HMD Global and Nokia today issued a press release stating that the strategic agreement covering branding rights and intellectual property licensing with HMD Global, announced on May 18, 2016 comes into force today.
Finland-based HMD has entered into a 10-year brand licensing agreement with Nokia, giving it exclusive use of the Nokia brand on mobile phones and tablets worldwide (except Japan) for the next decade. HMD already has a presence in the feature phone market, as it jointly acquired the Nokia feature phone business with Foxconn subsidiary FIH Mobile from Microsoft earlier this year.
In its press release, the Finnish firm has confirmed that the first Nokia branded phones will be launched in the first half of next year. As rumored, all the new smartphones and tablets to be launched by HMD in the future will utilize Google’s Android operating system, the most popular mobile OS in the world currently with a market share of 86%. While HMD will be developing the new mobile devices, the task of manufacturing them has been given to FIH, a global consumer electronics manufacturing and technology powerhouse.
HMD claims that the new Nokia branded product range will focus on innovation, quality and experience, alongside the iconic Nokia mobile phone attributes of design, robustness, and reliability. The company is now operating a web page as well, where you can sign up to “be the first to know” about the future Nokia smartphones running on Google’s Android operating system.
Based on leaks so far, we know that the company is working on two flagship smartphones, an entry-level smartphone, and two variants of the D1C mid-ranger. A tablet is rumored to be in the works too. We expect the Finnish company to unveil the first new Nokia branded devices at the Mobile World Congress 2017 in February next year.
Source: PRNewsWire
