The Finnish giant is also looking for partners to license its brand name, alongside preparations for a 2016 comeback.
The Finnish phone maker, Nokia is preparing to make a comeback after its mobile devision was bought by Microsoft. As per the reports posted originally on Reuters, Nokia has been spotted posting numerous California-based job postings on LinkedIn for recruiting new talent. The job posting has been posted for engineers especialising in the Android platform which hints that Nokia would be making devices based on the OS.
If everything goes by that plan, Nokia can start its mobile business in 2016 right after the expriation of their non-compete deal with Microsoft. However even after the expiration, Nokia won't be manufacturing the phones. They will only be designing the phones and licensing their brand name to the manufactures. It means that their licensed partners will be manufacturing, marketing, and selling the devices. The process will be similar to the one used by Nokia for launching the Nokia N1 tablet, which was manufactured by Foxconn. In fact, Nokia has also started to look for prospective partners to license their brand name. However, they would be keeping an eye on what's going on inside the manufacturing plants.
A report from an uncited source further mentions that Nokia will not be making the same mistakes it made in the past like saddling with high costs, missing technology trends, and reacting slowly to changing consumer tastes. It states, “To blunt such risks, it is seeking partners for ‘brand-licensing’ deals whereby Nokia will design new phones, bearing its brand, but — in exchange for royalties — will then allow other firms to mass-manufacture, market and sell the devices.”
It is true that the licensing the brand name wouldn't bring much profit to Nokia, but it will also keep the losses in control as Nokia won't be the one manufacutring the phones. However, they have an advantage in terms of their huge portfolio of patents. The Finnish company has over 10,000 patents to their name which they retained after the selling off their smartphone business to Microsoft. The patents can really do the trick for the company as they have been accumulated by Nokia after spending billions of dollars over the past two decades.
As per annoucements in May this year, Nokia was planning to lay off about 70 employees from the division, but a company source has confirmed to Reuters that the number has been halved. Nokia CEO, Rajeev Suri, has said that it will not fall back on the traditional methods.
Besides working on mobile phones; Nokia has also been busy launching the Z Launcher app for Android, completing the purchase of Alcate-Lucent for $17 billion, and selling HERE Maps to the German auto consortium made up of Audi, BMW, and Dialmer. A few days ago, Nokia has also released a virtua-reality camera OZO . The device is capable of 360-degree video and audio recording which then can be ported to any number of commercial VR systems.Earlier in the year, Nokia 1100 was also spotted running on Android Lollipop.
As of now, we need to wait at least till 2016 to see if Nokia coming back to mobile phones. And whenever it happens, it will be interesting whether Nokia will be able to reach the goals, it has set itself, by licensing the brand name. The situation will be tough for them for sure with competition from established brands like Apple and Samsung as well as newcomers like Xiaomi and OnePlus doing really well.
Will the users buy a phone just because of the Nokia branding? We need to wait to get answers to all these questions. In meantime, you can comment and let us know if you would go for a Nokia once it makes its comeback?
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