Of course losing Nokia as an independent manufacturer is sad. Not "Throw yourself off a cliff into a lake of razor blades" sad. More like "Dang, I wish my favorite Ice Cream shop hadn't discontinued my favorite flavor" sad.
-All manufacturing and supply lines remain as is for right now. Very few, if any, of the jobs assured by Nokia will be lost over the first year of becoming Microsoft.
-Our favorite OS is assured of great devices.
-The next 18 months of devices will still be all Nokia designed. It will take until at least fall of 2014 until MS-influenced hardware are even being designed.
lastly, let us not forget WHY this happened: Nokia was reaching the end of it's exclusive, 1 billion a year deal with MS. It had been so succesful, they were closing in on 90% of WP sales, driving a good 10% of app development, and were pushing sales of WP handsets in EVERY REGION they were being sold to new highs. Microsoft could not afford to lose this driving force. Buying the entire company was better then risking losing them. So, if Nokia was THAT successful:
WHY in the name of Steve Ballmer's uncanny resemblance to the Frankenstien's monster of "Putting on the Ritz" fame would MS mess with success??? Nokia's influence on the mobile arm of MS will be HUGE!! It will still be Nokia. Just Nokia in the position to kick all of WP to new heights.
Yes, I have come full circle on this. I have grown to love this purchase.