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Nokia’s Days as a Phonemaker Might Be Numbered

Zachariah Kelly Avatar
Zachariah Kelly
Nokia’s Days as a Phonemaker Might Be Numbered

Nokia has been in a strange spot for a decade now. The once legendary phone maker, known for its iconic, indestructible ‘brick’ phones with long-lasting batteries, is now relegated to the c-tier for its budget-to-mid-range smartphones. That’s not to say that we don’t like them – we like them a lot, particularly for their accessible price points, however, a move from Nokia phonemaker, HMD Global, could put the Nokia name at risk.

The scoop comes from 91Mobiles, with a leaked render of an upcoming smartphone. The render is of a device that looks suspiciously like Nokia’s previous Android smartphones, sporting the same typical camera housing and chassis design, but where the Nokia logo would be is the ‘HMD’ name.

It’s not all that surprising. In March 2022, HMD Global said it was refocusing on the budget and mid-range market and flagship smartphones (such as ones that compete with the Apple iPhone or Samsung’s Galaxy S range) wouldn’t be a focus for the company.

In September, The Verge reported that HMD Global would sell ‘HMD’ branded smartphones in tandem with ‘Nokia’ branded smartphones – which is an exceptionally baffling move that could confuse customers and lead to competition between HMD’s two brands, particularly in the budget-to-mid range market.

What led Nokia to this is very interesting. HMD Global licenced the Nokia brand in 2016, after Microsoft, which had brought the legendary phone maker back in 2014 and pretty much trashed the brand. Microsoft had been working with Nokia since 2011 on the ‘Windows Phone’ platform, which ended up being hot garbage (though the Beast of Redmond has expressed regret for dumping the entire division, despite the release of an Android-power foldable under the Surface banner, which was also bad). Even before this, Nokia was working on its smartphone platform, Symbian, which didn’t bring in the crowds, and was subsequently dropped when the ball started rolling with Microsoft.

At Mobile World Congress 2023, Nokia debuted its new logo – a far cry from the gorgeous, boxy, retro stamp that Nokia had been using prior, and more of a startup-looking minimalist design.

The logo is important and according to Nokia, it represents a change in how the brand wants to be seen.

“Today we share our updated company and technology strategy with a focus on unleashing the exponential potential of networks – pioneering a future where networks meet cloud. To signal this ambition we are refreshing our brand to reflect who we are today – a B2B technology innovation leader. This is Nokia, but not as the world has seen us before,” President and CEO of Nokia Pekka Lundmark said at the time.

Considering this was in early 2023, the buzzword “metaverse” was chucked into the press release. Still, the company was signalling a change in focus – business and industry-wide support, rather than just phones. As the brand sees itself, phones only make up a small part of its portfolio – networking, data centres, radio networks, and IoT services are all covered by Nokia.

If you go onto the international website, you’d be hard-pressed to find anything to do with smartphones themselves. It’s all business and enterprise-oriented stuff (oh, AI and the metaverse are also there, of course).

Meanwhile, the HMD website is all about the phones – Nokia phones, at the moment, but probably not for much longer.

Even if the company plans to sell ‘HMD’ and ‘Nokia’ badged phones amongst one another, one must wonder how long this will go on. Nokia’s name is so much more recognisable than a three-letter badge, particularly in the feature phone market, but with Nokia supposedly refocusing on business clientele, perhaps it’s worth going to waste. I feel like, with Nokia’s new focus and HMD entering the phone market, we can put two and two together here.

For now, though, Nokia remains a pretty alright choice for budget and mid-range phone shoppers. I hope the incoming HMD phones are just as good.

“You will continue to see new Nokia phones. HMD’s new multi-brand strategy will include an HMD original range, as well as Nokia phones and other exciting new partnerships,” an HMD spokesperson told Gizmodo Australia.

Image: iStock

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