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Perhaps Microsoft has learnt from their past mistakes with Windows 8 when they announced that Windows 7 handsets would not be upgradable to Windows 8, causing an uproar amongst Windows 7 users. After all these were the users who decided to give Microsoft’s new mobile platform a go and this was how they were being “rewarded” for their efforts. Thankfully things have changed with Windows Phone 8.1. As you might recall, Microsoft has promised that all existing Windows 8 handsets will be eligible for the Windows Phone 8.1 update, and in a recent video, we can clearly see the Nokia Lumia 520 running the latest software update.

For those unfamiliar, the Lumia 520 is one of the lower-end Windows Phone 8 handsets in the market at the moment. The specs of the device are certainly not that impressive but at the same time, it has proven itself to be the most popular Windows Phone device around the world. So we guess if one of the lower-end Windows Phone devices has no issue running the latest update, we guess higher-end handsets like the Nokia Lumia 1520 and the Lumia Icon should not have any problems receiving the update themselves either. As it stands, Windows Phone 8.1 has been pegged for a release between July and August, so there’s still a bit of waiting we will have to do.

Windows Phone 8.1 Running On The Lumia 520 [Video] original content from Ubergizmo.

Rumours that primary Windows Phone OEM Nokia has been two-timing Microsoft by keeping an Android phone project on its backburner have been doing the rounds for a while now (aka the rumoured Nokia Normandy device). But yesterday the Wall Street Journal tipped more fuel on this fire, citing “people familiar with the matter” confirming that Nokia will unveil an Android powered device at the Mobile World Congress tradeshow in Barcelona later this month.

Now there’s plenty of WTF here. Not least because Nokia is about to hand over its mobile making division to Windows Phone maker Microsoft in exchange for a substantial pile of cash (€5.44 billion/$7.2 billion). So why would Microsoft, which has its own mobile platform, sanction its soon to be mobile making division to build an Android-powered device?

On the surface, it sounds like madness. And yet, as others have previously speculated, there is potentially method to this madness — being as Windows Phone has failed to challenge Android’s reach at the lower end of the smartphone market.

The bottom-of-the-range $180 Lumia 520 (pictured at the top of this post), which was announced at last year’s MWC conference and has sold relatively well for a Windows Phone, is still a ways more pricey than the least expensive Droids (sub-$50 Android handsets are available in emerging markets).

Ergo, switching to Android for budget devices would be one way for Microsoft to slice itself a larger portion of a very large (and growing) chunk of the smartphone pie.

If the best traction for Windows Phone has been at the lower end price-point, then pushing that lower still could be a winning combination — even if the resulting phones won’t technically be Windows Phones. Yet they will look and taste like Windows Phones, spreading the flavour of Microsoft’s mobile OS further than it’s thus far been able to go.

The Android powered Nokia device the WSJ’s sources discuss would come preloaded with Microsoft (and Nokia) services, including a Nokia Android app store, rather than Google software and Google’s Play store — effectively making it a Trojan horse pushed inside the Android fortress to ‘on-ramp’ first time smartphone users.

Or a plucky landing on the shores of occupied territory, if you will.

The device would also not resemble vanilla Android in terms of its UI, but would rather be a fork of Android — just as Amazon has forked Android for its Kindle Fire tablets and to further its own ends, not Google’s — with Nokiasoft apparently dressing the interface to make it look like Windows Phone.

Doing that would mean the budget Droid could acclimatize first time smartphone users to a Windows Phone world — i.e. in the hopes they will upgrade to a full-fat Windows Phone Lumia smartphone in the fullness of time.

According to the WSJ, Nokia engineers have been developing the Android device before agreeing to sell its mobile making division to Microsoft last fall. But up to now it hasn’t been clear whether Nokia planned to move ahead with the project or not.

The newspaper’s sources confirm the handset will be unveiled later this month — so presumably the project has been okayed by Microsoft’s new CEO Satya Nadella.

Nokia is holding a press conference at MWC, where TC will be on hand to cover the news. (Albeit, Nokia’s understated invite for this event isn’t giving away any Droid-flavoured hints:)

It’s not clear whether the Normandy Android landing is a stop-gap strategy while Microsoft retools Windows Phone for even lower prices smartphones. But the WSJ says Microsoft will be refocusing WP attention on flagship smartphones, to better compete at the higher end. (Yeah, good luck with that…)

At its earning call last month, Nokia — the only substantial Windows Phone OEM (controlling 90% of the market according to AdDuplex) — revealed it sold a total of just 30 million Lumia devices during in the whole of 2013.

