Nokia Announces Its Return In The Market With Two Android Phones.
Has Nokia’s return with two Android phones just been announced?
Just when you thought that Nokia had been KO’d out of the smartphone business, it brings out it’s “Comeback Guns”.
Nokia has gone through yet another ownership change (a lot like Motorola’s run with repetitive acquisitions) and is now owned by HMD Global, a Finnish company that since May 2016, has started to manufacture smartphones with Nokia’s brand name itself!
While rumors about new Nokia phones in the making have been in the wind for quite a while now, HMD Global is reportedly planning to launch two new Nokia smartphones that are based on Android OS and are rumoured be called Nokia 5320 in some form.
Nokia already had a smartphone named “5320” — back in 2008 there was the Nokia 5320 XpressMusic, so, the Nokia 5320 in all probability will have another name.
It is rumored to have a 2.27 GHz quad-core processor (presumably) Snapdragon 821 chipset. In a recent, secret benchmark test, the phone scored 494 points in single-core performance and 1531 points in multi-core performance; and according to the Geekbench scores, the Nokia 5320 runs on the old Android 4.4.4 KitKat OS and has 2 GB RAM.
Another model, currently called Nokia RM-1490, was also spotted recently, and surprisingly, this model has an AMD A8–5545 single-core hyperthreaded processor clocked at 500 MHz, 2 GB RAM and runs the old Android 4.4.2 KitKat OS.
This seems along the lines of being more a capable-feature phone than a smartphone.
Here’s the official line from HMD on what’s happening:
“HMD has been founded to provide a focused, independent home for a full range of Nokia-branded feature phones, smartphones, and tablets. To complete its portfolio of Nokia branding rights, HMD announced today that it has conditionally agreed to acquire from Microsoft the rights to use the Nokia brand on feature phones, and certain related design rights. The Microsoft transaction is expected to close in H2 2016. Together these agreements would make HMD the sole global licensee for all types of Nokia-branded mobile phones and tablets. HMD intends to invest over USD 500 million over the next three years to support the global marketing of Nokia-branded mobile phones and tablets, funded via its investors and profits from the acquired feature phone business”.
Microsoft’s Nokia “thing” ends in the second half of 2016, leaving the market wide open for new Nokia handsets.
The composition of the HMD is odd, to say the least. Nokia will not be investing any money in the project but it will receive royalties and sit on the board of HMD’s directors with quite a few of Nokia’s old top brass returning to the fold as well.
“This agreement will give HMD full operational control of sales, marketing and distribution of Nokia-branded mobile phones and tablets, with exclusive access to the pre-eminent global sales and distribution network to be acquired from Microsoft by FIH, with access to FIH’s world-leading device manufacturing, supply chain and engineering capabilities, and its growing suite of proprietary mobile technologies and components”, said HMD in a press release.
What this means is simple. Nokia will return with Android phones and tablets, as well as Wearables off the back of its Withings acquisition. No doubt we’ll be hearing more about this and the future of Nokia in the coming weeks and months.
The Telegraph ominously put it: “The smartphone market, now bereft of innovation, has become ruthless, with profits difficult to come by. One suspects Nokia has missed its opportunity. We should wish it all the best, but the odds are stacked against it”.
Originally published at Chip-Monks.
