Nokia claimed to be working on Android phone for unveiling later this year (updated)

Talk of a possible Android / Nokia tie-up has been ongoing since time immemorial, and the latest fuel to the fire comes from the Guardian which is sourcing "industry insiders" as saying that the world's largest phone manufacturer will reveal an Android-powered touchscreen handset at its Nokia World event this September. Though Nokia itself has never truly ruled out the possibility of working with Open Handset Alliance code, a move into Android right now would truly be an odd one -- granted, the Symbian Foundation is probably on thin ice any way you look at it, but even without S60 and its successors in the mix in the long term, Nokia still has Maemo quietly reaching platform maturity in the background with rumors of an imminent MID / superphone hybrid swirling in recent months. It seems that adopting Android (even if only for a select number of models) would be an admission on Nokia's part that it has failed to be a Maker of Standards, despite its overwhelming size and market position -- not to mention a major bet that it can continue to win customers based on the strength of its hardware alone, since it'd now be working with a common platform adopted by dozens of companies large and small. So, here's the million- (or maybe billion-) dollar question: all things being equal, can Nokia outdo HTC and Samsung on the same platform?

Update: And now the Nokia spokesman response: "Absolutely no truth to this whatsoever, everyone knows that Symbian is our preferred platform for advanced mobile devices." Yes, unfortunately / fortunately, we do know that.

[Barney @ Jul 5th 2009 9:40PM]

TOASTY!

[Freakin Ijit @ Jul 6th 2009 5:54AM]

Nokia said "No truth whatsoever" about this:

http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idINL613838520090706?rpc=44

[Suomaa @ Jul 6th 2009 7:01AM]

What a surprise. LOL. Wasn't it quite obvious? Maemo is superior to Android in every way.

[Newone @ Jul 6th 2009 10:14AM]

The absolutely stupidest thing Nokia could do is to make a android phone.

It's about time for N810 upgrade if you look at the previous release dates. So what we will see in september is a N810 followup gadget. Runs on maemo which is more open than android. Probaply has 3G modem and might even be used as a phone.

Is android new winmo? Ten years back there was rumors that Nokia will make winmo phones, and how it was going to push symbian out of market. Never happened.

[Alex @ Jul 6th 2009 11:14AM]

@Newone
Which are you saying never happened? That nokia never made WinMo phones, or that WinMo never surpassed Symb's market share?

[Jay L @ Jul 5th 2009 9:43PM]

SWEET! But I love my iPhone 3GS.

[derX @ Jul 5th 2009 10:12PM]

Sorry to break the news, but your iPhone 3GS has been with 1,000,000+ and that was just in its first weekend.

A box of tissues to your right.

[Laz @ Jul 5th 2009 10:24PM]

ohhh i see what you did there

[rTwelve @ Jul 5th 2009 11:43PM]

http://twitter.com/zpower/status/2490398564

lol.

[HardTimesGuy @ Jul 6th 2009 1:28AM]

LMAO @ ^^^

[John Doe @ Jul 5th 2009 9:43PM]

Nokia pursuing another OS, already having Symbian?

[KarlW @ Jul 5th 2009 10:09PM]

Have you used Symbian?

[Cheesus(Crust) @ Jul 5th 2009 10:26PM]

My Touch Pro arrives tomorrow!
It will be my first Smart phone.

[jack1701 @ Jul 5th 2009 10:27PM]

I think in the future mobile phones will have options of OS you want preinstalled like PCs and laptops today.

[James @ Jul 5th 2009 10:30PM]

Yes and its heaven on the e71x(S60 3.3), and hell on the n97(s60 5.0). S60 has been getting out of date and i think they are going to have to rewrite an OS like Microsoft is doing with winmo7 and Palm with its webOS or just adopt andriod as the OS for their touchscreen smartphones.

[The Dude @ Jul 5th 2009 11:45PM]

Symbian is synonymous with it's motorized dildo-saddle namesake (sybian). See: Useless (if you're a guy).

