Who hasn’t used Nokia? We still have fond memories of our 3310’s and N95’s, or at least we heard about them from our friends or relatives, how an uncle bought one from U.K or another country.
Then the smartphone happened, and the telecom giant was not prepared for it. And then Microsoft happened and the phone giant sold off its business to the tech giant with disastrous results.
But now, it seems that the nightmare is over for Nokia. The company is getting back into the phone business again, this time for good.
New players in the field
Microsoft, who was the most recent owner of Nokia’s phone business, has taken the first step towards offloading Nokia.
Microsoft sold its feature phone business to FIH Mobile, a subsidiary of Foxconn, for $350 million. The deal sees Microsoft handing over the rights to use the brand name of Nokia, feature phone software, supply agreements and other contracts.
Nokia itself is licensing its brand and intellectual property to a newly formed company called HMD Global which aims to manufacture and sell a portfolio of Android smartphones and tablets. HMD has agreed to a conditional deal with Microsoft to use the Nokia brand name on feature phones and some other deals related to design.
This deal is supposed to be completed by the end of June.
HMD Global and the aforementioned FIH Mobile already have a deal in place which aims “to support the building of a global business for Nokia-branded mobile phones and tablets.” Foxconn (FIH parent) partnered with Nokia to release the Nokia N1 tablet earlier and the new HMD venture seems to be a formalization of their relationship.
Looking forward
HMD Global will have Nokia in its board of directors and Nokia will “set mandatory brand requirements and performance related provisions.” The new company will have the manufacturing expertise of Foxconn in the form of FIH Mobile and the design acumen of Nokia.
It might be a bit of a mess behind the scenes with all these business contracts and deals, but for the regular people the answer is simple, Nokia is making a comeback with its new Android smartphones and tablets in addition to its range of feature phones. You can look forward to seeing some great Android based Nokia smartphones later this year.
