Nokia CEO Admits Samsung Scared Company Away From Android

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Nokia’s decision to only make Windows smartphones has been heavily scrutinized ever since CEO Stephen Elop made the announcement in 2011. Why go with Microsoft’s new platform when Android was already better established?

In a recent interview Elop revealed the reason Nokia didn’t switch to Android was because they felt it was going to get dominated by one company: Samsung.

“I’m very happy with the decision we made. What we were worried about a couple of years ago was the very high risk that one hardware manufacturer could come to dominate Android. We had a suspicion of who it might be, because of the resources available, the vertical integration, and we were respectful of the fact that we were quite late in making that decision. Many others were in that space already.”

Nokia’s prediction eventually came true as Samsung has taken control of the Android hardware market while Motorola and HTC struggle to stay afloat. Even though Nokia is the biggest supporter of Windows Phone – for which Microsoft sends quarterly platform payments of $250 million – the company still posted a loss of $151 million last quarter.