Nokia, once the world’s largest maker of mobile phones is preparing to make a comeback, according to recent reports. In the latter part of 2013, the company sold its handset business to Microsoft and hunkered down to focus on the production of telecoms network equipment.
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But it seems Nokia boss Rajeev Suri is intent on a comeback – although he must wait until a non-compete deal with Microsoft expires next year. An Android app called Z Launcher, which organises content on smartphones, has also been released along with this. According to Reuters, Nokia’s Technologies Division has apparently posted “dozens” of job postings on LinkedIn, many of them soliciting product developers with experience launching Android smartphones to apply. Apple has already snared 90 percent of the industry’s profits and it would be tough to carve out a place in electronics.
One ace Nokia that holds is ownership of one of the mobile industry’s biggest troves of intellectual property, including patents it retained after selling its handset business. It would not want those resources to go waste considering it spent precious billions trying to build it up.
When it buys Alcatel-Lucent it will also get its paws on Bell Labs – a U.S. research centre whose scientists have won eight Nobel prizes. More specifically, Nokia will design new phones and lend them its brand, but other companies will mass-manufacture, advertise and sell the devices in question, after paying royalties.
Nokia was once a giant when it came to mobile phones.
Following the closing of the HERE agreement, Nokia’s remaining businesses will consist of Nokia Networks and Nokia Technologies.
Nokia is very serious when it comes to its device business.
When Finland-based Nokia (NYSE:NOK) first announced the megadeal to rid itself of its money-losing device manufacturing unit, most industry pundits and investors responded with a collective sigh of relief.
Gizmodo noted that Nokia will be playing it safe this time, with brand licensing agreements with other phone manufacturers.
Yet in the middle of the year, the giant thinks about coming back to the mobile business. “Barriers to entry in the handset market are lower than ever and almost anyone can enter the smartphone market”.
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Several analysts, including the ones Reuters interviewed for its piece, question whether this strategy will the company return to its former glory.
