Nokia making this decision much late in the game clearly knows that Microsoft also came late to the game. It needs MS as much as MS needs Nokia. Together with huge marketing muscle of MS, they can surely make something out of the partnership.
App-less, you are nothing in this product segment.
Besides, their Mac support is not that great, no support for syncing calendars. This is not 90'ies anymore, you need Mac support at this time to get the teenagers and cool people to use your product.
All I use on my Android phone is e-mail, maps, the browser, and general phone stuff - honestly, I would trade the entire app store for a little more reliability and a better touch screen.
Being able to sync contacts / calendar back and forth to my Google Apps account is priceless.
Android does the gmail / google calendar sync fine. If there's one thing Android has never messed up, it's that. My Android phone messes enough stuff up often enough that I do wish I had an iPhone instead.
My wife has an LG Optimus One (e.g. cheap Android). It's really nice for the price paid, but she has had problems with it.
I tried to say that the iPhone provides the best experience (out of the box at least), and if you want an Android, you should check out the ratings on that product because quality varies.
I'm skeptical, but hopefully Nokia will give them enough exposure and allow people to actually get their hands on a WP7 phone.
But, yes, I would love to own an iPhone on Verizon.
Windows Phone is now a lot better
Thing is, Android / iOS cover pretty much every need of the smartphone market right now. The iPhone a well made, high-end, kick ass, user-friendly and kind of expensive product with tons of third-party support available.
Android on the other hand is already selling big on cheaper phones, and although it is so popular and all the tools you'll ever need are open-source and well-made, still it doesn't have so many quality apps like iOS. But it's getting there.
This is not like the XBox versus the PS3. PS3 took a long time to market and was considerably more expensive (it has been gaining significant ground btw).
This is also not like Windows versus Mac OS or OS/2. At that time Windows was the cheaper and the more versatile one.
It is also not like IExplorer versus Netscape. Microsoft doesn't have much leverage on this industry, besides a handful of patents. And phone makers aren't stupid. They've been burnt already by mobile operators.
This is too bad actually. My first mobile phone was a Nokia 3310, which I loved. Now the brand is dying.