The first Nokia-branded handsets running Android are due to arrive early next year. After announcing its plans to return to tablets and phones back in May, Nokia is providing more details today as it formalizes a licensing agreement with HMD Global (HMD). Also based in Finland, HMD global is the new home of Nokia phones under a brand licensing deal that will last for at least 10 years.
Nokia is launching a new phones section on its site today, marking the return of Nokia-branded smartphones and tablets after Microsoft acquired its phone business and killed off the Nokia brand in favor of Lumia for smartphones. The first Nokia-branded smartphones powered by Android will be available in the first half of 2017, alongside Nokia-branded feature phones.
Nokia already experimented with Android just ahead of Microsoft’s acquisition, and the company’s first device after that deal was an iPad mini clone running Android. A Nokia return to phones — even in brand, only — is an odd twist in the Nokia and Microsoft story of struggling to adapt to smartphones and Apple’s iPhone. We’ll be left waiting until early next year to see if the dream of an Android-powered Nokia phone is truly able to compete with Apple, Google, Samsung, and the many other Android phones on the market.
Update, 7:10AM ET: Article update to clarify Nokia's branding efforts with HMD Global.
Comments
So is not reaaaaallly a nokia phone but they are basically lending the brand to someone else so they can call it Nokia. Hopefully a lot of ex Nokia people work on HDM and do some great stuff!
By TheJavierMan on 12.01.16 6:06am
From what I read somewhere , "This Nokia phone is going to be as much a Chinese phone as iPhone is a Chinese phone", meaning the past Nokia executives and design teams are working on this and just the manufacturing is outsourced, like many other OEMs.
By saurabhsun on 12.01.16 7:00am
Remains to be seen. They have a few people ex-Nokia but I think it is an exaggeration to say it is "Nokia executives and design teams".
Itis much more likely that it will use generic components. There are dozens of companies doing it.
By Dr Strange on 12.01.16 7:59am
Nearly every company uses ‘generic components’. Or do you mean parts of the shell of the phone? Because I doubt that will happen here.
By hefferj on 12.01.16 10:27am
At least 7 of the executives listed in the HMD site are ex Nokia people
By armrek on 12.01.16 10:43pm
That may be true, but it’s still not Nokia designing the phones.
By Disdain on 12.01.16 12:22pm
Nokia phones, not really made by Nokia and being just another Android phone. About as exciting as watching paint dry.
There was lots of excitement and enthusiasm for Nokia to go Android in 2012/13 or so. In 2017, new phones, in particular Android ones are not newsworthy events. Android fans put down Windows Phone fans and vice versa. Today, both are boring cows. How things change.
By MindYourMind on 12.01.16 8:48am
This news has already generated more interest than the Lumia 950 did in the past 12 months.
By Pixelated on 12.01.16 6:17am
Ouch, but true.
By Tom Warren on 12.01.16 6:59am
I wonder if Stephen Elop was asked to come back
By aussieinjapan on 12.01.16 8:13am
I think he’s busy right now moving Telstra to Windows Phone.
By NothingUnknown on 12.01.16 8:28am
It’s just badge engineering, a SpywareOS device with generic components. No Nokia inside or on the outside; Marko Ahtisaari and his team of designers and engineers left when U-Boat Stephen Elop flogged Nokia to the Embalmer. Expect a bland design with zero cool features or camera tech worthy of the old Nokia.
By Systembolaget on 12.01.16 4:59pm
Polaroid 2.0
By DJ CERLA on 12.01.16 6:56am
I thought the same thing. Oh boy.
By aarontsuru on 12.01.16 9:54am
Please don’t mess this up.
Please don’t mess this up.
Please don’t mess this up.
By beans! on 12.01.16 7:07am
Would be great if one of it comes with win10mobile
By Mr.Mulderfox on 12.01.16 7:17am
/s?
By Nmco8 on 12.01.16 7:57am
Nahh am serious.
Ps. Still can’t find anything worth replacing my 1520.
By Mr.Mulderfox on 12.01.16 8:12am
I was a Windows phone fan boy…. Gotta let it go man. Get a Pixel or a Nexus. It is better than the Apple Junk. Windows Phone (Sadly) is very dead.
By Ruben Sierra on 12.01.16 8:27am
A Pixel with Arrow launcher, OneDrive, Outlook, Wunderlist, Groove, OneNote, Office etc
It’s actually almost a Windows Phone
That said I’d still buy a Surface Phone that ran Android apps in a heartbeat.
By ahlam99 on 12.01.16 10:52am
Got a 5X to replace my 1520 (that I dropped and it went into a permanent sleep). The app ecosystem is great, sure. The UX though is just totally underwhelming. I’ve had it for 6 months and I think it gets slower with every OS update. Snapchat + Pandora running = regular stalls and "System UI" crashes. I know it’s old hardware, but it’s at least on par with those low-mid range handsets Android is renowned for slinging millions around. I’m not convinced anything below a loaded Samsung Galaxy can run this platform well. Apps crash all the time. They return errors and I have to force stop them and restart. Horribly slow camera experience after you take more than a few pictures. Cannot handle more than 2 parallel tasks. It’s really only an "OK" experience. Windows Phone was more fluid for longer periods of time.
By arriven on 12.01.16 1:23pm
Yeah, I bet they don’t touch Windows Phone with a 10 foot pole. I’m sure they’re very bitter about the move which put Nokia’s death into overdrive.
By NothingUnknown on 12.01.16 8:30am
The OS that screwed them last time, yes, I’m sure they’re running back to that one. /s
Fun fact, WP 8 could fail to boot, then the phone would tell you to insert a recovery DVD. A phone telling you to insert a DVD, that’s some fine QC, Lou.
By eat_lead_slackers on 12.01.16 9:02am
I don’t believe that claim. I never heard of that happening with WP8.
By Disdain on 12.01.16 12:27pm
Hmm. I saw the screenshots and read the Tweets, but now I googled and it seems it’s probably not real, or at least doesn’t happen if you’re not attempting to flash a different bootloader, at least Paul Thurrott thinks it is so: http://winsupersite.com/windows-phone/calling-bs-windows-phone-8-handset-asks-installation-disc
I did have a Lumia 920 running WP8 and I remember after 1 week I started it up and got nothing but spinning gears (I had to reset with the key combination), so naturally I assumed any report about WP8 being a buggy piece of crap (initially) to be true. However I know now that a bootloader is not supposed to change at all (otherwise you brick the system).
So fun fact retracted.
By eat_lead_slackers on 12.01.16 1:02pm