After Nokia sold its handset and device business to the technology firm Microsoft a year ago, the once leading mobile phone maker has hinted at the chance of a possible comeback in the mobile market. Nokia now wants a partner who can take on the responsibility related to manufacturing, sales, customer support, and marketing.
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Even as it is essential for the company to reenter the smartphone market, it will not be an easy thing to do.
Nokia spokesman Brett Young said Tuesday the “right path back to mobile phones…is through a licensing brand”.
Nokia has been a leading brand for mobile devices.
As with the N1, the hardware partner would be responsible for manufacturing, sales, marketing, channel distribution and customer support. Last week, the company announced plans to cut 7,800 jobs and write down the value of its struggling mobile phone division. Additionally, Microsoft does not seem to be doing too good after acquiring Nokia.
Following a lengthy partnership with Nokia, and having failed to gain traction with its own device portfolio and operating system, Microsoft bought Nokia’s mobile business for $7.2bn.
Q2 2007: 50.3 per cent of all mobile phones are made by Nokia, back when smartphones were actually very dumb phones and didn’t know any better.
However, months later it launched a new brand-licensed tablet computer, produced under licence by Taiwanese contract manufacturer Foxconn, with the intention to follow up with more devices. The deal also prevents Nokia from reentering the smartphone business before the fourth quarter of next year. This would give the Finnish multinational tech company enough time to look for a suitable partner.
However, there is an annoying little detail left from the Microsoft acquisition – Nokia has to stay away from mobile phones until Q4 2016.
Strictly speaking, nothing in the statement says that Nokia will release a smartphone at the end of 2016, during 2017, or at any point in the future.
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The brand-licensing model would be similar to what the company did in the past with launching the Nokia N1 Android tablet.
