Should Microsoft kill Windows Phone and switch to Android?

I’ve just had an interesting idea (which is pretty rare at the end of a long, hard week). What if Microsoft’s new CEO,Satya Nadella, drops Windows Phone in favor of Android? This might seem crazy, given the amount of time and money that Microsoft has put into Windows Phone — but desperate times call for desperate measures, right? Adding credence to this idea is the Nokia X (codenamed Normandy) — a Lumia-style phone that runs Android. This mid-range phone, despite Microsoft’s acquisition of Nokia, still looks like it’s going to come to market this spring. Is it possible that Microsoft is waiting to see how the Nokia X does, before making a decision on the continuation of Windows Phone?

Now, there is obviously a lot of inertia against this idea. Microsoft has worked very, very hard to make Windows Phone a viable third option alongside iOS and Android. It’s not quite there, but it’s getting tantalizingly close. Presumably, Windows Phone 8.1, due out in the first half of the year, will finally push us over the “hey, this is actually really cool” threshold. Likewise, and perhaps more importantly, Microsoft has spent a lot of time and money cultivating an army of Windows Phone app developers — developers that, confronted with the runaway success of iOS and Android, probably took a lot of convincing.