Nokia is looking to hire a Linux expert. Linux is at the heart of Android. That's set off a new round of speculation that Nokia is working on an Android phone.
This is an interesting development given that Nokia has committed to Microsoft's Windows Phone 8, with Microsoft paying Nokia €1 billion a year to do so.
Nokia's newest phone, the Lumia 920, has gotten good reviews but many are doubtful that it will become the monster hit that both Nokia and Microsoft need. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said that that Windows phones are selling four times faster than they were a year ago. But he hasn't commented on Nokia sales specifically.
Sales have picked up this year, but they still aren't killer good. Nokia sold 7 million of the previous Lumia model worldwide in Q3, just 600,000 of them in the U.S, Endgadet reports. That's double the number of Windows phones it sold in Q2 but it's still a low percentage of the total smartphone market.
Meanwhile, it's looking more and more likely that Microsoft is building its own phone, just like it built its own tablet and PC.
If things don't much better for Nokia soon, its biggest partner, Microsoft, could become its biggest competitor. At that point, Android might be Nokia's only option.
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