Nokia is reportedly planning to release a phone running Android next year.

According to a report by The Verge, the Finnish phone maker is developing a low-cost phone running Android, despite the company being in the process of being swallowed up by Microsoft, following an acquisition deal announced back in September.

Dubbed Normandy, the handset will replace its Series 40 operating system used it the Asha range of feature phones with a forked version of Android. An image of the Android Nokia phone was released by @evleaks in December. It shows a device, not unlike a phone from Nokia's Lumia range but devoid of capacitive navigation buttons.

And despite the imminent takeover, the publication said multiple sources told it that the phone would give users access to smartphone apps, something that Asha found difficult. The OS would be stripped of any Google services running and would probably be heavily skinned to disguise its origins, much like the Amazon Kindle tablet OS. This would also give Nokia control over what apps the phone will run.

The publication said that Nokia employees have been told that production of the Android phone is now "full steam ahead" and will be released next year. Although this maybe in doubt if the phone isn't launched before the Microsoft deal goes through.