After selling their Devices & Services business to Microsoft, Nokia have been left to languish in relative obscurity. Nokia, still a house hold name, is far from the heady heights of being the number one cell phone maker in the world. A position it held for 14 years until smart phones came along. It now concentrates on mobile network infrastructure, mapping and navigation and advanced technology and licensing.
When Nokia sold their phone division to Microsoft, the agreement stipulated that Microsoft had a limited time to use the Nokia branding on their devices and services. Due to this, in the last year, Microsoft has transitioned the branding of its phones from Nokia to Lumia and that now leaves the door wide open for Nokia to return in to the mobile devices game should they wish to do so. Recently there has been quite a bit of speculation and rumor about Nokia doing just that.
“So it’s not surprising that today, the question comes up all the time: will Nokia return to mobile devices? The answer is: it’s complicated,” Nokia mentions in an official statement. Nokia confirmed in the statement that they have intentions to make mobile devices again. This is something they hinted at late last year in an announcement of the, as of yet, unreleased Nokia N1 Android tablet. You can see that event in the video below.
Due to the fact that they sold off their device manufacturing, marketing and distribution capabilities to Microsoft, Nokia needs to partner up with a company that has these capabilities. So the next incarnation of Nokia devices, should they happen, will be through a brand licensing model according to the post. The statement also says that Nokia would “guide the design and technology differentiation”.
What would you like to see Nokia do next? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
Further reading: Lumia, Microsoft, Nokia, Nokia Tablet
