Adding to the swollen category of "rumored Android device makers," Nokia was briefly rumored to be readying a touchscreen smartphone based on the Android mobile OS for Nokia World in September.
But rather than say it doesn't comment on rumors as companies often do, Nokia flatly denied the rumor, citing the "well known fact" that Symbian is its platform of choice.
And a well known fact it is. Nokia's attachment to Symbian has given that family of mobile OS over half of the market's share. However, the mobile phone market is expected to shrink by 10% overall this year while the smartphone becomes the dominant device profile; and in March, NPD found that Symbian is actually losing its dominant position quite rapidly.
Still, it seems that any company without a dominant touchphone has become the subject of similar Android rumors. LG, Motorola, Acer, and others have all been tapped to wheel out the next big Android device, yet only HTC and Samsung have completed products. Sony Ericsson, too, has joined the rumor pool with leaked mockups of "Racheal," an Android-based XPERIA device which is supposed to be equipped with a 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and 8.1 megapixel camera. Unfortunately, this potentially impressive device is still at the early phases of rumor and exists only in pictures.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009