There have been a lot of reports in the media lately that perhaps Nokia is considering a move back into the smartphone market. Initially the company declined that it had any such ambitions but recently it has been more open about this topic and particularly what the future holds. Nokia has said that it’s new smartphones might hit the market around Q4 2016.
Nokia was once the largest mobile phone maker in the world, it truly had global brand recognition which still exists to this very day. The company’s handsets were known for their superb build quality above all.
Many of you might be aware though that in April 2014 Nokia sold its devices and services business to Microsoft and with it went the substantial manufacturing, marketing and channel distribution capabilities that are required to remain in the business of making and selling phones.
Thus the Nokia that exists right now is more about mobile network infrastructure, location and mapping services, technology development and licensing.
Nokia says that the right path for it to return to the phone market is through a brand-licensing model, which basically means that someone else is going to manufacture, sell, market and provide customer support for the handsets while Nokia is only going to lend the partner its valuable brand name.
However since there’s an agreement with Microsoft that something along these lines won’t happen until Q4 2016 it’s safe to say that nothing will happen before then. Nokia will work to find the right partner that can do all of that heavy lifting before it decides to license its brand name and return to the smartphone market.
Filed in . Read more about Microsoft and Nokia. Source: company.nokia