Nokia, the Finnish company once sold more phones than any other and they innovated in a bunch of areas that now most of us use every day with our current smartphones. However, their operating system has always held them back. As previously reported, the company sold its mobile division to Microsoft, but the brand still lives in some products like HERE maps which is famous for offering downloadable maps to use offline, as well as voice navigation and is available on Android. However, Nokia seem to be apparently trying to sell HERE to another company. Also available on Android is their own Z launcher.
When Nokia started using Windows Phone as an operating system on their phones, the Lumia brand was born, bringing remarkable industrial designs with vibrant colors as well as innovations in the cameras they integrated with their PureView technology, including the 41-megapixel sensor included in the Lumia 1020. Let’s not forget that this company was not afraid to experiment with different form factors when phones were getting smarter, they had gaming devices, folding phones with full QWERTY-keyboard, rotating cameras and some lineups that were targeted to a fashion-aware audience.
Nokia even has an Android-running tablet called N1, sporting a very good design made from aluminum and a very sharp display. Well, a recent report from Germany’s Manager Magazine suggests that Nokia is looking to get back into the smartphone business starting 2016. The agreement with Microsoft was that Nokia wouldn’t be able to make and sell mobile devices. To go around this, what Nokia did with the tablet is have it manufactured by Foxconn and not by themselves. This way it could be released. So it seems a similar strategy could be used when making smartphones, Nokia providing the design for them and other companies licensing the brand name, although the company hasn’t given any names of their potential partners. Most likely, the smartphone would use the Android OS but it is unknown if it will take form as the Z launcher or another customization from the company. Perhaps they could leave it unaltered for a pure Android experience. Who knows, with a nice design, the smartphone could see some success.