Will The New X Series Of Android Phones Change Nokia’s Fortunes?

The rumours of Nokia producing an Android phone were doing the rounds since couple of years. First it was an Android tablet then a mobile. It was last year that these rumours started picking up steam and this year at MWC 2014, we saw not one but three new Android phones in Stephen Elop’s hands. He displayed Nokia X, X+ and XL the world. These are the first Android phones to come from Nokia. The company startled the world with the decision to launch Android mobiles.

Nokia is considered to be in a strong alliance with Microsoft. It has a burly line-up of Windows phones that are doing decently all around the globe. They have everything from the sub 10K devices to the 40K plus ones. So all of a sudden, why this decision to pick up Android operating system for its mobiles?

If we just take India as an example, Nokia was the leading phone maker in the country half a decade ago. They did face tough competition from the likes of Samsung and Sony (thanks to the spanking new versions of Android OS their phones carried). But still, Nokia managed to retain its top spot.
However, as the years passed by and the Android OS for phones became better and better, people started to warm up to the new Android environment. Android was and is available everywhere. Most mobile manufacturers (including all the Indian ones) use Android on their phones. Nokia is still the only one (with one or two phone exceptions) using Windows Mobile OS on a large scale.

After we saw the news of Microsoft taking over Nokia mobiles, most of us were sure that Nokia will stick to the Windows Phone OS and the whispers of an Android driven Nokia phone will come to an end. But as it turns out Nokia had to take some serious steps. Nokia lost its top spot to Samsung last year and they needed something drastic to bring them back in to the race. Android seems to be the answer to their prayers. People love the operating system and by adopting this Google run operating system they might be able to bring lost loyalists back to the brand.

Some might debate that the services one finds on a Windows phone is better than the ones found on Android. Nokia does seem to think in the same manner. This is probably the reason why Nokia has picked up only the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) for the new X series of devices. This OS is equivalent to Android 4.1. Nokia has built their own skin on top of it and are not using any of the Google services. Services from Microsoft will be available here that makes the Nokia X a device with best features from both worlds.

The combination seems like an effective measure to bring Nokia back in the running. We are waiting for the X+ and XL start sales too. These are testing times for Nokia and if they manage to pull it off, they will again be standing at the top of the podium with rest looking up to them and wondering where they went wrong.