Nokia Reinvents Itself This Week, but Don’t Expect Any Smartphone Announcements ~ The World is Mine

Nov 17, 2014

Nokia Reinvents Itself This Week, but Don’t Expect Any Smartphone Announcements

11/17/2014 05:42:00 PM

dannzfay

It’s been quite a ride for Nokia in the last couple of months after the deal with Microsoft officially ended. The Finnish company is now on its own, as the entire smartphone business has been acquired by Microsoft.

Along with the mobile division and everything related, like apps, services and employees, Nokia also sold to Microsoft the right to use its brand on smartphones powered by Windows Phone platform, but the agreement seems to have expired recently. Microsoft has just launched its first Windows Phones without the Nokia brand: Lumia 535 and Lumia 535 Dual SIM. From now on, all Lumia smartphones will be launched under the Microsoft brand instead on Nokia. However, the deal between Nokia and Microsoft prohibits the former from entering the smartphone market until late December 2016. On the other hand, Microsoft can continue to use the Nokia brand on its feature phones for the next 10 years or so. Less than a week ago Nokia started to tease fans of an upcoming announcement, which will shed some light on what’s to come for the Finnish company.

All will be revealed on November 18, at Slush conference in Helsinki, Finland

The teasers pointing to November 17, as the exact date for the announcement, though there might be some changes and Nokia may unveil new details on its future plans later this week. In fact, some preliminary information has been recently shared by Nokia CEO Rajeev Suri, during the “Nokia Capital Markets Day 2014” event from last week. According to him, Nokia doesn’t plan any comebacks in the smartphone business, or at least not in the way most of its fans are thinking of. Instead, the Finnish company is thinking of licensing the Nokia brand name to other handset manufacturers. This means that while we will probably continue to have Nokia smartphones on the market, they will not be directly produced by the Finnish company.

Nokia plans to license its brand to ODMs, but will decide on design and software

However, Nokia wants to keep control of the phones’ look and software before they are manufactured, which is not a bad thing at all. In light of the new details shared by Nokia’s official, it’s very clear that the company does not plan for a direct comeback into the smartphone business. Still, we expect Nokia to make some software-related announcements this week. Its engineers are already working on a few Android apps that have already been released as betas, but there may be more to this then we can imagine now. The future of Nokia seems to be tied closely to the licensing of its brand to other handset makers and ODMs, as well as the development of apps and lifestyle products. If you’re a Nokia fan, what aspect of the smartphone business do you think the company should focus on at first? Do you think Nokia should adopt a more direct approach and start launching its own smartphones as soon as possible?