There’s a lot of wondering where the Windows 8 Smartphone market is going to go.  For the last quarter Nokia’s Lumia line of smartphones which runs on Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8 mobile OS platform sold a better than expected 4.4 Million units.  Full results are due to come out in late January, but the announcement that they have beat expectations for smartphone sales in the last quarter has been met with the tune of a 16% uptick in their public shares in response.  For the Finnish company, the partnership has boosted their prospects in the smartphone market share competition.

Importantly, Nokia sold a better-than-expected 4.4 million of its new Lumia smartphones, which are powered by Microsoft (MSFT). The company also said it sold 9.3 million Asha full touch smartphones and 2.2 million Symbian phones.

The success is a welcome prospect for the company that was once the far and away the mobile phone leader that later slipped in status with the emergence of Android and Apple.  They had at one point developed their own customer Nokia OS operating system, and later shifted to Symbian OS.

During a conference call with analysts, Elop said he is pleased with the initial response to the new Lumia devices and Nokia plans to begin ramping up on deliveries of the smartphones and entering new markets.

Nokia was able to beat expectations despite supply constraints in the fourth quarter, including significant issues at AT&T (T) with the Lumia 920, Elop said.

The success confirms that there is interest in expanding the two-party smartphone OS ecosystem and that is exactly where Microsoft is banking their mobile efforts.  With the news that emerged yesterday that Lenovo is considering offering a Windows Phone 8 smartphone, there appears to be some intriguing factors possibly lining up for a successful run for the new OS.  Lenovo is considering this offering under the notion that there may be some concerned about the security aspects of Android and a China-based manufacture base.  The partner environment for the mobile business has shown a measurable rapid result in the case of Nokia.  It may not be long before we see a number of others jump into the Windows Phone 8 game, including Microsoft itself, which has been rumored to be working on their own smartphone a la’ the Surface device venture.