Microsoft and Nokia were both making contingency plans before the recently announced acquisition which saw the Redmond based software giant buying up its long-term hardware partner.
According to a report from the New York Times, before the $7.2 billion deal was even a twinkle in Steve Ballmer’s eye, Nokia was experimenting with Android phone prototypes using the company’s existing Lumia hardware and was considering adoption of Google’s platform for the latter half of 2014.
The word comes from two anonymous ‘people briefed on the effort,’ who described a dedicated team within Nokia working on the Android project. The sources also added that Microsoft knew about the Android prototypes, which of course may have therefore acted as a catalyst for subsequent talks. A third source has alleged that Nokia’s experimentation with Android didn’t factor into the negotiations.
‘Getting Android to run on Nokia’s hardware was not a Herculean engineering effort, according to the people familiar with the project,’ reported the NYT.
At the same time, Microsoft had been keeping busy working on its own Surface Phone projects, as was previously rumoured. The news comes via The Verge’s ‘sources familiar with Microsoft’s plans’ which revealed the Windows creator had developed several prototype handsets headed by current Windows, Windwos Phone and Xbox software chief Terry Myerson.
It’s relevant because according to the sources Microsoft developed the Surface Phone project as a ‘plan B’ in the event that Nokia’s Windows Phone efforts failed to generate decent market share. Nokia’s Android phones also appear to have been something of a backup plan.
‘In all likelihood, the acquisition means that Microsoft will shelve two projects that were considered "nuclear options" in their respective businesses: Myerson's Surface Phone and Nokia's array of Android initiatives,” said The Verge.
by pbriden via Featured Articles
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