Microsoft wants to make cheap Androids to cover Windows Phone costs

Microsoft wants to cover the costs of competing with Apple’s iPhones and Samsung’s Galaxy S models by selling cheap Android phones. That writes business newspaper The Wall Street Journal. Nokia will present the first model within a few weeks.

Microsoft needs an increase in sales to keep factories running, the newspaper writes. In addition, Windows Phone requires certain hardware, so phones with the operating system automatically fall into a higher price range. The cheapest Nokia with Windows Phone is the Lumia 520, which went on sale for around 150 euros and now costs around 120 euros.

According to information from The Wall Street Journal, Microsoft would like to make low-cost devices with Android to help cover the costs of competing with Apple’s iPhone and Samsung’s Galaxy S devices in the more expensive segment.

The newspaper, which relies on anonymous sources and which has an almost flawless reputation in the field of telecom rumors, says that Nokia will show the device at the telecom fair Mobile World Congress, which takes place in Barcelona in two weeks.

Previous rumors indicate that the device has a 4 “screen with a resolution of 854×480 pixels and runs on a Snapdragon 200-soc from Qualcomm. There have been rumors for months about this Nokia X or Nokia Normandy, which has been around long before the takeover. Microsoft was in development. The Nokia X would exchange Google services for services from Nokia and Microsoft.

Nokia has been working on Linux-based operating systems for low-cost phones for almost ten years: initially that was one of the goals for the Maemo project, which later developed the N900. After that, MeeGo got that Nokia together with Intel made a version for cheap phones called Meltemi. It would be the first time Nokia would release a cheap Linux kernel-based phone.