Well, this is certainly interesting. A Nokia board member, Risto Siilasmaa, told a Finnish television station that Nokia is prepared for many alternatives if Windows Phone fails, including the possibility of going to Android. The switch would only happen if Windows Phone 8 fails to reach its market share potential, a possibility of which pundits have been taking stock for months. Windows Phone 7 has not been the market- or mind-share hit either Microsoft or Nokia had been hoping for, and though sales of the Lumia series of devices have been good, they certainly haven’t taken many iPhone or Android customers with them.
While Android may be the obvious choice for Nokia if Windows Phone fails, we can’t help but think they even the great Finnish giant may be one more Android OEM against the rising strength of Samsung, whose own market share lead trounces rivals HTC, Sony, LG, Huawei and more. The exact quote of the interview was, “”[…] like any responsible board, we must be prepared for alternatives, but that is not our focus today […],” which is pretty non-committal, but at this point the company would have little choice but to go Android if they made the switch.
That being said, Nokia has been finding success with its Windows Phone lineup, and we can’t see them making such a monumental decision for at least a couple more years. We’re also hopeful that WP8 fixes many of the lingering problems of its predecessor and new Nokia handsets improve functionality, speed and features to compete with iOS and Android.
