Nokia has denied a report from The Guardian U.K. that it is developing a handset running on Google’s Android operating system.
“It’s a well-known fact that Symbian is our choice for smartphones and that’s where it ends,” said Nokia spokesman Chris Morse.
Citing unnamed industry insiders, The Guardian reported earlier today that Nokia would unveil an Android-based touchscreen device at its world conference in September. Morse said the report was nothing but a “rumor.”
A move toward Android would indicate a major change in strategy for Nokia. The firm has led the charge for the Symbian operating system, buying the technology’s assets and contributing them to the non-profit Symbian foundation, which unifies Symbian OS, S60, UIQ and MOAP(S) software. Like Google’s Android platform, Symbian is going open source, which makes it available to outside developers.
Nokia has a substantial market share in the global handset market and has based its N-series and E-series phones on the Symbian platform.
Although adoption of the Android-based operating system is just beginning to pick up steam, Nokia still faces competition from Android-based phones. T-Mobile USA is carrying HTC’s Android-based Google phones, the G1 and myTouch G3. In addition, Samsung executives said earlier this year that they would be releasing Android devices in the future.