Nokia Denies Plans Of Returning To Handset Manufacturing

Earlier this week there was a report out of China that supposedly quoted Nokia China’s president who “confirmed” the company’s plans to return to handset manufacturing. This was somewhat exciting news as it has been speculated that this could mean we could look forward to some Nokia-made Android handsets.

Unfortunately it seems that the report is not true. According to an official statement released by Nokia, “Nokia notes recent news reports claiming the company communicated an intention to manufacture consumer handsets out of a R&D facility in China. These reports are false, and include comments incorrectly attributed to a Nokia Networks executive. Nokia reiterates it currently has no plans to manufacture or sell consumer handsets.”

The previous report stated that Nokia would be relocating their R&D facility to China and would be producing smartphones in 2016. Back then we speculated it would most likely be late 2016 as the deal with Microsoft meant that they weren’t allowed to create Nokia-branded smartphones until the end of 2015, and weren’t allowed to license their brand to other companies until Q3 2016, meaning that at earliest it would be Q4 2016 if we were to see a Nokia smartphone.

It was also suggested that Nokia would act more as a reference designer rather than manufacturer. In any case it looks like it will all be for moot now as the rumors have since been officially debunked. Anyone else a little bummed by this?

Tyler Lee
Categories: Cellphones
Tags: Nokia