Nokia sets to battle budget Androids with new Nokia X devices

Nokia CEO Stephen Elop recently launched the new Nokia X family of budget smartphones targeting emerging markets. The Nokia X devices feature Nokia's popular look and construction but use a forked version of Google's Android OS. While the move to launching Android-powered devices seems contraryto Nokia's focus on Microsoft's Windows Phone OS, it makes perfect sense as a business decision.

“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 during an interview with Recode.net. “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.”

The Nokia X has features that cater to these markets, including dual SIM card capability as well as bring Microsoft's products like Skype, Internet Explorer and messenger to a market that was previously limited to underpowered feature phones.

“In many of growth economies where the Nokia X will generate profit, there has not been an easy way for Microsoft to generate profit,” Elop said. “People aren’t buying PCs or software is not readily paid for.”

Nokia knows these markets and can easily regain its dominance now that it isn't tied to Symbian. Using Android as the base OS for their devices, makes sense for users of these phones since there's already a lot of content and apps available for Android.

Source: Recode