By Khurram Aziz | Dec 03, 2012 04:07 PM EST
Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia once again had to deny that it is planning on bringing out an Android OS-based smartphone.
The rumors were started by a job posting on the company's Web site for a senior engineer position, working with Linux - the operating system which forms the backbone of Google's Android.
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However Nokia's VP of Media Relations, Doug Dawson, quickly took to Twitter to clarify that the job related to its new mapping project, HERE Maps, and supporting it for Android and iOS devices, rather than for the development of a standalone Android handset.
"Hi. Our recently posted job is linked to our HERE Maps support for other platforms, including iOS and Android. Nothing more," said Dawson in a Tweet.
Nokia is one of the few mobile phone manufacturers left which does not make an Android handset - an operating system Google licenses for free to its partners.
For years the company, which used to be the biggest mobile phone maker in the world, relied on the Symbian operating system for its devices. However, in 2010, Android officially overtook Symbian as the most popular mobile OS in the world and its uptake has been in steady decline ever since.
In February 2011, Nokia announced that it would migrate from Symbian to Microsoft's Windows Phone OS and the company released its first Windows phones, the Lumia 800 and Lumia 710, later that year.
For the most part, the company has remained loyal to Microsoft, and last month became the first mobile phone makers to feature the latest Windows Phone 8 OS, with the release of the Lumia 920 and Lumia 820 smartphones.
That doesn't mean it has ignored the Android market altogether. As mobile phone manufacturers look to broaden their penetration in the sector, Nokia is looking to compete directly with Google Maps and Apple's Maps App with the release in November of its HERE Maps.
HERE is available across all major smartphone platforms, and as Dawson clarified, the job posting for a Linux expert is specifically to help the company develop its navigation app for Android devices.
But that doesn't mean that Nokia has closed the book on developing an Android device altogether. Much will depend on the sales figures of the newly launched Windows Phone 8 devices.
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