Nokia wants to return to the smartphone market

For the first time since selling its mobile division to Microsoft in April 2014, Nokia admitted it does not rule out the return of Nokia-branded consumer handsets to the market. What’s more, steps are being currently taken in order to make this happen.

The Finnish mobile phone maker said in an official statement that it is currently looking for a „world-class partner” who would be able to handle the manufacturing, marketing, channel distribution and customer support. In return, they would get the licence to use the legendary Nokia brand for mobile devices.

After selling the handset division to Microsoft, Nokia has focused on mobile network infrastructure, location & mapping services, and technology development & licensing. With one exception. Nokia is cooperating with Foxconn who manufactures and markets the Nokia N1 Android tablet. Mainly in China. It seems the Finnish are considering following the same path with future handsets.

Whether the aforementioned „world-class partner” would be Foxconn or any other major player, remains to be seen. However, according to the agreement with Microsoft, this will could happen not earlier than Q4 2016. We definitely won’t be seeing Nokia phones until then.

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