Nokia to make smartphone comeback

Nokia is plotting a return to the consumer technology arena as it hires software experts and begins testing new products. This may not get Nokia back on top, but it’s certainly an interesting strategy for when Nokia makes its return to the mobile phone market.

After ditching its Symbian operating system and adopting Microsoft’s Windows Phone software for its Lumia range of smartphones, Nokia sold up.

Nokia CEO Rajeev Suri was optimistic over the prospects of a comeback, and admitted preparations were in progress.

Since the deal with Microsoft, Nokia has released an Android tablet in China called the Nokia N1 that sold surprisingly well through its first two batches and on into the third and fourth.

It has since launched Z Launcher an Android app that organizes smartphone content. But that giant has fallen amidst the rush of newer and more advanced smartphones and tablets, eventually selling some of its assets to Microsoft.

Meanwhile, a number of job openings have popped up for Nokia’s technologies division on LinkedIn, with many of these jobs being in product development and some of them being for Android engineers for Nokia devices.

But it will not be easy to claw its way back to relevance in the fast-changing, competitive mobile business where Apple has been scooping up nearly 90 percent of industry profits, nor for it to carve out a place in electronics. This time around, Suri said he plans to seek brand-licensing deals, where Nokia designs and develops devices, but then leases out the rights to mass manufacture to other firms in exchange for branding and royalties. The company wants to take advantage of these resources and monetize its extensive patent trove. “Barriers to entry in the handset market are lower than ever and almost anyone can enter the smartphone market”. This was also produced under a brand-licensing deal. Though the firm is holding its secrets to the heart and has only put out a generic statement that claims that the team is working on designs for new customer products, including phones and digital video and health. These ventures should help put Nokia in a position to re-enter the mobile phone market in 2016.