Google said on Tuesday its door remains open if Nokia ever reconsiders its choice of Microsoft as the partner to provide the operating systems for the Finnish firm’s mobile phones.
“We would have loved if they chose Android. They chose the other guys, that other competitor, Microsoft,” said Eric Schmidt, chief executive of Google, taking a question after a keynote speech at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
“I think we would like them to adopt Android at some point in the future. That offer remains open,” he added. “We think Android was a good choice for Nokia. We’re sorry that they made a different choice.
And we certainly tried.” Nokia, the world’s biggest cellphone maker in terms of units sold, announced Friday it was ending development of its Symbian operating system and would soon adopt Windows Phone 7 for its high-end phones.
The decision has shaken up the phone business and spells competition ahead for Google. Android phones are the dominant products at the Barcelona expo. The third big player in operating systems is Apple.
At the start of the expo, Nokia chief executive Stephen Elop confirmed that both Google and Microsoft bid hard for Nokia’s favour before the decision. He said choosing Android would have left a duopoly of Google and Apple dominating the business.
