Nokia is finally returning to mobile with Android phones and tablets
Nokia’s journey through the mobile industry has been full of ups and downs. The one-time phone giant slowly shrank to irrelevancy in the last few years. Lately, they’ve been shuffled around by Microsoft. A Finnish company called HMD Global Oy has acquired the rights to the Nokia brand, and they intend to use it on Android devices.
Android fans have been begging for a Nokia device for years. When Nokia was pumping out sexy Lumia devices, we wanted nothing more than to see that hardware running Android. HMD plans to make that dream a reality. Arto Nummela, mobile exec at Microsoft, will leave to be the CEO of HMD. They plan to invest $500 million over the next few years to create Nokia products.
It’s worth noting that these products will be “Nokia-branded.” It’s not quite the same as Nokia building phones themselves. These devices will be made by HMD with the Nokia name plastered on them. The good news is that HMD will set brand requirements and performance provisions to hopefully reserve the Nokia name for top-notch devices. All of these deals should close before the end of this year.
Are you excited about a Nokia-branded Android device?
[via Verge]