What would happen if Nokia made an Android device today?
When the New York Times broke news that Nokia had been secretly working on an Android device as a back up plan in case its switch to Windows Phone backfired, we were all taken aback, not surprised that Nokia had been working on such a device but by the potential it had say two years ago. @evleaks followed up with a supposed image of the Nokia Android phone and even gave us a codename of both the phone and the project: Normandy, Project N. The question then and the question now is, can Nokia still hack it? I mean they’re already under the wings of none other than Microsoft (takeover will be complete soon) and have been doing some pretty things with Windows Phone for some time now never mind the huge marketshare they already have. A Nokia Android device would have been an instant hit for many two or three years ago but can it now?
While we still ask ourselves the hard questions and speculation looms as to whether we’ll ever see a Nokia Android device, here is the latest from the same source that provided us with a brief look at what that device was and probably will be:
Also, here’s something along those lines: an appearance on benchmark app Antutu
The UI if indeed it is the one on that phone then it is a beauty. You simply cannot look past it, not when you’re used to things like ugly UIs that stand in the way of how awesome Android is. Add to it the beauty of Nokia smartphones and you have a winner. Anyway the UI is part of the entire forked version of Android that the device is supposed to pack so that is as far as it goes thanks to Android’s open source nature. However word is that this rumoured Nokia Android device is nothing like those Lumias, it is something for the target market of the Ashas. As expected, having a forked version of Android, there will be nothing like Google apps. Probably that can lure Microsoft to keep Project N alive when it is finally fully in-charge and probably chip in to offer its apps like Skype to budget conscious customers to whom the device is targeted. Actually the same way Amazon Kindles have access to Amazon stuff and ignore the Google part.
Whichever direction this one goes, this is one piece of interesting news to keep tabs on.
