We don’t usually talk about cellphones on this site, considering them to be carryable but not really wearable. But we had an interesting conversation today about something we haven’t seen elsewhere.
There’s been a lot of chatter about the Nokia X phone, which debuted here at Mobile World Congress. A lot of the talk has been about how the phone uses a customized version of Android that’s divorced from Google services, in favor of Microsoft’s services.
(For those who came in late, Android is a product of Google, and Android phones generally have deep hooks into Google’s cloud. Nokia was bought recently by Microsoft, and the Nokia X is their first major announcement since then. For those who really came in late, Google and Microsoft compete.)
We were talking with Chris Schoppa, the Sr. Director at Symphony Teleca’s Mobile and Media Devices Business Unit.
“You know the Nokia X?,” Schoppa said. “We did that… Nokia wasn’t so much interested in Android. They were interested in building a phone that could access Microsoft services.”
But Microsoft already has Windows Phone. Why did they need you?
“Because you can’t run Windows Phone on a $100 unit. This is a phone for the rest of the world.”