Nokia Android Smartphones : Coming Soon?!

Quoting an alleged memo by new Nokia CEO Stephen Elop to all employees of the Finnish company;

[...] There is intense heat coming from our competitors, more rapidly than we ever expected. Apple disrupted the market by redefining the smartphone and attracting developers to a closed, but very powerful ecosystem.

In 2008, Apple's market share in the $300+ price range was 25 percent; by 2010 it escalated to 61 percent. They are enjoying a tremendous growth trajectory with a 78 percent earnings growth year over year in Q4 2010. Apple demonstrated that if designed well, consumers would buy a high-priced phone with a great experience and developers would build applications. They changed the game, and today, Apple owns the high-end range.

And then, there is Android. In about two years, Android created a platform that attracts application developers, service providers and hardware manufacturers. Android came in at the high-end, they are now winning the mid-range, and quickly they are going downstream to phones under €100. Google has become a gravitational force, drawing much of the industry's innovation to its core.

Let's not forget about the low-end price range. In 2008, MediaTek supplied complete reference designs for phone chipsets, which enabled manufacturers in the Shenzhen region of China to produce phones at an unbelievable pace. By some accounts, this ecosystem now produces more than one third of the phones sold globally - taking share from us in emerging markets. [...]

Engadget, which leaked the memo online, confirms that it is real and that is was indeed posted on Nokia's internal employee system.

So it appears that with a new CEO comes a whole lot of changes for Nokia. These must really be challenging and at the same time exciting times for the company.

If you remember, during the start of the year, we posted our 2011 smartphone predictions and we stated that --

If there's any phone-maker that's expected to experience a major overhaul this year, it's undoubtedly Nokia. The Finnish giant's new CEO is a former executive at Microsoft and we need not be overly imaginative to realize that this could mean that Nokia may finally release phones running on operating systems other than Symbian and MeeGo. I'm predicting that in 2011, we will see Nokia phones with Windows Phone 7 OS and Android, even.

Now, it looks like this could very well end up a reality.

And considering how much Mr. Elop is praising Google as a gravitational force in today's industry, a Nokia Android Smartphone concept might not be too far-fetched. Stay tuned for updates.