I’m actually surprised that Nokia got to show off as much as they did – although a close reading of the script will show that the four main elements demoed (the low-light PureView camera abilities, the PureMotion HD+ screen technology, the AR elements of Nokia’s location platform, and the adoption the Qi wireless charging system) could all be demonstrated without showing any elements directly relating to Windows Phone 8.

Arguably Nokia could have shown off a phone running Symbian, Meego, or even Android, and the bulk of the presentation would have been identical.

But Nokia was always going to have to accept the role as a junior partner when they paired up with Microsoft at the start of 2011, a position that Nokia is historically not used to. The launch of Windows Phone 8 will go at the speed Microsoft dictates. That means Nokia, Samsung, and HTC (who will presumably hold their ‘smartphone launch’ at their event on September 19th) will wait until Steve Ballmer says so. That’s good for Microsoft, but it leaves a rather hollow taste when a product launch can only show half of the product being launched.

Nokia had to announce at this point in time to stay in control of the story, a story which was almost derailed by a number of accurate leaks in the week before. Now they have a new product with no date when it will be available in the shops (it’s likely to be early November, eight weeks away). If nobody was going to buy a Nokia smartphone over the summer, they certainly aren’t going to buy one now, and the retail stores won’t push them because they don’t want the customer back in a few weeks demanding the new model as a free upgrade.

In a year when the Finnish smartphone company needs to retain as much sales momentum as possible, Microsoft’s decision to have a coordinated launch means Nokia are having to take an eight week break from making any money.