It's the rumor that just won't die: Nokia will allegedly produce an Android phone. Whether it'll be geared for emerging market or for Android-loving Windows users is uncertain, but the latest interface mockups from evleaks seem to suggest that whatever version of Android Nokia goes with, it will look a lot like Windows Phone 8.
Wait, this is Android?
"Normandy" could sport a 4-inch display, a Qualcomm S4 processor, 4GB of storage, and 512MB of RAM, according to The Verge, and it will feature a custom version of Android built directly on top of the exist AOSP code base that other Android forks utilize, according to ZDnet's Mary Jo Foley. The screenshots show a heavily skinned version of Android styled in the Metro interface, similar to the leaks we saw crop up recently. Nothing about it remotely resembles Google's Android.
Why would Nokia release an Android phone, when it's already fashioned a deal-of-a-lifetime with Microsoft? Foley posits that it would help introduce new users to the Windows Phone interface without too much shell shock, or "it could be just one example of a handset that could run either Android or Windows Phone." There's also the possibility that Microsoft wouldn't mind too much about the handset because it would still be making money off of the devices and services—don't forget, Microsoft makes somewhere along the lines of $2 billion on Android licensing.
A while back, reports indicated that Nokia had tried Android on for size, so it's not too farfetched to think that these leaks might just be what could have been. Still, Microsoft and Nokia are doing a lot to push the Windows Phone platform, so taking a step back with an Android phone merely sounds counterintuitive.
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