Against all the odds, Android-based smartphones from Nokia have finally arrived. The Nokia X, X+ and XL debuted at MWC 2014 earlier this week, shocking the technology industry and turning everything we know about Microsoft on its head. How could Microsoft have let this happen? But more importantly, will Microsoft allow the X lineup to continue?
These are the questions on everyone's mind and nobody has the same answer. Some tech pundits believe that Microsoft will see the wisdom in branching out with an already established operating system that not only works well on low-cost devices, but sells well in emerging markets. Others believe that Microsoft is granting Nokia this one last boon before the sale goes into effect. These pundits think that Microsoft will kill the Android-based X lineup as soon as possible and make Nokia a Windows-only club.
Although nobody can possibly know Microsoft's mindset, it seems that there are a few things that must be taken into consideration when thinking about the Android Nokia smartphones. First off, it's not Google's Android that is running on these devices - it's a forked version of the open source Android software, which has been heavily influenced by Microsoft. It runs the Microsoft Windows Phone app suite instead of Google's app suite. It doesn't have the Google Play store onboard and you have to get special apps from Microsoft for the X lineup.
Secondly, these Nokia X smartphones seem more like Microsoft's sneaky way to convert Android users in emerging markets to Windows Phone. The operating system found on the Nokia X smartphones even has a similar aesthetic to the Windows Phone OS. It has tiles, for goodness' sake! It's almost as if Nokia is saying, "Look here, this is still Android, but it's actually a lot like Windows Phone. See? They're not so different. Why don't you go check out our much nicer Windows smartphones over here..." You get the picture.
If the Nokia X lineup is actually just a brilliant ruse intended to trick customers into trying out Windows Phone, it might just work. At any rate, it will certainly get Microsoft's apps out into corners of the world that don't often voluntarily download Windows-based applications.
In response to the widespread confusion caused by the Nokia X Android lineup, Frank X. Shaw, Microsoft's VP of corporate communications took to the company blog to set the record straight. Although he emphasized that "our primary smartphone strategy remains Windows Phone, and our core device platform for developers is the Windows platform," he didn't say that Microsoft wanted to do away with the X lineup all together. Instead he called it an "opportunity" for Microsoft.
"[W]e're pleased to see Microsoft services like Skype, OneDrive and Outlook.com being introduced on these devices," Shaw wrote. "This provides the opportunity to bring millions of people, particularly in growth markets, into the Microsoft family."
On the Nokia side of things, soon-to-be-replaced CEO Stephen Elop was more frank in an interview with Re/code.
"There's a lot of people in Redmond very excited about being able to reach, literally, tens of millions of people who have no other way of having an experience with Microsoft," Elop said. "The average person that will buy a Nokia X does not have a PC, does not have a tablet, has missed that generation of experiences."
"In many of growth economies where the Nokia X will generate profit, there has not been an easy way for Microsoft to generate profit," he added. "People aren't buying PCs or software is not readily paid for."
All in all, it sounds like Microsoft is going to keep the Nokia X lineup around as long as it is of use to the company. As soon as the X lineup becomes a threat to Microsoft's Windows-based smartphones, consider it dead in the water. However, since the X lineup is mostly targeted at entry-level customers in emerging markets, it doesn't seem likely that these X smartphones will compete with the Lumia lineup. Microsoft may just keep the X smartphones around for a while.
