Is Nokia about to announce a whole new way of thinking by ditching Symbian and launching an Android smartphone? This is the latest rumour to be gathering pace and it's claimed could happen as soon as September! Join us after the jump to find out what the latest Nokia Android smartphone has to offer...

Nokia may well be in the throes of launching an Android smartphone and it may make it first public appearance this September as part of the Nokia World conference. This is a story that has popped up on the Guardian over the weekend.

The Guardian reckons that Nokia could well be about to jump on the Android bandwagon but only has reliable 'industry insiders' to back their claims. With Nokia developing Maemo has its chosen platform for the next generation of tablets and even smartphones, this idea may be wishful thinking rather than fact.

The report goes on to claim that Nokia is on the back foot and needs to opt for an Android smartphone to counteract other devices taking market share. Analysts at HSBC report Nokia had 47 per cent of the global smartphone market in 2007; that was down to 35 per cent last summer and 31 per cent at the end of the year.

Is Nokia about to abandon Symbian, which is only bought a year ago and opt for an open source platform that is already being exploited by other hardware vendors? Or, as is more likely, is this just rumour mongering ahead of the Nokia World conference and no firm details of Maemo being know? Let us know what you think in the Comments below.

Via: guardian online

UPDATE: We've had word from Nokia that the above story is merely rumour and conjecture, with Nokia going on record as saying 'There is no truth to this story whatsoever. It is a well known fact that Symbian is our platform of choice for smartphones.' So, there you have it, it looks like Maemo will be the OS of choice for tablets and the Nokia Netbook and Symbian the OS of choice!