Once upon a time, Nokia (NOK) was the world’s leading manufacturer of mobile phones, with a 41% share of the market. Following the rise of Apple‘s (AAPL) iPhone and its own slow reaction to the shift in the consumer device landscape, it has since fallen on challenging times.

Today, Nokia is second behind Samsung (SSNLF.PK) in Mobile Phone sales with a market share of 19.1% — less than half its peak market share.

To stem the tide of its losses, Nokia brought in a former Microsoft executive, Stephen Elop, who promptly revised Nokia’s smartphone strategy by paving the way for the eventual retirement of its venerable Symbian platform, shifted its promising yet fledgling Meego program to R&D and, most importantly, steered Nokia into a strategic alliance with Microsoft.

Unfortunately, for all the hype that surrounded Nokia’s decision to build its smartphone strategy around Microsoft‘s (MSFT) Windows Phone platform, early returns have so far been tepid.

To make matters worse, Nokia’s heavily touted Lumia 900 handset, carried exclusively in the U.S. Market by AT&T (T), has seen mixed reviews. Consequently, Nokia continues to see itself playing catch-up to Apple, whose iPhone leads in customer-satisfaction indices and are now carried by an increasing number of U.S. regional carriers.

Yet, despite appearances the strategy to shift to Windows Phone may have already started paying dividends, with the platform now enjoying between 3% to 6% shares in developed markets – apparently due to Nokia’s decision to develop handsets for it.To continue reading, click here.