stick? Let me know what you think in the comments below.

[Source – Reuters