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HMD admits it screwed up Android 11 rollout for Nokia phones
July 16, 2025
One of the key selling points of HMD’sNokiasmartphones in the early days was that they would be up-to-date in terms of software upgrades. The company was indeed quick to update phones at first, but things declined massively with the Android 11 update.
Was this a case of the company spreading itself too thinly for the number of phones it had to update? We put this question to HMD Global in an interview.
“I think your observation is fair, to be honest. We did have not as much success with the Android 11 rollout (sic), and I think we’ve learned from that,” HMD CMO Stephan Taylor toldAndroid Authorityin response to the question.
The HMD executive also said the company wasn’t part of the Android 11 beta program and acknowledged that a wide device portfolio didn’t help matters.
Time for a turnaround?
“But I think as we move forward, certainly on the global perspective, we’ve got a more focused level of device (sic), and we’re already in the beta program with Android 12,” Taylor explains. He also points to theNokia X20‘s stable Android 12 rollout as evidence of the company’s renewed effort in this regard.
“So yeah, bit humbled by how we did with Android 11, but I think we’ll get onto the front foot again.”
HMD was ranked 10th forAndroid update speedin our rundown in early 2021, which is a huge slide from its fourth position in early 2020. But hopefully the Nokia X20’s comparatively quick rollout is a sign of things to come from the company in 2022.
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