Nokia said there is "absolutely no truth" to the rumor that it would be using the Google-backed Android operating system for a smartphone or mobile Internet device.

The speculation came after a report in the Guardian quoted industry insiders who said the world's largest cell phone manufacturer would use the Android platform to help it be more competitive against high-end devices like Apple's iPhone and Research In Motion's BlackBerry smartphones.

"Everyone knows that Symbian is our preferred platform for advanced mobile devices," a Nokia spokesman told the Reuters news service.

The move would be a stunning shift in strategy for Nokia. The company spent more than $400 million to buy out Symbian last year in order to spin it off into a non-profit foundation that offers an open source version of the OS. The Symbian Foundation was formed to achieve that goal, and its membership includes industry heavyweights such as AT&T, Samsung, Nokia, Vodafone, LG Electronics, and others.

The open source version of Symbian will combine S60, DoCoMo MOAP, and UIQ into a single, royalty-free OS for handset manufacturers to use with the next generation of smartphones. Symbian is already the world's most widely used mobile OS, and the foundation believes a free, customizable version will help increase this footprint. The strategy is similar to what Google is doing with its Linux-based mobile operating system, Android, which it introduced in 2007 along with the Open Handset Alliance. The open source OS can be downloaded and used by anyone, and Google said it expects 18 Android-powered phones to be released by the end of the year from various manufacturers including Motorola, and Samsung.

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