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Nokia, the last fan of Windows Phone, to make the switch to Android

Mar 6, 2015, 1:12pm PST

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Nokia Elop Microsoft Ballmer

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Bloomberg

Former Nokia CEO Stephen Elop, left, was a longtime supporter of Windows Phone.

Jacob Demmitt

Staff Writer- Puget Sound Business Journal

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Microsoft may have bought Nokia's handset division only to lay off thousands of workers and later dump its brand name— but Nokia is gearing up to have the last laugh.

According to a published benchmark test first uncovered by Nokia Power User, someone over at Nokia seems to be testing a smartphone running on the Android operating system.

That comes after the Finnish company already showed off a new Android-powered tablet, the N1.

For years, Nokia was notoriously the final steadfast supporter of the Windows Phone operating system, even as the platform failed to find anything resembling success.

Today, Windows Phone claims less than 3 percent of the market, according to IDC. Compare that to Android, which runs on 77 percent of smartphones worldwide.

Former Nokia CEO Stephen Elop, whose pre-Nokia job was as a president at Microsoft, pushed for the Windows partnership. Elop and Nokia stood by Windows Phone for years as the company's revenue and share price dropped.

Microsoft then bought Nokia's handset division for $7.2 billion in 2013 and Elop rejoined Microsoft as executive vice president of the devices group.

Microsoft did release one Android-powered Nokia phone after the acquisition, but it quickly moved that line back to its own operating system.

Nokia's new CEO, Rajeev Suri, seems less loyal to software coming out of Redmond.

The company's deal with Microsoft blocks it from releasing a smartphone until at least the end of 2016, but it looks like Nokia is already gearing up for that day.

So the brand Microsoft bought less than two years ago will soon be just another competitor as it tries to find a home for Windows Phone.