Nokia Back On Android

Nokia is making a comeback to the mobile industry as it releases a new range of feature phones and tablets on Google’Android operating system.

Microsoft has sold the brand, which was worth $300bn at its height, in two parts for a total of just $350m. The brand name was sold to a new company called HMD, formed by former Nokia employees in Finland. Meanwhile, the manufacturing, distribution and sales arms of Nokia have been bought by iPhone manufacturer Foxconn, which has also agreed to build the new Nokia phone for HMD.

HMD plans to invest $500m (£346m) over the next three years in marketing the devices, which will run Google’s Android operating system.

The news comes as Microsoft, which acquired Nokia’s mobile business in 2014 for £4.6 billion, hinted at the demise of its Lumia smartphone range.A

The move was seen as a last-ditch attempt for the two technology giants to join forces and challenge the dominance of Apple and Google, but the pair have failed to create a meaningful phone challenger.

Microsoft has continued to release basic mobile handsets, known as feature phones, under the Nokia name since the purchase, releasing more advanced smartphones under the Nokia Lumia name before switching to Microsoft Lumia in November 2014.

HMD has now purchased the rights to use the Nokia trademark on feature phones until 2024, and all remaining feature phone assets, including sales, manufacturing and distribution, will be sold to FIH Mobile Limited – a subsidiary of electronics manufacturer Foxxconn, best-known as one of Apple’s largest suppliers for iPhone.

Nokia, once the largest mobile manufacturer in the world, failed to cater to the growing consumer appetite for smartphones spearheaded by Apple and Google in the late 2000s. Rapidly falling sales led analysts to fear the company was on the verge of declaring bankruptcy in 2012.

Microsoft too has been struggling: rumours suggest plans to axe the poorly-selling Lumia line and reinvigorate its smartphones with a new Surface Phone.

In July last year Microsoft announced it was writing off $7.6bn from the value of its mobile division and cut 7,800 jobs.