Nokia has responded to speculation that the company may re-enter the world of mobile devices, confirming that the company will pursue a brand licensing model with hardware partner.
In a blog post, Nokia Technologies spokesperson Robert Morlino said the question of whether Nokia will return to mobile devices comes up all the time.
“The answer is: it’s complicated,” he said. “The right path back to mobile phones for Nokia is through a brand-licensing model. That means identifying a partner that can be responsible for all of the manufacturing, sales, marketing and customer support for a product.”
But the company does not plan to simply license its brand – it will work with any partners to guide the design of the device, as it did with the Nokia N1 Android tablet developed with Foxconn.
“That’s the only way the bar would be met for a mobile device we’d be proud to have bear the Nokia brand, and that people will love to buy, Morlino said.
As with the N1, the hardware partner would be responsible for manufacturing, sales, marketing, channel distribution and customer support.
As a condition of the sale of its device business to Microsoft, Nokia will not be able to pursue these plans until the first quarter of 2016. “So it’s safe to say Nokia won’t be back (at least in phone form) before then,” Morlino concluded.
Microsoft last week revealed it plans to write off its acquisition of Nokia's device business and dramatically scale back its hardware ambitions. The company is eliminating 7,800 jobs as a result of the refocusing.