The announcement by Google earlier this week of its proposed $12.5 billion merger with smartphone and tablet maker Motorola Mobility is not supposed to impact other makers of smartphones that use Google's Android operating system. But the CEO of Nokia said today that if he were an phone maker with Android-based devices he would be calling up Google and warning them of danger due to this deal.
Bloomberg reports that Nokia CEO Stephen Elop, speaking at a business forum in Helsinki, told the audience, "If I happened to be someone, an Android manufacturer or an operator, anyone with a stake in that environment, I would be picking up my phone and calling certain executives at Google and saying ‘I see signs of danger.'" Google has already stated that it plans to run Motorola as a separate company if the deal goes through and that Motorola will have to get a Android license like every other smartphone maker.
Nokia, of course, has decided to go all in with another rival operating system, Microsoft's Windows Phone 7. Nokia announced its decision to make Windows Phone 7 based devices earlier this year and plans to release the first smartphones later this fall. Many industry insiders have been critical of Nokia's move to use a operating system that only has a fraction of Android's audience. However Elop said today, "In February when we announced the new strategy going forward, we made a decision to enter into a partnership that ensures the promise of what we described here today as well as many other things that we still have not shared and are still in our future."
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