The new Nokias will be manufactured by Foxconn subsidiary FIH Mobile and sold by a Finnish company called HMD Global, which will have an exclusive global license for the Nokia brand for the next ten years
The story of the new, new Nokia is somewhat complex, so here's a little background: Microsoft bought Nokia's struggling mobile phone division in 2013 for $7.2 billion but it ditched the Nokia brand the following year, instead calling its mobile phones Microsoft Lumia.
Despite a strong push into mobiles and a solid alternative to the iOS and Android in the Windows Phone platform, the plan didn't work out as Microsoft had imagined, and the company sold what was left of its phone hardware business to HMD Global and FIH Mobile. Nokia, which still owns the Nokia brand, has licensed it to HMD Global, and will receive royalty payments for the sale of every Nokia-branded phone or tablet. That deal, originally announced in May 2016, is now sealed.
In practice, this means another Android player has emerged in the overcrowded market, albeit one with a familiar brand name, a move Nokia claims is enthusiastically greeted by consumers.
There's nothing in terms of official device announcements yet, but Nokia did launch a new "phones" section on its website. Unofficially, the first Nokia phones in 2017 will be a 5- and a 5.5-inch Android with midrange specs, and they might arrive in time for Mobile World Congress, which takes place in late February in Barcelona.
New phones are coming from Nokia. We’ve known it was happening for a while, but official information was always lacking, until now. The agreement between Nokia and HMD Global announced in May 2016 has been finalized, and is in effect. It means HMD Global can use Nokia’s brand name and designs on smartphones it commissions Foxconn-owned FIH Mobile to build for it over the next ten years.
HMD Global calls itself “the new home of Nokia phones,” and promises we’ll get a range of smartphones and tablets, which will be announced soon. When will this be? Speculation has been growing at least some announcements will come at Mobile World Congress in February 2017, and taking a look at a newly updated Nokia website goes some way to back this up.
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The site says Nokia is, “busy working on smartphones running Android,” and that it’s, “just getting started, with new smartphones coming in 2017.” HMD Global’s press release on the subject makes things even clearer, confirming Nokia Android phones will be here during the first half of next year. The smartphones will sit alongside the current Nokia feature phone range.
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