Nokia is looking for a partner to help it enter the smartphone business
 

Nokia comments on media speculation about mobile devices

The following has been posted by Robert Morlino, spokesman for Nokia Technologies

July 13, 2015

For 14 years Nokia was the biggest cell phone maker in the world, and the brand became a household name -- one that evoked quality, innovation and human connection. The brand is still recognized that way by millions of people around the world, which is incredibly gratifying and a huge compliment for the people who helped create it. So it’s not surprising that today, the question comes up all the time: will Nokia return to mobile devices?

The answer is: it’s complicated.

Let’s take it from the top. As you probably know, we sold essentially all of our Devices & Services business to Microsoft in April 2014. With it went all of the enormous manufacturing, marketing and channel distribution capabilities you need to be in the business of making & selling phones.

The Nokia that exists today remains focused on the connected world, through mobile network infrastructure, location & mapping services, and technology development & licensing. We also aim to continue bringing our iconic design capabilities and technology innovation to the mobile space, and in the form of amazing products people can someday hold in their hands. However, we’ll do it in a completely different way from before.

The right path back to mobile phones for Nokia is through a brand-licensing model. That means identifying a partner that can be responsible for all of the manufacturing, sales, marketing and customer support for a product.

If and when we find a world-class partner who can take on those responsibilities, we would work closely with them to guide the design and technology differentiation, as we did with the Nokia N1 Android tablet. That’s the only way the bar would be met for a mobile device we’d be proud to have bear the Nokia brand, and that people will love to buy.

To summarize, we will look for the right partner who can take on the heavy lifting and work closely with us to deliver a great product. As we agreed with Microsoft, the soonest that could happen is Q4 2016 -- so it’s safe to say Nokia won’t be back (at least in phone form...) before then.

http://company.nokia.com/en/news/sta...her-statements

Re: Nokia is looking for a partner to help it enter the smartphone business
 

In other words: You make the device, and we split the profits.

Nokia is so dead.

Re: Nokia is looking for a partner to help it enter the smartphone business
 

Looool nokia is deserved to die, bring back maemo and that what i call reincarnation

Re: Nokia is looking for a partner to help it enter the smartphone business
 

Apple don't manufacture their own devices and they're doing alright. As long as NOKIA do some QA and make sure rubbish isn't being shipped out with their name on what's the problem?

Re: Nokia is looking for a partner to help it enter the smartphone business
 

Apple does not manufacture their devices but they design them from the ground up; they have own SOC and real HW design, not just looks-like-design.
They do not own the factories but they create and own their IP.

Nokia on the other hand, at least with N1 just slapped a launcher on top of a generic OEM Android slab, how original... :D

Re: Nokia is looking for a partner to help it enter the smartphone business
 

design team
http://mynokiablog.com/2015/02/16/no...-all-products/

Re: Nokia is looking for a partner to help it enter the smartphone business
 

Nokia N8, N9, E7, X7, N900, etc.......... designs.....wow

Re: Nokia is looking for a partner to help it enter the smartphone business
 

Yeah, they do. In the AnTuTu benchmark their A7 came just behind the MTK MT6592 processor you find in generic OEM Android slabs:
http://i-cdn.phonearena.com/images/a...920-antutu.png

Hopefully the A8's a big improvement or else it begs the question: "Why bother?"

NOKIA though will be in the advantageous position of being able to design in the best available. It's just a question of their agenda.

Re: Nokia is looking for a partner to help it enter the smartphone business
 

Re: Nokia is looking for a partner to help it enter the smartphone business
 

Re: Nokia is looking for a partner to help it enter the smartphone business
 

I wish but Maemo will never come back. N900 is the last one. Nokia will smartphone with a proper version of Android will be a hit. At least that's what i think.

Re: Nokia is looking for a partner to help it enter the smartphone business
 

conteps :D
http://ra.fi/n10.png

Re: Nokia is looking for a partner to help it enter the smartphone business
 

N9 was good but the rest were awful.

N8 - chunky, fiddly screws to replace battery, plastic ends that showed wear and then the horror that was the camera island.

E7 - take the N8 and add a bad keyboard. Make the camera worse and the battery worse.

X7 - make the screen bigger but still keep the crappy nHD resolution. Cut the corners off so it looked like something out of abad BBC SciFi series.

N900 - spongy screen, tiny battery, keyboard you can't type on, a pointy stick, lens protector which scratches the lens, badly attached USB port and make it about an inch thick.

IMHO you listed some of the worst Nokia designs.

Re: Nokia is looking for a partner to help it enter the smartphone business
 

Huh? Apple have already released the A8. It's in the iPhone 6. Apple claims it's 25% faster than the A7 and 50% faster at graphics.

They've also released the A8X. 40% faster than the A7 and 2.5 times quicker at graphics. It's in the iPad Air 2.

Running the antutu bench you quoted, it beats all those in the graph you used and only the snapdragon 810 beats it. The problem there is the 810 runs so hot that it has to be throttled back drastically to the point where the older 801 beats it in normal use. For example, the older Sony Z3 is beating the new 810 equipped Z3+/Z4.

http://www.trustedreviews.com/opinio...ocessor-rivals

Re: Nokia is looking for a partner to help it enter the smartphone business
 

He's just copy and paste the comment from the link of his post #6. A comment from "Nokia Rox"

Basically he turns TMO into another collection of fan-hypering, and junk anticipating artical site.