[Unbiased @ Jul 6th 2009 1:36AM]

It makes sense for Nokia to examine the possibility of using Android but, frankly, I have a hard time believing the veracity of this story. Nokia invested ~$400MM in Symbian only one year ago. If they were to publicize{or even hint} that they were going to use Android before giving the revitalized Symbian a chance to release a modernized OS... it would undermine their investment and deal a serious blow to their current efforts.

[Patriks7 @ Jul 6th 2009 5:59AM]

"It will be my first Smart phone."
So should we all jump in joy now?

[kadajawi @ Jul 6th 2009 8:33AM]

As long as they only have Symbian I will not buy a Nokia. Simple as that. I loved my Psion, but my Symbian phone (UIQ) is crashing constantly. S60 is even worse with its horrible touch screen interface. Unless they seriously rewrite Symbian they will never be able to compete with the iPhone, Pre, Android, Blackberry or even WinMo and seriously run into trouble. I'd give up on Symbian.

[Mark Anderson II @ Jul 6th 2009 3:08PM]

@kada

Actually outside the US Nokia dominate the other manufacturers. I think you need to rethink who is competing with whom.

[a ham sandwich @ Jul 5th 2009 9:46PM]

that absolutely should be the android on nokia logo! thats brilliant!

[HardTimesGuy @ Jul 6th 2009 1:24AM]

looks more like the android bot is shocked

[n8phillips @ Jul 5th 2009 10:18PM]

can you say christmas in september!!???

[GingerFox @ Jul 5th 2009 10:43PM]

"Chrismas in september" easy:P

[strang @ Jul 5th 2009 9:52PM]

Booyah.

[GBeatzRecrds @ Jul 5th 2009 10:16PM]

NOKLA!

[Nytrojen @ Jul 5th 2009 9:53PM]

That NokiAndroid logo is freakin' sweet

[pika2000 @ Jul 5th 2009 9:53PM]

Huh? What's going to happen with S60 if the owner itself is looking into another platform? That's like saying to customers that they are not confident about their own OS (S60).
On the other hand, it's good that Android is getting more traction.

[derX @ Jul 5th 2009 10:17PM]

I kinda think of Nokia as being the opposite to Apple where its strength lies in its hardware more so than its software. To that end, I don't think it would hurt Nokia at all to make Android devices. S60 touch apparently still has a bit more to go, why not ride the Android wave?

[pika2000 @ Jul 5th 2009 10:23PM]

I'm not saying it's bad that Nokia did this, but what does this tell S60 developers? S60 is done for.

[Cheesus(Crust) @ Jul 5th 2009 10:27PM]

How?
If they can get it to dual boot with S60, then both are saved.

[ALBGunner04 @ Jul 6th 2009 12:41AM]

Even dual-booting with S60 sends a bad message. Like it or not, S60 is an established platform with tons of developers. Expressing a loss of confidence in the platform by the lead manufacturer of phones for the OS is not a good thing.

[John Stracke @ Jul 6th 2009 1:57PM]

I suppose they could provide a way to run S60 apps under Maemo (like Apple's MacOS Classic environment). Do it right, and it could be just as fast as running natively on the same hardware.

[Fernando @ Jul 5th 2009 9:57PM]

Doubt it would happen, to be honest.

[JohnTitor @ Jul 5th 2009 9:57PM]

It actually would not be hard to outdo what HTC and Samsung have done

hopefully they decide to also port over N-Gage to Android

[marco @ Jul 5th 2009 10:39PM]

It's definitely not hard to outdo Samsung since they didn't really do much with the Galaxy software-wise. Don't know about outdoing HTC because their Hero looks amazing.

[G @ Jul 6th 2009 4:59AM]

N-Gage is the worst thing out of Nokia ever. All it has are recycled java and symbian games that are a couple of years old. They just take them out of the trash, clean them up a bit and try to sell them.

[digitallysick @ Jul 5th 2009 9:58PM]

This is what they need, because lets be honest, they suck at software. Hardware and design is over all great from nokia. I still have old nokia phones that work and hold a 3 day charge from before the time of color screen phones.

So the phones are good, the software not so good. Android will really fix all that is hurting them

[Erik @ Jul 5th 2009 9:59PM]

So a phone company is making a phone?
Wow this is REAL news !!

