Nokia abandons Windows for Android weeks before takeover
NOKIA has launched a range of low-cost smartphones powered by Google’s Android platform just weeks before its handset division is acquired by Microsoft.
The Nokia X smartphone line up, revealed yesterday at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, has ditched Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform and instead uses Google’s free Android software.
The moves means it can reduce costs to hit sub-€100 (£82) price points and allow access to Android’s 1m smartphone apps.
Nokia’s devices and services vice president, and former chief executive, Stephen Elop yesterday denied that the use of Android was an admission of failure or a change in direction for Nokia, “We see the X family being complementary to (Windows Phone) Lumia at lower price points,” Elop said.