Nokia announced today that it will jump back into the smartphone and tablet game in 2016, but the new Nokia-branded smartphones and mobile devices will use Android rather than Microsoft’s Windows OS.
Nokia has been out of the smartphone hardware game for a while now, with recent Lumia phones branded as Microsoft devices instead, but we all knew that Nokia would be back in the smartphone game sooner rather than later. Sure enough, Nokia Technologies revealed on its blog this morning that we’ll be seeing new Nokia-branded mobile devices, including feature phones, smartphones and tablets, when its exclusivity deal with Microsoft ends in late 2016.
Nokia won’t be developing the new smartphones in-house, however. Rather, Nokia has granted HMD global Oy (HMD), a new Finnish company, exclusive global rights to craft the handsets and tablets for the next ten years.
And it’s no massive surprise that Nokia intends to stick with Android for the new mobile devices. No more Windows handsets, which is just as well given Microsoft’s tiny grasp on the mobile market.
HMD will apparently invest half a billion US dollars to market the new Nokia devices worldwide, so expect the brand to come back fighting. And we won’t see an end to Nokia’s popular feature phones either, which still sell bucket-loads in developing markets.
We’ll bring you more news as we have it, and here’s Nokia’s blog post in full.
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