Nokia, or you may say Microsoft, is ready to transition to take its first foray into Android handsets when the Finnish company revamps its affordable Asha lineup of devices in a couple of months.
Word is that Nokia Normandy is set to hit the store shelves as Asha 1045 on March 25.
Nothing is confirmed, at least not officially, but this report seems pretty confident with a pretty interesting theory. It appears that each Lumia smartphone that leaked out ahead of official announcements had the launch date displayed on the screen along with the model name.
For instance, the Lumia 720 had its press render image displaying the time as 7:20, February 25. And guess when it launched?
So going by this pattern, there is a fair chance that Nokia Normandy may officially be introduced on March 25 as the Asha 1045. There is also the little case of the 2014 edition of the Mobile World Congress (MWC) taking place in late February, and this lends further credence to this timeframe.
Another thing that lends a little weight to the existence of this handset is a new leaked photo.
This new image allegedly shows the App Launcher of this budget smartphone, divided into sections, icons and all. It clearly shows that Nokia is going in with a wholly customized version of the OS. Not the most inspiring of designs, but then again, it probably is an early unfinished concept.
Under the hood, however, it will still closely resemble the company’s Asha lineup of phones. The idea is to offer Android compatibility but in a separate walled garden of sorts, similar to the Amazon App Store.
We should have more of an idea of what exactly is in store for us if this device makes an appearance at the MWC 2014 show in Barcelona next month.
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