Sony Ericsson’s Android Phone Is Leaked, while Nokia Denies Plans

Details of a Sony Ericsson phone running Google’s Android operating system have been leaked, while Nokia has denied rumours that it too is working with the open source platform.

Nokia denied the rumours, which started in The Guardian, that it would launch a smartphone running Android in September. “Absolutely no truth to this whatsoever,” said a Nokia spokesman, quoted by Reuters. “Everyone knows that Symbian is our preferred platform for advanced mobile devices.”

Nokia’s smartphones, suchas the recently launched N97 all use the Symbian OS. This is produced by Nokia subsidiary Symbian Limited, but is scheduled to become open source under the Symbian Foundation, by the end of 2010.

Symbian still leads the smartphone market with around 41 percent of the units sold, but web traffic from the iPhone has grown rapidly, and the Android platform has been well received, in phones such as the HTC Magic since it appeared in phones late in 2008.

Meanwhile, troubled Sony Ercisson is not in a position to argue with a successful new operating system, and has apparently got an Android machine on the launchpad. Codenamed Rachael, according to leaks at Mobil.nu, it has been described as an Android version of the Sony Ericsson Satio, the company’s biggest volley so far against the iPhone.

Details apparently include a full four-inch touchscreen, an 8 Mpixel camera, standard headphone jack. It’s also likely to have the new universal microUSB charger, and to abandon the hated Sony Memory Stick card format.