Nokia Has Not Actually Abandoned Android Yet, New Report Claims

If you are looking for the biggest blockbuster news of the past few weeks, there is none bigger than Microsoft’s recent announcement that it plans to purchase Nokia’s devices and services unit.

But it seems that while the Finnish company was very committed to the Windows Phone platform, it also had a certain Plan B set in motion before the deal was agreed — Android.

Nokia has not officially confirmed that it was developing the device, but at the same time it has not actually abandoned the Android project yet. This report claims that this smartphone is codenamed Mountain View (very original) and is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 8225Q processor.

It is being developed and tested by Nokia’s R&D team based in Beijing, China.

Foxconn has been contracted to build the device. And word is that the OEM has already shipped more than 10,000 units of this Android handset to Nokia for testing purposes.

According to UnwiredView, this particular smartphone is designed as a basic, entry level Android device, quite possibly as an alternative to the Nokia Asha lineup. As things stand right now, Nokia will not cancel this project until the Microsoft purchase is approved by the company shareholders.

A general meeting is set for November for this purpose, and the Microsoft deal is expected to be finalized at this gathering.

Anyway, since this is pure speculation at this time, it could also mean that the Finnish company wanted to test out some of its (impressive) camera technologies with Google’s mobile platform.

If this is the case, then a non-Nokia branded Android device sporting a PureView camera could be a possibility in the near future, while the company dives in fully into the Windows ecosystem for its mobile devices like smartphones, phablets and tablets as part of Microsoft.