Nokia is going to design phones again in 2016

Nokia CEO Rajeev Suri has confirmed that he will resume designing phones, which should be released under the Nokia name in 2016. The Finnish company would not produce the devices itself, but would provide its name under license.

The Nokia CEO expressed the confirmation to the German Manager Magazin. In 2016, the group will license its name to other companies. They may then market devices that Nokia designs under the Nokia name. There have been rumors about this move for some time, which Nokia invariably denied.

That will be in the second half of 2016. With the sale of its telephone division to Microsoft in 2013, Nokia was obliged to stay out of the telephone market until then. However, at the end of last year a tablet was released under the Nokia name, the N1, which is made by Foxconn.

It seems unlikely that the mobile market will again play a major role for Nokia. The group now focuses on telecom and other networks and it took over Alcatel-Lucent this year for an amount of 15.6 billion euros. The Here map service is in the shop window.

Nokia was forced to sell its mobile business to Microsoft in 2013 after sales of the former Finnish giant collapsed. The then CEO of the company, Stephen Elop, had previously opted for Windows Phone, in the hope that Nokia could distinguish itself in the market dominated by iPhones and many Android devices. That strategy failed. Elop himself returned to Microsoft, where he left again this week.