Gartner said of the smartphone market in the fourth quarter of 2010, placing it fifth.

Symbian-based devices made by Nokia and others led the smartphone market with a share of 32.6%, Gartner said. Nokia's own devices had a 28.5% share of the smartphone market in the quarter, Elop said on Sunday.

While Elop didn't rule out a future purchase of Nokia by Microsoft, he said the focus of the partnership now is the "next billion" Windows Phone-based devices that will be produced by Nokia. "The opportunity for shared value was first priority," he said.

Elop also defended the creation of a Windows Phone on Nokia hardware at a time when few others, such as Samsung, HTC and LG, have committed to Microsoft. He suggested there will be other Windows Phone manufacturers, saying, "we'll compete in the Windows Phone ecosystem."

He added, though, that the first priority is to compete with Android devices. "We have shifted from a battle of devices to a war of ecosystems," he said.