With Microsoft scheduled to release its Windows Phone 8 mobile operating system on October 29, the mobile industry is apparently keen to see whether the software can give a noteworthy boost to Windows Phone devices, especially for Microsoft's struggling Windows-Phone-handset partner, Nokia.

It is being anticipated that Windows Phone 8 will probably bring about a potential growth in sales for both Microsoft and Nokia; thereby underscoring a much-needed turnaround for the two companies in the fiercely competitive mobile-handset arena.

Both Microsoft and Nokia are banking on Windows Phone 8 because the sales of Windows Phone devices has been rather weak thus far, and Nokia's partnership with Microsoft to make Windows Phone its new OS - marking a "transition" from the use of its own Symbian OS - has hardly yielded the desired results.

That Nokia's handset sales suffered a blow in the 2012 third-quarter, due to the anticipation surrounding the release of Windows Phone 8, is evident from the statistics shared by UK-based firm Juniper Research which revealed in an October 26 report that Nokia's sales plunged by 63 percent - to barely 6.3 million units - during the quarter.

Potential buyers of Nokia handsets have clearly being postponing their purchases till the release of Windows Phone 8 not only because the forthcoming OS marks a substantial improvement over Windows Phone 7, but also because Microsoft had announced that Windows Phone 7 devices would not be upgraded to the new OS!