They just won’t be making them in-house.
“We are not looking to a direct consumer return to handsets per se”, said Suri. He also noted “the Nokia brand is still extremely powerful and we see considerable interest in licensing. We will pursue it... in a thoughtful and considered way”, after saying Nokia as a brand “will return to the consumer world”.
Those comments were made in response to questions about Nokia building a hardware manufacturing arm and returning to hardware production. Nokia’s focus, as Suri said, remains elsewhere. Their Here mapping platform is quietly gaining a lot of traction, on Windows devices and beyond. They also still hold a myriad of patents, which they are licensing.
Networks remains a focus as well, which is their telco equipment branch. After selling the hardware arm to Microsoft, Nokia is once again experiencing growth. Still, they’re open to licensing their name for use on hardware to consumers. If an Original Design Manufacturer (ODM) can produce something solid — a handset Nokia would be proud to put their name on — we may not have seen the last of the Nokia phone.
