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Microsoft Hardware

Nokia Announces Return To Smartphone, Tablet Markets (nokia.com) 96

Posted by msmash from the 'I'll-be-back' dept.
Nokia is making a return to phones and tablets. The Finnish company on Wednesday announced that it will license its brand and IP to a newly created company called HMD global. The company in question, Nokia says, will produce and sell a range of Android smartphones and tablets. The company has also inked a deal with Microsoft to acquire the rights to use Nokia brand name on feature phones and also utilize some design elements. Nokia veteran Arto Nummela will assume the CEO position when the deal is closed, which is expected to happen by the end of June.

Microsoft announced today that it has sold the remainings of Nokia's feature phone business to FIH Mobile, a subsidiary of Foxconn. As part of the deal, FIH Mobile paid a sum of $350 million to Microsoft. Interestingly, HMD global and FIH Mobile already have a collaborative agreement in place to support the building of a global business for Nokia-branded mobile phones and tablets. Nokia says it will set mandatory brand requirements and performance-related provisions for the new devices.
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Nokia Announces Return To Smartphone, Tablet Markets More

Nokia Announces Return To Smartphone, Tablet Markets

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  • What does it all mean? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Wednesday May 18, 2016 @09:08AM (#52134531)

    Like seriously what is the value of the Nokia brand now. Or a better question what is a Nokia phone?

    A feature phone made by one company?
    A smart phone made by another?
    Neither related to Nokia themselves?
    Neither related to Microsoft except to give them money for the now completely and utterly butchered brand?

    • Re:What does it all mean? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Howitzer86 ( 964585 ) on Wednesday May 18, 2016 @09:27AM (#52134687)
      I liked them for their hardware. Even as late as just before the sell of their hardware department to Microsoft, they were making tough, well designed phones. I had their short-lived Nokia 810, which I used for five years until I realized it wasn't getting any updates ever again (W10 beta program not withstanding). They also have a decent mapping application with Nokia HERE, which stayed with Nokia proper after the sell. If they can show us their hardware products are still good, they can protect their perception even as an embattled chimera.
    • This type of maneuver protects Microsoft if HMD Global becomes bankrupt. It also allows them to borrow money separately and not become a liability for Microsoft and Nokia. It says exactly how much confidence Microsoft and Nokia has on this new venture.

      • They already burned 6.85 billion on Nokia, if you take the $7.2 billion for the acquisition and the $350 million for the sale of Nokia's phone business reported in this news at face value. In the meantime, Windows branded Nokia phones didn't sell that well either.

        These numbers may leave out some details, but I think it is clear that Microsoft lost quite a lot of money on this acquisition. I'm not surprised at all if their confidence is low.

    • Nokia - The New Amiga

      A future merger will give us Aminokiaga.

    • Like seriously what is the value of the Nokia brand now. Or a better question what is a Nokia phone?

      A feature phone made by one company? A smart phone made by another? Neither related to Nokia themselves? Neither related to Microsoft except to give them money for the now completely and utterly butchered brand?

      They still have their most valuable asset. The snake game.

      I want to find a nokia phone to like again, but since my first blackberry nokia has just been behind the curve in my opinion.

    • Re:What does it all mean? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by bazorg ( 911295 ) on Wednesday May 18, 2016 @10:02AM (#52135017)

      Silly car-related questions:

      What does Seat mean to the VW Group?
      What Bugatti models did people know before the Veyron?
      Are VW Golf made in the same factory as Audi A3?
      How were things at Skoda in the 10 years before VW Group bought them?

      Aficionados will know a lot a bout their subject of choice, but the rest of us are guided by what clever brand marketers tell us and what we hear from other buyers. Nokia is a major brand worldwide and they can make a comeback in a variety of ways. I doubt they'll build from the ground up a major app ecosystem to make Apple and Google quake in fear, but it looks like there's plenty of money to be earned from building Android powered gadgets in China and selling them worldwide.

      Ask random Joe on the street next year which phone they pick between Xiaomi, Lenovo and Nokia if they all have a 5" screen, run a current version of Android and carry a USD250 price tag.

      • Shit, I already posted, but maybe someone can mod the parent insightful?

      • Nokia is a major brand worldwide and they can make a comeback in a variety of ways.

