FileHippo News

The latest software and tech news

Nostalgia may be about to make something of a comeback if former executives of former global phone titan manufacturer, Nokia, get their way. Yes,... Nokia Rises Again: New Android Phones To Debut 2017

Nostalgia may be about to make something of a comeback if former executives of former global phone titan manufacturer, Nokia, get their way.

nokia

Yes, that’s right, Nokia is coming back in to the market and are to launch a new Android smartphone in early 2017.

HMD Global, the company formed by ex Nokia executives licensed the Nokia handset brand from Microsoft on Thursday, and have reportedly already signed and sealed partnerships with Google and phone manufacturer Foxconn.

But will nostalgia help re-establish the Nokia brand as a going concern, or are the glory days of being the world’s leading phone manufacturer well and truly in the past?

Arto Nummela, the head of HMD Global thinks not. “Consumers may be carrying different smartphones now, but are they really in love and loyal to those brands?… We want to be one of the key competitive players in the smartphone business.”

The original Nokia phone business was bought by Microsoft in 2014 and was used to launch the now dead Windows based Lumia phone range. Microsoft however culled the brand in 2015 after a series of disappointing results showed that its peak, the Windows range of phones only accounted for 2% of smartphone market share.

The Nokia brand itself lived on as a maker of old school ‘dumb’ phones mainly in Asian markets and Eastern Europe.

The Mighty That Have Fallen

Nokia, like Blackberry, Yahoo and other former tech giants found itself on the backfoot when it missed the initial land grab for first generation smartphones, and then did not manage to pick up market share with its own hybrid smartphone operating systems. The decision to then hitch its horses to Microsoft’s unpopular (if technically brilliant) smart phone OS brought the company to its knees before Microsoft bought the brand out and replaced the Nokia logo with Windows Phone.

HMD has now however resurrected the brand, and has exclusive rights to use the Nokia logo on mobile phones and tablets for at least the next decade.

While Nokia itself as a company is an independent entity from HMD and will have no financial stake in the new range of Nokia mobile devices, HMD will pay royalties to Nokia.

Time will tell if Nokia will once again become synonymous with mobile phones people want to own in the future, or whether they should remain as pleasant memories of yesteryear.

Whatever your device, we’ve got a great range of the latest software available to download now!