Nokia Says Its First Windows Phone Really Might Debut This Fall

Nokia has released some guidance on how it expects to perform over the rest of this year, and the most interesting bit is a mention that the company is making good progress on releasing it first device running Microsoft's Windows Phone.

The statement says, "Nokia remains pleased with its progress on its Windows Phone strategy, and has increased confidence that the first Nokia product with Windows Phone will ship in the fourth quarter 2011."

This follows on a recent comment from CEO Stephen Elop, who said last month that a Q4 release for such a device was "possible".

The Clock Is Ticking
Nokia has been under tremendous pressure to get smartphones running Microsoft's mobile operating system on the market as quickly as possible ever since it announced in February it was dropping the Symbian OS on its high-end models. Originally, the company said its first device wouldn't be out until 2012, but it has since said that it might come earlier than they initially thought.

According to an unconfirmed report, Nokia is reportedly going to jump-start this process by making its first two Windows Phones be slightly modified versions of the existing Nokia N8 and X7, to models that debuted running the Symbian OS. These will supposedly be followed by four new smartphones next year.