Nokia’s controversial Android phone has appeared again in the form of a leaked press render.
December has seen numerous snippets of information emerging concerning the so-called Nokia Normandy project - a highly unexpected effort to run an Android-based OS on a Nokia device.
Project Normandy first appeared in a leaked image from the ever-reliable tipster @evleaks, which was corroborated by separate sources. Apparently, this was a Nokia Asha equivalent, or an entry-level smartphone aimed primarily at developing countries.
The Normandy would apparently use a forked version of Android which, like the Amazon Kindle Fire range, would be unrecognisable from the source OS. Still, with its Android heart Project Normandy would be able to run a far wider range of apps than Nokia’s current Windows Phone 8 range.
Given Nokia’s special relationship with Microsoft, and the fact that the latter is poised to purchase the Finnish firm in the New Year, we still couldn’t quite bring ourselves to accept the existence of such a device.
Sure enough, reports last week suggested that Nokia had scrapped project Normandy in favour of developing wearable smart devices. This was apparently without Microsoft’s intervention, but you have to suspect that the company’s looming shadow had a role in the decision.
Equilibrium was restored, you would have thought. But this latest image from @evleaks (again) offers the slightest hope that we will see a Nokia-built Android device some time in 2014.
Well, probably not if we’re honest. But it does grant us one last (probably) wistful look at what might have been if Nokia had taken a different path several years ago.
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