While he didn't quite break into Steve Ballmer's infamous Developers, Developers, Developers act, incoming Nokia CEO Stephen Elop did invoke his ex-boss' sentiments during a surprise appearance at Nokia World 2010.

Sprung to announce the winner of a $1 million investment as part of Nokia's Venture Challenge Award for use of technology in the developing world, Elop said, "I'm proud that my first act as CEO of Nokia is to give a developer $1 million," although technically he doesn't start in the role until next week.

The winner of the award was Kenyan developer Virtual City.

Partners for success

"I love developers because you bring the ecosystem to life," Elop continued enthusiastically. "I'm impressed and humbled that you take our platforms and do things we would never had thought of."

His appearance at the end of two day conference underlined a more confident mood from the Finnish mobile giant.

Much criticised for its failure to push high end smartphones and get to grips with the delivery of apps via its Ovi Store, Nokia replied with a new range of Symbian^3 devices, such as its flagship Nokia N8 smartphone, and solid developer tools for web and native apps.

Other improvements included usability and design enhancements to the Ovi Store, as well as more flexible business models for developers in terms of in-app purchases and a streamlined operator billing solution.

Certainly Elop has plenty of hot topics waiting in his inbox on Monday morning, but he joins a company now confident it can regain lost momentum.