Apple's victory over Samsung opens door for Windows

During his closing remarks in the patent showdown that handed such a decisive victory to Apple against Samsung , the Californian company's attorney produced his final exhibits. "Not every smartphone needs to look like an iPhone," Harold McElhinny told the jury as he showed them two devices, Nokia's Lumia and another handset by Sony. Launched last autumn, the Lumia was critically acclaimed but commercially snubbed. Next Wednesday, Nokia will have another go. It is hosting a joint event with Microsoft in New York. Nokia uses Windows Phone software, whose design has won prizes and is regarded as more modern than the iPhone's five-year-old graphics. With the $1bn (£632m) ruling against Samsung, fear and uncertainty about its Android interface, designed by Google and used by most non-Apple manufacturers, are reverberating around the mobile networks. Those networks' subsidies can make or break a new model. Nokia handsets offer a reassuring alternative. The door is open for Windows phones.