Nokia To Make Smartphones In 2016, Confirms CEO

Nokia CEO Rajeev Suri has finally acknowledged that the company is re-entering the smartphone market from 2016 onward. This news has been confirmed by Nokia after many denials.

Even though Nokia’s re-entry is a good news, the once-prominent tech company will employ the same strategy used to manufacture and sell the Nokia N1 tablet. This means Nokia will not produce the handsets, but the tech team will design the device and therefore its name will be part of the smartphone moniker, notes GSM Arena.

According to Suri, Nokia will work with "suitable partners" to manufacture the device and is actively looking to strike a deal. GSM Arena opines that, with an outstanding brand name like Nokia, it should be easy for the company to find partners. Foxconn looks like the perfect choice; it reportedly has the license for the well-received Android-based Nokia N1 tablet.

Nokia will not be able to license any future products until the second half of 2016, thanks to the terms of the deal when Microsoft acquired the mobile unit of Nokia in 2013. GSM Arena also points out, however, that the Nokia N1 tablet utilizes the Android OS and therefore, future Nokia products might very well use that instead of the Windows OS.

According to The Economic Times, market analysts are expecting Microsoft to strike down “all or part of the $7.2 billion it paid for Nokia's handset unit.” This deal went south for Microsoft, as it became a money-losing business unit and gained only 3 percent of the smartphone market.

Microsoft's Stephen Elop (former CEO of Nokia) is reportedly leaving the company. The Economic Times says his resignation signals the fact that “the company is turning away from the hardware devices business he headed and back to its core software business.”