14 DAY TRIAL // Almost a year ago, Microsoft acquired Nokia’s once high and mighty phone business, and since then, the Finnish company has been prohibited from launching any handsets of its own.
But according to two inside sources who talked to Re/code, Nokia is already looking to re-enter the smartphone market as soon as next year.
The move is paved by Nokia Technologies, one of the business units that remained independent after the Microsoft deal (on top of the mapping and network equipment subsidiaries). It’s this particular arm of Nokia that is in charge of licensing patents from the company’s lofty portfolio of about 10,000 units.
The company is restricted from using the Nokia brand on phones until Q4 2016. So what Nokia can do at the moment is design whole products and license them to other companies so that they can be sold on the market.
For the time being, we've only seen two products be released by the division, including the Z Launcher app for Android and the Nokia N1 tablet which rolled out a few months ago.
Nokia is looking to revive its smartphone business
Therefore, the Finnish company will probably use the same tactic while upcoming smartphone products are concerned. Even if Microsoft is not currently using the Nokia moniker for its Lumia handsets, it continues to do so for its feature phones.
So, if Nokia Technologies rolls out a smartphone next year, it will probably do it in the same fashion it brought the N1 tablet into retail.
The current report also claims Nokia has a project related to virtual reality going on, but we’re not told much about it for the time being.
Nokia has recently been in the news for another reason though. The Finish company has announced the purchase of French telecom equipment company Alcatel-Lucent for the hefty sum of $16.6 / €15.6 billion.
The deal aims to sediment Nokia’s position in the network equipment market, where Ericsson is currently ruling supreme.
On top of that, we've been hearing that Nokia has been reviewing its HERE Maps business unit and might even consider selling it at some point.
So things are starting to get moving at Nokia and the company might surprise us soon enough.