Nokia Comeback: CEO Confirms You Will Be Able To Buy Nokia Phones ‘Soon’
Nokia, the mobile phone giant that dominated the mobile handsets industry for nearly two decades, seems all set to rise from the ashes again. According to CNET, Nokia’s Indian-born CEO, Rajeev Suri, has hinted that the Finnish company is working on plans to bring “Nokia” branded phones to the market soon. While he did not give any specific time frame for the launch of its phones, he reaffirmed that the company is in no hurry to do so. In a brief interview to media persons, Suri revealed that Nokia is committed to make a comeback to the industry it once dominated.
“There’s no timeline, there’s no rush, It could happen in 2016, it could happen later.” Suri told reporters at an event that was held at the sidelines of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.
According to Suri, Nokia is waiting for a “right partner” with which it would tie up for manufacturing Nokia branded devices. The company had made it clear that it would not actually make Nokia branded phones but would rather give licensing rights to another company for making Nokia phones.
According to TechCrunch, Suri believes that Nokia still has tremendous brand recall and people would flock back to buying their devices once they start releasing them. He also revealed that the company plans to stick to premium devices as of now — which means it would end up competing with giants like Samsung and Apple — again.
“We think it’s a good business model because the Nokia brand has great retention – the recognition of the brand is still very high in all the major markets. We also think that if there will be a product with the Nokia brand on it there’s an opportunity for premium on that product – clear price premium.”
Talking about how Nokia plans to go about its mobile phones business he adds;
“For us the business model is one of no traditional manufacturing, no channel or nothing we are just basically licensing our brand, the partner will have to pay us an IP license for it and royalty on the brand use, and we want to be in a position to design the devices in question with appropriate control measures should the partner not work to our standard. All that’s in play. This takes time. We need to find the right partner.”
It was back in 2014 that Nokia’s nearly six year long miserable run came to end when it sold its devices business to Microsoft for a rather modest $7.2 billion. Nokia’s downfall started soon after the arrival of Apple’s iPhone. Matters further complicated when Android arrived in 2008. At the time, Nokia remained stuck with its archaic Symbian operating system, which could not hold a candle to the more advanced operating systems that Apple and Google brought to the table. The final nail on Nokia’s coffin was probably its then-CEO Stephen Elop’s decision to move exclusively to Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform. While Windows Phone was an advanced mobile operating system, it never managed to attract hordes of developers or the interest of the general public. Microsoft continues to struggle with the platform till date.
Under the terms of Microsoft’s takeover of Nokia’s devices business, Nokia would be able to use the brand “Nokia” on its handsets starting 2016. The company had earlier launched an Android tablet called the N1 to showcase its design and manufacturing capabilities. The Nokia N1 was made by Foxconn — the company that also makes several Apple devices.
Do you think Nokia would be able to make a successful comeback if its starts selling mobile phones? More importantly, would you buy a Nokia once again?
[Image Via Pixabay]
