This saga between Microsoft, Nokia, Elop and Ballmer reeks of the foulest deal making and corporate strategy. First of all, I can only comment on the deal i think occurred since I unfortunately, like you all, don't have any of the important details of this deal.
Nonetheless, I can't really understand what exactly was going through Elop's head when he made that deal with Microsoft. How, as a CEO, can you make such a move? The guy cornered himself, or gets cornered (or persuaded even) to only make phones for the least popular OS on the mobile phone market (maybe not the least popular, but certainly not the leading), which not only is a strategically weak situation with no maneuvering, but ensures that you're company is going to lose.
Microsoft has shown this year that it doesn't care, it's part of the deal is open, it can get any OEM to make phones for it's platform, but, Nokia cannot!!! Does this make sens to you? Not in the least bit!
Then when all fails. And it has failed. When the company is losing money like crazy, he can't jump ship and make phone that consumers want i.e. Android phones. Why is this, is he prohibited by the deal, or is he riding it out to see what happens? It has to be the first former.
How can a person, who pretty much commits business suicide, continue to lead this company? Where is the board on this? Why aren't people resigning or getting fired?
This is even more dire for Nokia as they don't make tablets or laptops, as opposed to Asus, Samsung and Sony. So they can't leverage the conditions of their deal throughout a product line.
So as a consumer I don't particularly care much for Nokia proper, although it is a shame that they suck at business because they're really good at making actually products. This being said, consumers are losing choice and competition, me included, and despite this I hope that the market SEVERELY punishes Elop and Nokia for their awful decisions (and, it is).