Before Nokia sold itself to Microsoft, everyone was hoping that they would release an Android phone with Nokia’s design, materials and camera technology, but that never happened and now the brand has fallen from the top of the cell phone market.
From those ashes, a phoenix has been reborn in the name of Newkia. The new company, founded by Nokia’s ex-Asia-Pacific CEO Thomas Zilliacus, has the intention of creating devices with Nokia’s Know-how but running Android.
Zilliacus gave an interview to ZDNet where he talked about the new company and the failure of both Nokia as a company and Windows Phone as a platform.
“The deal reflects the complete failure of the Windows strategy Stephen Elop chose when he was appointed Nokia CEO some two years ago. Nokia, which only three years ago was the world’s runaway market leader in mobile phones, is today a small and insignificant brand,”
Zilliacus still believes that Nokia makes the best phones but people (both consumers and developers) are just not interested in Microsoft’s OS. He tried to purchase Nokia a few years ago and steer it to the Android side but failed to raise enough funds to do it.
“But consumers simply don’t want the Windows OS because it lacks the ecosystem and there are not enough apps and services built for the platform that users find crucial today.”
“There’s also a general image problem where Microsoft isn’t perceived as a sexy company. Developers think it’s cooler to develop for Android and Apple iOS.”
Newkia already has a team of former Nokia employees ready to run the company and Zilliacus hopes to poach more talents from Nokia taking advantage of the Microsoft’s buyout and how employees have reacted to it.
“We set up Newkia literally the day Nokia sold its phone business to Microsoft. It was the day Nokia died in Finland, and the new Nokia was born in Newkia. I know Nokia employees who are keen to develop for Android and maybe would like to join us,” he said. “I strongly believe Nokia still has the best know-how in terms of mobile phones and we want to get the best people to join us.”
Newkia will focus on the Asian region but it does not mean they won’t launch devices in the United States so those of you hoping to see something like the Lumia 1020 running Android can keep your hopes up that something like that might eventually land on one of the four major US carriers.
You can read the rest of the interview in ZDNet where Zilliacus talks about Xiaomi and how he’s not interested in buying Blackberry.