Google says offer for Nokia to join hands always open, despite tie-up with Microsoft

Google chief Eric Schmidt has said he felt "sorry" for Nokia striking a partnership with rival Microsoft, that would see the Finnish handset maker adopting Windows platform for its smartphones.

However, Schmidt said Google would like Nokia to adopt its Android operating system at some point in the future.

"We would have loved if they chose Android. They chose the other guys...the competitor Microsoft," the search engine giant's CEO Eric Schmidt said at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

"We think Android was a good choice for Nokia. We're sorry that they made a different choice," he noted.

Nokia and software major Microsoft last week announced they would form a broad strategic partnership that would use their complementary strengths and expertise to create a new global mobile ecosystem.

As part of the deal, Nokia would adopt Microsoft's Windows Phone as its main smartphone platform.

"I think we would like them to adopt Android at some point in the future. That offer remains open," Schmidt said.

Nokia-Microsoft partnership is widely seen as a move by the two companies to fight stiff competition from rivals Apple and Google in the smartphone market.

Faced with intense competition from Apple and Google, the Finnish major has seen its smartphone market share going down in recent times.

The partnership with the software major came a few months after former Microsoft veteran Stephen Elop took over the reins of Nokia.