Barcelona – Early this morning, Nokia held their highly anticipated press conference here at Mobile World Congress 2014. Anticipated is the word used because while two new and admirable low-end entry phones were introduced – the Asha 230 and Nokia 220 – all eyes were focused on ‘X’. Yes, Nokia has gone Android. But if you think that’s all there is to the story, you may be missing the point. We sat down with Jo Harlow, Executive Vice President, Smart Devices at Nokia, for some answers to our eager questions. If you watched the live stream of Nokia’s presentation on the Nokia X, X+ and XL devices, you may have noticed that their message was crafted perfectly. Yes, the words ‘Android’ and ‘Google’ were used, but Stephen Elop was purposeful in focusing on Microsoft’s services and Nokia’s Lumia line. It was as if they knew that one wrong word could be misconstrued as “Nokia has doubts about Windows Phone” or that this new device series was an admission of failure. Best VPN providers 2020: Learn about ExpressVPN, NordVPN & more

It’s not though. In fact, the Nokia X and what it represents, is an extremely bold and shrewd move. To wit, Nokia is the first and only major phone manufacturer to spurn Google’s Open Handset Alliance (OHA), instead going rogue with the open-sourced Android. It’s kind of a big deal as once you leave the OHA, you don’t get back in. You also lose all of Google’s services. That’s okay though as Nokia and Microsoft have enough of their own services to make up for it. At least, that’s the plan.