Nokia Isn’t Switching to Android — Not Yet, At Least

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Last week, it was suggested that Nokia might be planning on switching to Android as its mobile operating system of choice for the smartphone lineup it carries. This claim was based on a job offering that Nokia had posted on its LinkedIn page, in which the company was looking for a software engineer that would focus on “Linux device software and hardware drivers for our exciting new products.”

Android is open-source software based on the Linux kernel, which fueled speculation that Nokia might switch to the platform in the foreseeable future. As reported by Zach Epstein at BGR, however, Nokia spokesman Doug Dawson on Sunday confirmed by tweet that the job listing is tailored towards Nokia’s mapping service in particular. “Our recently posted job is linked to our HERE Maps support for other platforms, including iOS and Android,” Dawson tweeted.

Nokia does have a backup plan in place should its Windows Phone experiment turn sour, but it doesn’t look like they’ll be executing it right now. Due to widespread supply shortages and constraints on popular Windows Phone devices, including Nokia’s own Lumia 920, it has been difficult to gauge just how successful demand has been for devices running Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8 software. As the holiday shopping season wraps up, sales figures should become clearer.

[Twitter via BGR]