Nokia veers into android family, targets emerging markets

At the ongoing GSM Mobile World Congress holding in Barcelona, Spain, the Finish mobile phone vendor, Nokia disclosed that it would take the android route.

Stephen Elop, the Executive Vice President of Nokia Devices & Services, while unveiling Nokia X, the Nokia X+, and the Nokia XL mainly for emerging markets Monday at the Mobile World Congress described as “running Android apps with Nokia’s user experience and a wide array of Microsoft services”.

Explaining why it supported the rival OS, Elop said that, “Building on the Android OS means having access to hundreds of thousands of apps right out of the box”.
Similarly, alongside the major news about the X family, Nokia also announced new affordable handsets from its existing stable, the Nokia 220 and Asha 230 respectively.

All the three smartphones as unveiled are running AOSP, Android Open Source Project code.

The Nokia XL features a 5-inch IPS WVGA display, a 5-megapixel rear camera with LED flash and auto-focus and a 2-megapixel front camera.

The Nokia X and the Nokia X+ both have 4-inch touchscreens and Nokia’s signature mono-body design in various colors.

The difference between the two is that the X+ has additional memory and expandable storage via a microSD card.

Although they are Android devices without Google services, the devices will come pre-loaded with Nokia and Microsoft services including navigation with Here Maps, MixRadio for music, Outlook.com email, one month of free calls on Skype, and access to cloud storage with 10GB of free OneDrive space.

Meanwhile, such devices have long been mooted even before Nokia sealed the deal to sell the bulk of its handset unit to Microsoft.