New York Times: Nokia has a Lumia running Android in their labs before the handset division sale

According to the New York Times and the usual people who declined to be identified, a team within Nokia had Android up and running on the Nokia’s Lumia handsets well before Microsoft and Nokia began negotiating Microsoft’s $7.2 billion acquisition of Nokia’s mobile phone and services business.

Apparently it was not difficult to get the OS up and running on the hardware, and the effort may well have been of the “Plan B” type. Microsoft was aware of the work, but another person familiar with the news said the idea of Nokia using Android wasn’t a part of Microsoft’s discussions with the company about an acquisition, even though that was widely recognized as a possibility.

The news cast some new light on the motivation behind Microsoft making the first move in securing the purchase of Nokia’s handset division, particularly with the deal coming up for renewal in 2014.

Whatever the truth of the matter is, what is clear now is that the current Nokia creative team will not be releasing any Android phones in the next few years at least, which is of course a gain for Windows Phone and a loss to Android.