Nokia fans have long dreamed of an Android phone manufactured by the Finnish company that used to rule the mobile phone industry. But that didn’t happen. The company, which attempted at other operating systems such as Symbian and MeeGo, did try Android-powered Nokia phones internally, but it wasn’t marketed for sale. And then the Microsoft’s attempt at acquiring Nokia hit the press, putting a period to the hopes of Nokia producing a phone that would run Android operating system.
However, new reports have surfaced suggesting that the company is still working with a forked Android on a device — codenamed Normandy — and may release the phone sometime in 2014. You’d be forgiven to think that Nokia couldn’t release an Android phone now that it’s under Microsoft’s wing. You’d be wrong to think that, because Nokia is in the process of under the wing of Microsoft. It isn’t already.
That means there are still chances that an Android-powered Nokia phone would see the light of day.
Internal sources confirm that Nokia is working in full force with this Normany Android phone. An image was leaked by reliable twitter handler evleaks last month that gives us a glimpse of what Normandy looks like: A phone with an identical look and color of Lumia.
Sourced told The Verge that Nokia is using a version of Android that has no ties to Google. It’s essentially the same what Amazon did to Android to come up with Kindle Fire’s OS. It’s Android, it can install traditional APK files, but it isn’t Google’s Android.
Insider says that popular Android applications such as Skype manages to run well on its version of Android. Nothing on the hardware was talked about, but we’d keep our hopes high to see this phone popping up sometime in 2014, which has to happen before Microsoft-Nokia deal is closed.
An Android phone from under Microsoft’s wing is impossible to even think of. But before Nokia completely belongs to Microsoft, there’s a slight chance that the world might see at least one Android phone made by Nokia.
And we, as avid Nokia fans, are very much looking forward to that. What about you? Would you keep your hopes high to see an Android phone made by Nokia?
This article also appeared in Bangla on Android Kothon.
