phone maker's annual analyst and press event, kicks off in London on October 26. Nokia usually uses the event to tout past successes, as well as reveal its plans for the coming year. Nokia has launched some of its biggest devices, such as the N97 and the N95, in years past.

smartphones. Windows Phone software is not made by Nokia, but by Microsoft. The phones Nokia plans to announce next week will be some of the first it has ever introduced that don't run on a Nokia-made operating system.

At the same time, Microsoft was just four months into the launch of Windows Phone 7, which was a complete re-write of its smartphone software. Despite the platform's visual appeal and robust feature set, it had not seen the initial success that Microsoft surely hoped it would be. CEO Steve Ballmer has said as much.

Microsoft had a few hardware partners signed up, but they were dipping their toes in slowly with a minimal number of handsets. Only five WP7 handset models were sold in the U.S., and they bore almost identical feature sets. Microsoft, which doesn't build its own smartphone hardware, needed to find an ally that would put its platform front and center. (HTC, LG, Samsung, and Dell all make Android-based smartphones in addition to their Windows Phone handsets.

This year, the company has more than ever riding on what it announces at Nokia World.