Google’s engineering vice president Vic Gundotra has quashed rumors that Nokia is mulling a switch to the Android smartphone platform, with an apparently damning Tweet.
"Two turkeys do not make an eagle," he wrote, prefaced with the hashtag #feb11, the date of Nokia's strategy day.
As TelecomTV points out, Gundotra is showing an awareness of history with his tweet. Anssi Vanjoki – Nokia’s former executive vice president - used the same comment when he commented on the acquisition of Siemens' handset business by BenQ in 2005.
The rumor that Nokia might adopt Android when it announces its new strategy on Friday always seemed one of the least likely possibilities. It might provide a quick fix to Nokia's poor perception, especially in the US, but it would rob it of the chance to create a differentiated platform, and would force it to strengthen the Google hand.
Nokia has not commented, and Vanjoki - its most vocal critic of Android - has already left.
However rumors continue to swirl, including the idea that chief Stephen Elop will move the firm's headquarters and primary listing to the US, and that he will dump MeeGo.
Many of the analyses ignore the fact that Nokia's problems have often stemmed from changing too slowly - and a major switch of platform or even HQ could put it even further behind the game. A swap-out of OSs, rather than the addition of Windows to its existing multiplatform strategy, would garner strong headlines but would effectively take Nokia out of the smartphone race for another year while it redesigned its products and ecosystem.
Of course, it would be easier to dump MeeGo, which has scarcely come to market yet, except in a few early net books from the Intel side of the equation. Reports from Reuters today suggested that Nokia's first MeeGo handset – the N9-00 - may have already been cancelled.
If true, it will enrage Elop. An internal memo purporting to come from Elop was 'leaked' this week, voicing some opinions that many hold about Nokia, including the slow pace of MeeGo. "We have some brilliant sources of innovation inside Nokia, but we are not bringing it to market fast enough. We thought MeeGo would be a platform for winning high end smartphones. However, at this rate, by the end of 2011, we might have only one MeeGo product in the market," Elop states.
He was also said to have compared Nokia to a burning oil rig and said the firm "poured gasoline on its own burning platform".
Original article: Google VP scotches Nokia-Android rumor