Nokia Returns: Once-Dominant Phone Giant To Revive Smartphone Business? [VIDEO]
It has been a long time since Finnish phone maker Nokia dominated the international cellular phone market. Indeed, during the last few years, Nokia's phone business has been in much of a decline, pushed by the generally negative reception of consumers to its devices. Now, however, it seems like Nokia is attempting to revive itself.
In a recent announcement, Nokia announced that it signed an exclusive 10-year deal with HMD Global, another Finnish firm, in order to manufacture and design Nokia-branded smartphones and tablets once more. What's more, the devices which would be manufactured by HMD would be powered by Android OS, bringing Nokia closer to the mainstream consumer market once more.
Once a world leader in cellular devices, Nokia ended up committing a series of errors in judgment which ultimately led to the downfall of its mobile phone business. Even after Apple introduced iOS and Google offered Android as an open-source alternative, Nokia stubbornly insisted on the utilization of its homegrown OS, Symbian. Unfortunately for the Finnish company, Symbian ultimately proved a very poor competitor to the power and capabilities of iOS and Android systems.
Eventually, Nokia began embracing Windows Mobile for its smartphones, but by this time, the firm had already lost much of its previous momentum with consumers. Apart from this, Nokia had also been far eclipsed by powerhouse brands such as Apple and Samsung by then. Thus, even when Nokia finally decided to embrace a third-party OS for its mobile devices, it was far too late.
With the recent announcement, however, there might be a pretty good chance that Nokia would finally be able to make a comeback. According to Arto Nummela, a former Nokia executive and how is in line to be the CEO of HMD Global, there is hope for the Nokia brand yet.
"We will be completely focused on creating a unified range of Nokia-branded mobile phones and tablets, which we know will resonate with consumers. Branding has become a critical differentiator in mobile phones, which is why our business model is centered on the unique asset of the Nokia brand, and our extensive experience in sales and marketing," he said.
In a lot of ways, Nummela does have a point. After all, despite its decline, the Nokia brand remains as one of the most recognizable smartphone brands in the world today. With Android at its disposal, there might definitely be a Renaissance of the popular Finnish brand.