Compare that to Android’s vast sprawl: Google announced 900M active Android activations in May last year. And cumulative active Android activations are likely to break the billion mark this year as the platform continues to expand to new device types to fuel further growth.

With comparative numbers like those it’s not hard to see Microsoft’s logic in signing off a Windows Phone-flavoured Android-powered low end smartphone Trojan horse.

Windows Phone certainly needs a better growth strategy. Some might say it needs a growth strategy period. And, ironically, piggybacking on Android may be the best way to achieve that elusive momentum.

At the time of writing Nokia had not responded to a request for comment. Update: A Nokia spokeswoman declined to comment, saying Nokia doesn’t comment on market rumour and speculation.

It’s safe to say that Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform is best represented by none other than Nokia, who according to the latest figures, has managed to dominate about 90% of the Windows Phone market worldwide, and according to the figures, it looks like this is largely thanks to the Nokia Lumia 520, a seemingly low-mid ranged device that surprisingly turned out to be a pretty huge hit. Back in August we had reported that the Lumia 520 accounted for the majority of Nokia Lumia devices out there, but according to the latest figures, it looks like that number might have gone up a bit.

The figures released by AdDuplex shows that the Lumia 520 commands about 26.5% of the market at the moment, but when you combine it with T-Mobile’s Lumia 521, which is essentially a Lumia 520 variant, that number could be around 29.9%, which is like saying that a third of all Windows Phone devices used at the moment are that of the Lumia 520 family! Unsurprising given that last we checked, the Lumia 521 was actually the most used Windows Phone in the US. What do you guys think? Anyone else surprised that Nokia’s higher-end devices aren’t doing as well as their low-end ones?

Nokia Lumia 520 Continues To Dominate The Windows Phone Market original content from Ubergizmo.

Yet another tidbit has leaked from Microsoft’s recent internal meeting. Apparently the low end Nokia Lumia 520 is the best selling single Windows device in the world, that’s better than any single model of any Windows Phone smartphone, Windows powered tablet or even a Windows PC. The major reason behind its popularity is without a doubt its price. Recently, the Lumia 520 was available for as low as $80 off contract, courtesy of a coupon code.

Nokia has generally fared well in the low end market with its feature phones, the Lumia 520 is capable of doing much more than a feature phone without costing an exorbitant amount of money. It offers decent specifications and features. After the Windows Phone 8 GDR2 update, the device even offered FM radio reception. Nokia Lumia 520 has a 4 inch display, a dualcore 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Plus processor with 512MB of RAM, a 5 megapixel rear camera, 8GB of onboard storage with ability to externally expand memory up to 64GB via microSD card. There’s no front facing camera on the device. Its certainly no powerhouse, but the Lumia 520 particularly stands out in the low end market. The entire Lumia brand itself will soon be under Microsoft’s control, given how it has agreed in principle to buy Nokia’s core phone business for over $7 billion.

Nokia Lumia 520 Apparently Best Selling Windows Device original content from Ubergizmo.

We have seen many times in the past how Nokia’s Lumia 520, despite being a low-end device, proved to be one of the company’s best products and has topped carrier charts, and even allowed the Windows Phone market share to gain and catch up to their competitors in certain markets. Turns out that the Nokia Lumia 520 is so popular that according to a recent report from Forbes, they have found that the handset proved itself to be a pretty effective device against cheaper competitors from tech giants such as Samsung, and other Chinese manufacturers as well.

According to the report, they found that the Lumia 520 managed to hold its own against the Samsung S Duos, and speaking to carriers such as T-Mobile and AT&T have revealed that the phone is considered to be a hit in the contract-free category. The report goes on to note that while Nokia might be able to generate volume, they might not necessarily be making money and that could be the Finnish company’s strategy, which is to gain market share and trust amongst its partners, even if it means staying in the red for a period of time. We would have thought Nokia’s higher-end products would have helped the company achieve success, but it looks like a case of the little engine that could, or the Lumia 520 that could, if you’d rather.

Survey Finds Nokia Lumia 520 Can Hold Its Own Against Low-Cost Competitors original content from Ubergizmo.