Nokia’s fourth quarter earnings was published earlier today. Here’s an interesting tidbit: Microsoft sent Nokia $250 million. According to Computer World, it was payment for Nokia to adopt Windows Phone. It was the first of many to come, expected to measure in the billions of US dollars.

From the Nokia’s earning statement:

Our broad strategic agreement with Microsoft includes platform support payments from Microsoft to us as well as software royalty payments from us to Microsoft. In the fourth quarter 2011, we received the first quarterly platform support payment of USD 250 million (EUR 180 million). We have a competitive software royalty structure, which includes minimum software royalty commitments. Over the life of the agreement, both the platform support payments and the minimum software royalty commitments are expected to measure in the billions of US Dollars.

The earnings report included that at least 1 million Nokia Windows Phone devices were sold. Nokia also reported a $1.2 operating loss. There are a lot of discussions on this report. Follow the coverage over at Techmeme.

Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired