Nokia CEO Rajeev Suri announced that Nokia will re-enter the handset market in 2016 by licensing its brands and designs, thus confirming rumors that have been swirling since April. Nokia will not actually manufacture the phones, but rather design them and make the brand name available for them. Suri did not indicate if it would be for Android only or include Windows Phones as well.
Nokia still has more than 10,000 patents, some relating to mobile phone technology. Nokia’s return to the highly competitive handset market could put it in direct competition with Microsoft, which bought Nokia’s handset manufacturing division in 2014.
As part of the deal, Nokia agreed not to license it’s brand until fourth quarter of 2016. After the close of the deal, Microsoft was only allowed to use the Nokia name on Windows Phone Lumia smartphones for 18 months, and has since dropped the Nokia name from Lumia smartphones. Microsoft can use the Nokia name on feature phones for 10 years.
According to FierceWireless,
Microsoft, meanwhile, has been pushing entry-level and mid-range Windows phones in an effort to boost Windows Phone’s market share, which stands at around 3 percent in the U.S., according to comScore, and 2.7 percent globally, according to IDC.
We wrote earlier this week that Verizon will be offering the Lumia 735, and AT&T will soon be launching the Lumia 640 XL. Microsoft has also said it will be launching a flagship Windows Phone later this year.
Having used the Lumia 920 and 1520, this excites me (and I’m sure many other people). Nokia has always made great phones, and it would be nice to see a flagship, full-fledged Android device made with Nokia quality. Plus, the more competition there is among handset manufacturers, the better off it is for the consumers. The thing to watch will be how much control or say Nokia has in build quality. If they are doing the designing, I would think they’d have some say in the matter, but you never know.
Would you be excited to see a full-fledged Android Nokia device? A high end Nokia Windows Phone? Let us know in the comments below, or on Google+, Twitter, or Facebook.
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Last Updated on November 27, 2018.
