It's always big news when Nokia announces a new smartphone, and it's looking increasingly likely that the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on February 24th is set to see a new, budget handset join Nokia's growing smartphone ranks.
The Wall Street Journal has just waded into the growing speculation around the purported Android-based Nokia smartphone - allegedly known as the Nokia X - by noting that the Finnish company does in fact intend to announce the device at this year's Mobile World Congress, which kicks off later this month.
We've been hearing a lot of rumor and speculation regarding Nokia's supposed effort to bring its first smartphone running on Android to market, and while it has been suggested on numerous occasions that next month's Mobile World Congress (MWC) could be the venue for the grand unveiling, Nokia has now all-but confirmed this to be the case by sending out invitations to a special press event kicking off on 24th at 8.30AM. The invitation doesn't, of course, specify what will be on show, but with everything seeming to point towards the mid-range handset - codenamed 'Normandy,' we could be just one month away from seeing it in the flesh.
Nokia's supposed attempt at a mid-range Android handset, something that has been in the offing for quite a while now, was thrown into serious doubt after the Lumia maker was purchased by Microsoft late last year. But recent leaks have given us reason to believe that a device codenamed Normandy will indeed be the first from Nokia to run a variant of Google's flagship mobile OS. I say a variant because, from what we've seen, the interface is heavily modded to the point where it looks very much like the love-child of Windows Phone and Asha. Today, we've been treated to an even closer look thanks to press images from the ever-reliant Evleaks Twitter handle, and as well as that, we now have semi-confirmation of when Nokia will showcase Normandy.
Nokia, once the market leader in the mobile industry, placed its faith heavily in the Windows Phone ecosystem - a decision that, at the moment, doesn't appear to have paid dividends. The Finnish company has long since created decent smartphones, but with WP struggling, the likes of Apple, Samsung and HTC have continued to dominate. Microsoft's purchase of Nokia's products and services dept. back in September seemed to indicate that Nokia and WP would continue to collaborate as an exclusive unit, however the much-rumored Nokia Android smartphone has just been leaked from a reputable source.
A number of sources in the past have suggested that Nokia might’ve been building its own Android powered device to compete with the likes of Samsung and HTC in the lower-end of the smartphone market. At present, It's unknown if the project will ever be officially given the green light to proceed, but it's existence, according to a new report, is enough to peak our interest.
