Apple Created Android, Says Nokia’s Elop

Nokia CEO Stephen Elop made some interesting comments during his speech at Open Mobile Summit in London.

No, it wasn’t that Nokia isn’t for sale. We sorta knew that.

Rather, it’s his affirmation that if it weren’t for Apple, Android would not have risen to become so successful. as MocaNews reported:

Apple created Android, or at least it created the conditions necessary to create Android. People decided they could not play in the Apple way, and they had to do something else. Then Google stepped in there and created Android… and others jumped on the Android train.

Those “people” would be led by Android creator Andy Rubin, his team of crack engineers, and the 100 million-plus users who bought or at least activated an Android handset or tablet.

Android strangling Nokia?

Elop also talked about Android as having more proprietary code than people expect, perhaps underscoring Oracle’s serious patent infringement lawsuit versus the company.

I’m not sure what tone Elop used for this when the comment came out of his mouth today, but we already know that Elop feels Android is strangling Nokia overseas. There is empirical market evidence for that so it doesn’t matter what Elop says on that front.

Indeed, IDC said today it expects Android, which passed Nokia’s Symbian platform as the leading operating system worldwide in Q4 2010, to grow to more than 40 percent of the market in the second half of 2011. That will be double Symbian’s share through the year.

Elop can criticise Android all he wants, but he should spend more time pairing the struggling Windows Phone OS with Nokia hardware. That’s how to challenge Apple and Android, which threaten Nokia’s existence.

One of his plans includes helping operators create local, customized apps to take advantage of local services.

Yes, but Apple and Android are also creating these services. Apple is bedding with Twitter and Google has Wallet and Offers which address the local deals market.

I’m not sure Elop’s work to bring Nokia back and thrust Windows Phone into the limelight is so cut and dried.