Nokia Is Back: First Branded Smartphones Coming Later This Year

A few days back we reported the arrival of former Rovio CEO Pekka Rantala as Nokia’s Chief Marketing Officer. Now we also know when to expect the company’s first smartphones in quite some time.

Nokia will be launching its first phones in the fourth quarter of this year. That’s over a month until you can start expecting to see some new phones from the former Finn giant. The phones will obviously not be manufactured by Nokia itself, but by Foxconn, the gargantuan phone manufacturing facility which also caters to Apple and Samsung.

Mike Wang, the general manager at Nokia Siemens Networks indicated that the number of phones that will be launched will be around three or four. However, he also said the launch could be pushed back into 2017 if there are development hassles.

The phones’ licensing deal has been signed with HMD Global Oy, a company based out of Finland which is allowed to use the brand name in its feature phones, smartphones and tablets over the next decade. It also published a blogpost announcing the news but told little else.

The phones will be running on Android, however, it could surprise us with a fuller integration of the OS this time rather than a “forked” version as with the old X phones.

Nokia claims its brand is still one of the top five brands consumers consider when buying a smartphone. Whether this consideration turns into profit once the phones get released is to be seen.

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