Nokia Had an Android Phone In Development

puddingebola writes "Perhaps influencing Microsoft's $7.2 billion acquisition, the New York Times is reporting that Nokia had an Android phone in development. From the article, 'A team within Nokia had Android up and running on the company's Lumia handsets well before Microsoft and Nokia began negotiating Microsoft's $7.2 billion acquisition of Nokia's mobile phone and services business, according to two people briefed on the effort who declined to be identified because the project was confidential. Microsoft executives were aware of the existence of the project, these people said.' Perhaps Nokia feared they had put too many eggs in one basket? Whatever the case, the project is most likely dead at this point."

Like Nokia itself

[Anonymous Coward]

(dead at this point)

Re:Like a Nokia Android wouldn't have bombed?

[Stormwatch]

Indeed, Android was not the ideal choice for Nokia. If only they had their own next-gen mobile operating system, ready to go, and consistently praised by reviewers... oh, wait. [wikipedia.org]

Newkia

[Marco Bit]

So everyone here is completely and utterly unaware of the company that was formed the same day Microsoft bought Nokia called Newkia that aims to produce mobile phones for the Android?

Re:Like a Nokia Android wouldn't have bombed?

[Anonymous Coward]

By what standard was it too late? They weren't exactly late to the smart phone market, they were early, and out of step. Symbian was under featured but still selling well all over the world. Symbian sales were still growing. They were profitable in smartphones. The switchover to Maemo would have been a challenge, but nothing like the challenge that Windows phone presented.

Quarter 3 2010 Symbian based Nokia smartphone sales: 26.5 M units and 3.6 B Euros revenues;
Nokia smartphone Average Sales Price 136 Euros, profits in smarpthone unit 335 M Euros

Quarter 4 2010 Symbian based Nokia smarpthone sales: 28.3 M units and 4.4 B Euros revenues;
Nokia smartphone Average Sales Price 155 Euros, profits in smarpthone unit 548 M Euros

http://communities-dominate.blogs.com/brands/2012/06/the-final-reckoning-of-burning-platforms-memo-damaged-nokia-by-wiping-out-13b-in-revenues-and-destro.html

Re:Like a Nokia Android wouldn't have bombed?

[Holmwood]

Very true. I used a Nokia N770 tablet starting in 2006. It was fantastic for the time. Maemo (later Meego) was still a little rough around the edges, but very good. I thought at the time that surely it was only a year or so of polishing from mass release, and Nokia ARM-based tablets and smartphones starting at resolutions of 800x480 would sweep the market. And time ticked by. Even 2 and a half years later, Apple was still playing around at well under half the resolution, but time kept moving.

I still have my patched N800 somewhere with a (ridiculous for 2007) 65GB of storage.

Nokia could have dominated that market, or, at worst, been highly competitive with Apple.

Re:Microsoft buys Microsoft

[SpzToid]

rtb61's argument is well known, but I'll explain it.

Microsoft owned very little of Nokia prior to the sale.

So you understand this much already, which is good. However you are failing to take into account Stephen Elop who arrived a few years ago, from Microsoft, to become Nokia CEO, and eventually sell Nokia at a greatly reduced price to Microsoft, (which paid for the transaction with offshore profits that couldn't be repatriated into the US easily anyway.

What was the mechanism by which Microsoft got Nokia's board of directors and executives to implement plans to the disadvantage of minority shareholders?

Stephen Elop

For that matter, how were minority shareholders disadvantaged by Nokia not going bankrupt and receiving subsidies from Microsoft followed by a buyout for more than the phone division was worth.

By ditching their own OS efforts, i.e. Meego, and doing an exclusive for Windows Phone which failed dramitically.

Please, let me cite some Stephen Elop CEO facts for you to decide yourself:

NOKIA CORPORATION UNDER ELOP

First 6 months - Corporate quarterly revenues up 26% from 10.0B Euro to 12.6B Euro
Next 2.5 years - Corporate quarterly revenues down 55% from 12.6B Euro to 5.6B Euro

First 6 months - Corporate quarterly profit up 200% from 295M Euro to 884M Euro
Next 2.5 years - Corporate quarterly profit of 884M Euro turned into loss of -115M Euro

During first 6 months - Standard & Poor's rating for Nokia A, Moody's rating A2, Fitch's rating A
On last day of office - Standard & Poor's rating for Nokia junk, Moody's rating junk, Fitch's rating junk

On day before Elop announced as new CEO - Nokia share price $9.70
On day before Elop released his Burning Platforms memo - Nokia share price $11.28 (up 16%)
On day before Nokia announces Elop to step down as CEO - Nokia share price $3.90 (down 65%)

NOKIA HANDSET UNIT PERFORMANCE UNDER ELOP

First 6 months - Handset quarterly revenues up 25% from 6.8B Euro to 8.5B Euro
Next 2.5 years - Handset quarterly revenues down 69% from 8.5B Euro to 2.6B Euro

First 6 months - Total handsets profit first 6 months 1.8B Euro
Next 2.5 years - Total handsets loss next 2.5 years 361M Euro

First 6 months - North America quarterly handset volume flat from 2.6M units to 2.6M units
Next 2.5 years - North America quarterly handset volume down 80% from 2.6M units to 0.5M units

First 6 months - China quarterly handset volume up 13% from 19.3M units to 21.9M units
Next 2.5 years - China quarterly handset volume down 81% from 21.9M units to 4.1M units

Nokia handset market share when Elop started - 33%
Nokia handset market share when Elop departed - 14%

Nokia ranking handsets when Elop started - 1st
Nokia ranking handsets when Elop departed - 2nd

Gap to leader when Elop started - Nokia 50% bigger than number 2 (Samsung)
Gap to leader when Elop departed - Samsung 30% bigger than Nokia

This handset unit has now been sold (plus patents and mapping licences) for 5.3B Euro to Microsoft

NOKIA SMARTPHONE DIVISION PERFORMANCE UNDER ELOP

First 6 months - Smartphone quarterly revenues up 29% from 3.4B Euro to 4.4B Euro
Next 2.5 years - Smartphone quarterly revenues down 73% from 4.4B Euro to 1.2B Euro

First 6 months - Smartphone quarterly profit up 94% from 283M Euro to 548M Euro
Next 2.5 years - Smartphone quarterly profit of 548M Euro turned into loss of -168M Euro

First 6 months - Smartphone quarterly volume up 18% from 24.0M units to 28.3M units
Next 2.5 years - Smartphone quarterly volume down 74% from 28.3M units to 7.4M units

Nokia smartphone market share when Elop started - 35%
Nokia smartphone market share when Elop departed - 3%

Nokia ranking smartphones when Elop started - 1st
Nokia ranking smartphones when Elop departed - 9th

Gap to leader when Elop started - twice a