Nokia sold its entire mobile handset business to Microsoft last year, but rumour mills continued to churn out stories regarding the Finnish company’s intentions of coming back into business.
So when <Re/Code> just recently published a story about Nokia’s return to handset business, the company felt it was enough ! It hence released an “Official Statement”, way too diverged from the language of an actual official statement, and more of a resent letter, indirectly directed towards <Re/Code>.
But before we get on to what Nokia said, let’s get a gist of what <Re/Code> reported. The publication cited unnamed sources saying, that the company is looking to rejoin the handset business, by as early as next year. The report further stated that it is Nokia’s Technologies division which might be spearheading the re-joining process.
Nokia Technologies is the company’s patenting arm, with a massive portfolio of over 10,000 products and services. Its more recent licensed designs include the N1 tablet, which is being sold in China under nokia’s name, and the Z Launcher.
But as per terms of Nokia’s Microsoft deal, the formed is not allowed to sell phones until the end of 2015, and from licensing anything like that until Q3 2016.
And since <Re/Code>’s report could bring in some serious discontent from Microsoft, Nokia probably thought it best, to release a scorning statement to silence all such rumours, once and for all.
In an Official statement issued today, the Finnish company has rather vehemently refuted those claims. It said,
Nokia notes recent news reports claiming the company communicated an intention to manufacture consumer handsets out of a R&D facility in China. These reports are false, and include comments incorrectly attributed to a Nokia Networks executive.
And that is just not it. Nokia further “Reiterated”, that it has absolutely no plans of entering into the handset business. The company “reiterates”,
Nokia reiterates it currently has no plans to manufacture or sell consumer handsets.
However, looking at Nokia’s direction post its handset business sell-off, it seemed rather surprising that Nokia was thinking of getting back into handset business.
Take for example, the recent Alcatel-lucent deal. The company bought in Alcatel-Lucent for a mammoth $16.5 Billion, with official statements saying that the company aims to focus on IoT and cloud computing, not to mention 5G, networking, analytics, sensors, and imaging.
Thus, going back to the usual handset business doesn’t look like an option now. Still, you can’t just neglect reports, majorly because they cited Nokia execs commenting affirmatively on company’s return plans. As of now though, no more Nokia, at least in handsets.
