Nokia seeking Linux expert, working on Android handsets?
A Nokia job advert has hinted that the Finnish company could be working on Android phones.
Now here's grist for the rumour mill. Nokia has advertised for a Linux expert to join the company, working on mobile products, Gizmodo UK reports. Linux, of course, is the basis of Google's Android operating system.
What's more, the job advert has mysteriously disappeared. Hmm…
According to Gizmodo, the ad was looking for someone to work in a "start-up environment" to develop "exciting new products" for "mobile phone technology" the company is working on. Sounds to me like it could well be Android.
Nokia was said to be working on its own Linux-based OS, Meltemi. But that was purely for low-end mobiles, according to reports at the time. In the summer, news came that the Finnish phone firm had killed off the OS. And would Nokia really try and launch a whole new operating system when things aren't looking great for the company?
Or could it be hiring someone to work on Tizen, the Intel/Samsung OS that's also based on Linux? Well maybe, but I can't see Nokia getting behind a nascent operating system so soon after Windows Phone.
How about a revival of MeeGo then? Nokia canned its operating system with Intel before it really got going, so I doubt it would try to bring it back to life. Tizen has taken over where it left off anyway, so trying to reanimate MeeGo's corpse would be pointless.
Of course it could be a simple case of needing someone to port Nokia's Here maps to Android. But would Nokia really advertise that as a "start-up environment", with "exciting new products" (note the plural) for mobiles?
Nokia's chairman said last summer that the company had a plan B if Windows Phone failed, prompting speculation that it was Android. What do you reckon? Would you like to see Nokia make Google-powered handsets? Let me know in the comments, or on Facebook.