Nokia just released the Lumia 1020 with a 41 megapixel PureView camera, which is not about the high pixel count but an impressive feat of engineering mixing sensors, lenses and optical image stabilizer (OIS). The 1020 runs Windows Phone 8, like any other recently released Lumia from Nokia, and while most Android users don’t care too much about Windows Phone, they do care about having the best camera possible on their phone, and today, that means the Lumia 1020 camera. We’ll have to see how it behaves once it’ in the hands of people but there’s no reason at all for that not to be the best camera in a smartphone ever, even beyond the 808 PureView, since that one didn’t have OIS.
So Android users looked at each other and asked themselves, when will we get a camera like that in our favorite Android phone? Everyone agrees that a Nokia device running Android would be a hit, but Nokia still isn’t making any Android phones and it’s sticking to Microsoft’s mobile OS.
But why did Nokia and its CEO Stephen Elop chose Windows Phone over Android in the first place? Windows Phone is still very new, has no market share and many important apps are still missing from its Marketplace and Android is a very well established OS, with the highest percentage of market share in the world, an amazing app ecosystem and the ability to be customized to Nokia’s need, unlike Windows Phone that Microsoft doesn’t want anyone touching it.
The truth is that Elop was afraid that Samsung would be the dominating force in Android, and that it would make things extremely hard for other companies to compete, so far, he seems to be right. At the launch of the Lumia 1020, Elop spoke with the Guardian and said:
“What we were worried about a couple of years ago was the very high risk that one hardware manufacturer could come to dominate Android.” “We had a suspicion of who it might be, because of the resources available, the vertical integration, and we were respectful of the fact that we were quite late in making that decision. Many others were in that space already.”
He also added “I’m very happy with the decision we made” so it looks like even if Windows Phone is struggling to gain ground and people just aren’t buying into it or the Lumia range of devices, Nokia won’t be making Android phones any time soon. Although I’m sure somewhere in the Nokia building in Finland there’s a box with Nokia phones running stock Android that many people would kill for.
We know for a fact that Samsung is the king of the market, and it’s killing its competition mostly by raw marketing power, we haven’t seen HTC, Sony or Motorola be able to keep up with Samsung budget and ways to push its devices to people. Remember how the Galaxy S III was the official phone of the London Olympics? how do you compete with that? Even Google was afraid of Samsung and is said that this was one of the reasons Google bought Motorola, in case the South Korean company’s reign was too big.
According to Elop, carriers want to have options outside Samsung and Android so they can offer the best device range possible to their customers who might not want a Samsung device or Google’s OS, So Nokia went with Microsoft and is launching only Windows Phone devices.
Finally, he added “it was the right decision. You look at a number of other Android providers right now and they’re in a tough spot.” even if he admitted that it was a tough decision.
What do you think? Would you buy a Nokia phone running Android? Let us know in the comments.