        No. Nokia WERE a major brand worldwide. Aficionados now know the brand has been sold off to some non name hardware people. Common folk know that Nokia is now Microsoft and producing nothing but utter shite.

        To compare it to your Seat example, that would be like Nokia being sold to Samsung. Now if VW were sold to Chery or BYD you'd have example the same question for me, what's the value in a name that has been in bad faith destroyed and the remains salted then sold off to the lowest bidder?

    • It means Microsoft lost 7 billion dollars on their Nokia adventure.

    • so Nokia is going to.... (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      ...license its own name from Microsoft?

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by c ( 8461 )

      Like seriously what is the value of the Nokia brand now.

      Conservatively, I'd say at least 50% more than what it was with Elop running it into the ground.

    • Americans tend to underestimate Nokia, because North America was the only region where Nokia was not the undisputed king of cell phones. And that's just because they would not compromise: carriers wanted to disable functions from their high-end devices to sell them separately, Nokia said no way.

      Besides, the regular guy doesn't know about the shady deals here. When he hears "Nokia", he doesn't think "Stephen Elop" or "burning platform" or "Windows Phone". He thinks "that simple but near-indestructible phone

      • I'm not American and I lived in a country where the undisputed king was Nokia. I had about 5 generations of Nokia mobiles myself.

        Now? ... Well that's my question. What is Nokia now? A brand name means nothing without the quality and the thought that goes into the underlying product. Remember Apple once was dead and a laughing stock too. I doubt they'd be the company they are today if they simply divided up and sold the brand out to some cheap Chinese group.

        • Again, it depends on how they play their cards. If the device has the quality and style to convince people it is a Nokia, not some generic device with a Nokia sticker, it will sell well.

        • I didn't RTFA, but from the end of the summary:

          Nokia says it will set mandatory brand requirements and performance-related provisions for the new devices.

          And so it appears that they're concerned about the ongoing image of the brand.

          As Stormwatch points out, it is the quality of the finished (Finnished?) product that counts, not who builds it.

          I'm reminded of Google Nexus phones, which continue to satisfy a particular market by providing respectable phones (from different manufacturers) at decent prices. [I'm part of that market]. If Nokia can provide a familiar look and feel without compromising on quality (and

      • I still use Nokia phones - a feature phone (1100) made in 2004 (with original battery) and a smart (-ish) phone (E90) made in 2009.

        I sometimes drop my phones on the floor by accident - did not break the screen or anything else - usually the worst that happens is that the battery falls out and I have to put it back in.

  • Dear Nokia... (Score:3)

    by Lumpy ( 12016 ) on Wednesday May 18, 2016 @09:21AM (#52134639) Homepage

    You had better use a PURE android. Set yourself apart by doing the following...

    Make legendary Nokia quality phones and tablets.

    Sell the phones with a PURE android on it and NO FUCKING LOCKED BOOTLOADER. or at least give people the option to completely unlock it by joining a developer program.

    • I would consider such a phone, even though S7 is currently my favorite.

    • While I would greatly prefer that, Nokia has their own launcher. [zlauncher.com] Some people love it, but it's really not my thing.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by guises ( 2423402 )
      Nokia isn't manufacturing phones anymore, the summary says they're just licensing the brand. It's possible that these new companies will maintain some of Nokia's design practices, but you should assume that they'll maintain the quality.

  • Reminiscent of Commodore (Score:5, Insightful)

    by blind biker ( 1066130 ) on Wednesday May 18, 2016 @09:21AM (#52134645) Journal

    Commodore's brand is now thrown around on products that have neither the innovativeness nor the features of the original Commodore computers. In fact the brand has now been prostituted so much, it's all but worthless. I hope the same won't happen with Nokia, but it seems likely.

    • Re:Reminiscent of Commodore (Score:4, Funny)

      by null etc. ( 524767 ) on Wednesday May 18, 2016 @10:36AM (#52135355)

      Wa wai wait... Are you suggesting Commodore partners with Nokia to release a Commodore phone?

      GENIUS!

    • Commodore's brand is now thrown around on products that have neither the innovativeness nor the features of the original Commodore computers. In fact the brand has now been prostituted so much, it's all but worthless. I hope the same won't happen with Nokia, but it seems likely.

