Nokia to make a comeback

  • 20/05/2016
(File)
(File)

Remember Nokia? Those brick phones that you could play snake on, the trusty ones that wouldn't break, which disappeared from the market in 2014?

They're back.

Nokia is getting back into smartphones, two years after the company sold its phone business in the face of the growing dominance of Apple's iPhone range and Google-powered Android phones.

The Finnish company will license its brand to Helsinki-based company HMD, run by former Nokia managers, which will aim to bring mobile phones and tablets to the market, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.

Microsoft acquired rights to use the Nokia brand in smartphones for two years, though has already stopped using it.

Microsoft will sell its feature-phones assets to HMD, as well as FIH Mobile, as part of the venture.

Former Nokia manager Arto Nummela, the current head of Microsoft's mobile devices business for Asia, Middle East and Africa, and its feature-phone business, will head the new venture.

The phone market will be a hard one to crack, with Samsung, Apple and Huawei dominating sales.

About half of the 334 million high-end phones shipped in the first quarter are owned by these brands, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

After its smartphone decline, Nokia moved to telecommunications equipment, producing mobile network and broadband systems for AT&T and Verizon Wireless.

Newshub.