[derX @ Jul 5th 2009 10:10PM]

...why do you even come here nonetheless feel the need to comment?

[Erik @ Jul 5th 2009 11:59PM]

Did i hurt your feelings?
I guess the fact that nokia is making phones wasnt news to me,
but hey, not all of us are as unintelligent as you i suppose.

[bluesky_v2.01 @ Jul 6th 2009 12:04AM]

@Erik
You know what's a great way to cover up stupidity? Random insults. Works every time.

[Erik @ Jul 6th 2009 12:06AM]

Yup im stupid for pointing out the truth :D

haha you two must not have a life.

[weems @ Jul 6th 2009 1:27AM]

^^he says while hovering over his email account awaiting that reply so he can blast another response immediately...

[Badger_badger_badger @ Jul 6th 2009 1:58AM]

So a gadget blog is blogging on gadgets?
Wow this is REAL news !!

[iDavey @ Jul 6th 2009 3:58AM]

I bet if it was Apple making an iPod you'd be all over it :|

Go lie down kid.

[nick @ Jul 5th 2009 10:00PM]

I think when you plot the lines and try to see where they hit, Nokia has accepted that Apple beat them to the touchscreen phone OS stage of the race. But, Nokia has set their sights on taking the MID + Smartphone + laptop functionality device. Look at the deal with intel, this current bit of news, the maemo platform. Nokia wants to make a phone that can truly replace a netbook and be all that a road warrior needs. Imagine a flip open phone that is all touch screen display that allows for a pocketable 7" screen. One could honestly do alot of what gets done on netbooks on such a device. Especially when you consider we're likely going to have 2ghz phones within 2 years from now.

[wickedpheonix @ Jul 6th 2009 12:23AM]

Oh hell no. People can touch-type on a netbook - I'd like to see you write out a long email on an N97.

Fact is, the real money is on divergence devices. It's why netbooks are so popular - one, cheap device that can do exactly what it's marketed to do, and well. Not some big, heavy machne that can do everything.

I have a Nokia 3120 classic that I use just for calls - it works well at that. I use an old Palm Pilot, just for PDA stuff - it works well at that. I use a Tablet PC for my note taking and computing needs on the go - it works VERY well at that. The Nokia is about as thin and much lighter than the iPhone and still feels sturdy, and disappears in my pocket. My Palm doesn't have any shitty "slide to unlock" UI elements - I just get into exactly what I need. Both of these devices disappear into my pockets along with my keys and wallet, both of which are about the same size but thicker. And my Tablet PC just slings over my shoulder with all-day battery life, ready for anything.

Divergence is key - by carrying more stuff yet not having to fumble with anything, I can do more stuff, better. An iPhone cannot do anything as well (the ringer is MUCH too soft, so yes even for calls it's worse - much less appointments, what good is it keeping track of my schedule if it can't notify me? The Palm forces me to keep up-to-date and pay attention instead of relying on a useless feature).

[Unbiased @ Jul 6th 2009 2:05AM]

wickedpheonix:

"Divergence is key", is an old-fashioned way of thinking. The new and soon-to-be-released generation of phones truly do almost everything well -- and do it in a light, easy-to-handle package too. At one time, a simple phone was just a phone... and a Palm Pilot was the best organizer... and a tablet or laptop was the most convenient means to the internet... and a standalone GPS was the only way to get directions... but this has already changed.

Can you really pick up a Nokia N97, an iPhone or an HTC Touch Pro and not tell me "convergence is key"? These devices already do many things well and meet or even surpass the functionality of some of the gadgets you mention{although a phone's small screen will never replace a laptop/tablet/netbook screen}.

[Brian from Texas @ Jul 6th 2009 9:11AM]

I'm laghing at you, wickedpheonix. You have an ancient, albeit terrific at the time, Nokia, a Palm Pilot, keys, wallet, and a man purse slung over your shoulder. I'm sure you're buldging everywhere but where it counts. Do you also have a multi-tool strapped to your belt. Get with the times dude, one device.