      Oh, you mean like This Filing Cabinet [youtube.com] and other office products, that were made by Commodore LONG before they started making computers.

      In fact, that's why the Commodore PET had a metal case. Because they could make it "in house".

  • Finally. (Score:3)

    by dinfinity ( 2300094 ) on Wednesday May 18, 2016 @09:29AM (#52134703)

    The thing that Nokia should have done more than a decade ago. Build their great hardware and run Android on it.

    I'm hoping it won't prove to be waaaay to late, but it probably will.

    • The thing that Nokia should have done more than a decade ago. Build their great hardware and run Android on it.

      And profit how exactly? There are companies that make darn good hardware for the Android platform but make basically zero profit or less. Only Samsung has managed to make any meaningful profit on Android. What does Nokia bring to the party that will displace Samsung? A nice piece of hardware alone won't be enough. They either need software to differentiate their product or they need a cost advantage or a distribution advantage. I can't really see any of those being likely.

      • The Lumia phones are still great devices from a design and hardware point of view. Unique even.
        I'd have bought one if it'd ran Android.

        The software and cost advantage could come from "Just run stock Android and focus on the fucking hardware" (tm) instead of blowing tons of cash on custom skins nobody really wants and which hugely complicate software updates.

        • The Lumia phones are still great devices from a design and hardware point of view. Unique even.

          I'm sure they are excellent devices but what unique value do they provide that people will actually preferentially pay for? What feature do they have that nobody else has, nobody can copy and that large numbers of people are going to line up to pay cash money for? Maybe they can find a niche but hardware innovations in phones aren't coming so fast these days. Minor incremental and easily copied innovations aren't going to get the job done and aren't strategically defensible.

          Let's use Apple for an example

          • what unique value do they provide that people will actually preferentially pay for?"

            "The thing that Nokia should have done more than a decade ago."
            "I'm hoping it won't prove to be waaaay to late, but it probably will."
            If we're talking about Nokia's future chances, you are preaching to the choir.

            I think you misunderstand the economics at work here. The software costs on these are comparatively minor.

            I don't believe you.

            Android device makers (mostly) don't care much about updates anyway so it's a non-cost to them.

            Users care. Users buy. Advantage.

            The cost of developing a skin and a few proprietary bits is tiny compared with the cost of developing, making, distributing and selling the hardware.

            I still don't believe you.

            And if they do go stock Android, what prevents another company from copying whatever hardware innovations they might come up with?

            It's not about hardware innovations. It's about style, consistent quality, and fashion. Nokia has always had a good position in those. They just fucked up royally on the software-front. Which is the only point I was tryin

            • I don't believe you.

              Well, I'm an accountant and an engineer and I run a manufacturing company for a living. I'm giving you facts. Believe me or not, I don't really care. But if you bother to check you'll find that I'm correct on this matter. Handset makers use Android precisely because it is cheap for them to adapt. Putting a skin on Android is trivial and cheap, especially if the company never bothers to support it post sale.

              Users care. Users buy. Advantage.

              Some users care but most don't give a shit. Users buy more Android phones than other type and de

              • I run a manufacturing company

                Are you a cellphone vendor? No? Then it is fully irrelevant.

                But if you bother to check

                Where? How? I honestly have no idea.

                Users buy more Android phones than other type and demonstrably do not care since they continue to buy them in the face of a lack of updates by most Android device makers.

                That is fallacious (there could be many other reasons why people buy more Android phones. Hating Apple with a vengeance is just one. Price is two).
                Also, you need to feel burned by not getting updates for a long time before it becomes a big enough factor that you accept buying a Nexus device over the device you actually wanted, hardware-wise.

                There are some Android device makers that do update their devices and thus far they have realized little to no competitive advantage as a result. Go ahead and find me any example of an Android handset maker that has realized any competitive advantage from software updates. I'll wait.

                The first you cannot prove and the second is a stupid thing to demand (as

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by c ( 8461 )

      The thing that Nokia should have done more than a decade ago. Build their great hardware and run Android on it.

      A decade is pushing it; Android didn't really start gaining useful market share until 2010. If Nokia had gotten their shit together with Android by 2011, I think they'd have kicked ass.

  • Wanted: N900 (Score:5, Interesting)

    by KiloByte ( 825081 ) on Wednesday May 18, 2016 @09:32AM (#52134725)

    I so wish Nokia would bring back the N900 line. I'm not talking about N9 (which was still better than anything Android/iOS/Windows based), but about a proper pocketable micro-laptop. As far as phone capabilities go, N900 wasn't stellar even in its heyday, but as a mobile computer there's nothing new that would even approach its usability.

    An on-screen keyboard is semi-adequate for writing a SMS or maybe a Fecesbook status update. On N900, especially if you replace pull-down symbols with proper key setup [angband.pl] you can type more conveniently than on a laptop's keyboard. I've spent many a night hacking in bed without bothering to get up and get to the big computer, so did I ssh to do some postgres or network administration when at a client. And you don't even need ssh -- gcc/perl/etc work fine (within limits of 256MB RAM and one-core ARM). N900 is a full-blown computer that fits in your pocket.

    You can buy attachable keyboards for modern phones, but these are hardly usable. For heavy-duty use, the keyboard needs to be engineered in rather than an afterthought.

    So go Nokia, there's your chance.

    • I think what you are saying sounds alot like this XKCD comic:

      https://xkcd.com/1497/ [xkcd.com]

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by jonwil ( 467024 )

      I still use my Nokia N900 as my primary phone and if I could afford one I would have pre-ordered a Neo900 by now. Not only is the keyboard the best I have used on any mobile device but the N900 shares the same legendary Nokia indestructibility as their candy-bar dumbphones. I have done things to my N900 that would have totally ruined an iPhone and other than a fault with the USB port that has been fixed (a known failure mode on these devices that is dead simple to fix if you get to it in time) and some mino

    • ... They need to make model M keyboards for them. :P

  • Partnership With Microsoft (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Has it ever in the history of business or computing, resulted in something positive for the partner company?

  • I have owned 5 Nokia phones and loved all of them. Excellent design without adding too much. Always highly reliable. I currently own a Nokia 640 running Windows 10 mobile. Still great hardware.

    I hope the new owners high back some of the amazing talent that designed and built those phones.

  • Biggest failure in IT since... (Score:4, Informative)

    by lorinc ( 2470890 ) on Wednesday May 18, 2016 @09:43AM (#52134835) Homepage Journal

    So this finally means that the Elop deal was the biggest failure in the history of IT for a long long time. Nokia lost everything, Microsoft lost a lot of money. the deal was interesting only for this guy....

    • It almost makes the HP Autonomy deal look acceptable.

  • So will "HMD Global" be competing with the Rift and the Vive? Or are they just photo-bombing the search term?

  • Differentiate (Score:4, Interesting)

    by ThatsNotPudding ( 1045640 ) on Wednesday May 18, 2016 @12:32PM (#52136407)
    They need to do what no one else is doing anymore: flip smartphones and physical keyboards.

    There are millions of folks that despise touch typing on a screen, butt-dialing, not to mention sure three-figure damage when dropping that glass-faced slab 'butter side down' (which are now so large they no longer fit in anything save back pockets).

    They would even be willing to learn how to say 'Shut up and take my money' in Suomi.

    As an aside, I find it humorous how many TV and movie directors refuse to give up on their actors using flip phones, as pushing a virtual button on a flat plane of glass when hanging up ain't very dramatic.

    • They need to do what no one else is doing anymore: flip smartphones and physical keyboards.

      Not really. They just need to make a high quality Android phone for a good price. No stupid annoying games like leaving out the microsd slot in order to gouge on flash pricing. Great radio. Great sound. You know, similar to their glory days but in the new form factor. I for one would buy instantly. I would be happy to buy a physical keyboard accessory from them as well. And maybe, just maybe, correct a few of the idiotic stupidities in Android, like only being able to rotate the screen to 3 of four possible

      • Oh, while I'm thinking of chronic idiotic stupidity, please don't wake the device up when when I connect it to power. If I want that, I'll press the power button. Google, home of hubris, does not care about user feedback. Maybe Nokia has the clout do the right thing.

  • Reborn Nokia drives the last stake through the heart of zombie Winphone. Stake is made of finely worked Linux heartwood with a core of phoenix feather .

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