Re: Nokia is looking for a partner to help it enter the smartphone business
 

So looking at these charts from the article you linked to:

http://static.trustedreviews.com/94/...antututest.png

http://static.trustedreviews.com/94/...bench3test.png

http://static.trustedreviews.com/94/...3dmarktest.png

are we agreed there are a fair number of SOCs available comparable to the one in the current iteration of the iPhone?

So we know subcontracting manufacturing shouldn't be a problem for NOKIA, Apple already do that very successfully, and we know there are plenty of high performing SOCs available in the market place.

In my opinion whether NOKIA's re-entry into the smartphone market will succeed or not is unlikely to be about any of that, those are non-issues (unless they pick components that are absolutely dreadful - and they're getting increasingly rare), it's going to be about the aesthetics, the UI and the QA.

Re: Nokia is looking for a partner to help it enter the smartphone business
 

Just looking at those charts again it's interesting how close Intel are getting.

Re: Nokia is looking for a partner to help it enter the smartphone business
 

And also that Intel are buying their way into the competition. I've an Intel powered HP Stream 7 tablet which isn't up there with those performance beasts but it cost me under £50 Inc VAT and delivery.

Re: Nokia is looking for a partner to help it enter the smartphone business
 

With same nokia attitude like before, no, lol, no more nokia

Re: Nokia is looking for a partner to help it enter the smartphone business
 

Nostalgia tends to paint a rosy picture. Make no mistake; Nokia was a good manufacturer with quality products in their portfolio.

But that's no longer the case for the last few years and the majority will now have a negative response to the brand Nokia. Only historical Nokia fans will wax poetic over their prior purchases. And if they do that, the new purchases will never measure up. Atari, Commodore, Amiga all quickly come to mind.

I'd say start something new, promise quality, deliver over quite a few years, produce a brand that's not saddled with the history as recent Nokia.

Deep down, Nokia ticked me off with Maemo. Each device was a start/stop cycle and there was no continuance. Still existed with MeeGo. And over the multiple devices over the years, I'll never do that again. That's my Nokia takeaway.

Re: Nokia is looking for a partner to help it enter the smartphone business
 

Nokia brand is still very highly regarded, just recently had a conversation with a work colleague about his gf's frustration with android makers and that she would buy a nokia in an instant (she had nokias all the way through), pretty sure there are more ppl like her (probably less in states, but in europe that is really quite a number, of course just anecdotal evidence, but yeah, take with a grain or bag of salt as you wish)

Re: Nokia is looking for a partner to help it enter the smartphone business
 

I don't doubt you, szopin. I just hope a relaunch would be handled with grace and good intent as opposed to just trying to make a quick buck and pull people in based merely on nostalgia.

I can't really think of any brand being relaunched that's done that in the last 20 years that was done well. Not saying it can't be done; I'm saying that's how it should be done.

Nokia is still held in high regard in the states. Done well, they could become a top brand again. I just probably have a tad bit too much skepticism and doubt that it will be done right. Greed being the main reason. Capital to do things right being the other reason.

Re: Nokia is looking for a partner to help it enter the smartphone business
 

Completely agree with you on Nokia's brand being met with a negative response these days, gerbick, but particularly in The States rather than the other way around. To be more fair, it's very mixed, and I think it comes from the association with Windows. Windows Phone has been a complete flop in the US with no signs of a turnaround. I work for AT&T and people don't want Windows Phones. They want Samsung and Apple. A very small handful of them had Windows Phones and 90% hated them. The rest know someone who had one and hated it, so they avoid it. There's a ton of consumers who don't know Nokia even made smartphones. Those are the people who still hold the brand in high regard, with respect for their durability and build quality. The people who are aware that Nokia made Windows Phones dislike the brand by association. Nokia = Windows Phone = crap.

Re: Nokia is looking for a partner to help it enter the smartphone business
 

N9,N8 and E7 are beautifully crafted devices.
wth are you talking about?!

Re: Nokia is looking for a partner to help it enter the smartphone business
 

Are we on the same planet?! :D

Re: Nokia is looking for a partner to help it enter the smartphone business
 

damn!

I meant to quote that guy!

ps: I was gone for a while.
My first post after that long was a complete quote-disaster :p
it's all greek to me

Re: Nokia is looking for a partner to help it enter the smartphone business
 

Epic!! Lol

Re: Nokia is looking for a partner to help it enter the smartphone business
 

Always wondering - is there any logical connections between the content from the link and your comment?

The announcement has no sign to be camera linked.

And for your comment: Even if Nokia has the camera patent, their engineers are gone with MS. There is always difficulties commercialising a good technology, and these experts are in MS now. Furthermore I don't see Foxconn has the ability do to the "superview" as you dreamed.

Re: Nokia is looking for a partner to help it enter the smartphone business
 

Another post copied from somewhere else on the internet. See post #14 here. I really do think that nodevel might be right about Foxkia being a forum bot. Its posts seem to have no cohesion whatsoever.

Let's see if/how it responds to this post. If it can't come up with a human-like response then I propose we ban it.

Re: Nokia is looking for a partner to help it enter the smartphone business
 

Totally agree. Copy link + Copy comment + Combine them randomly together without any logic. Then Random reply. Self destruction - delete random post. We need proof that it is not a bot. ;)

Re: Nokia is looking for a partner to help it enter the smartphone business
 

After reading recent threads on speculation of Nokia entering the smartphone business, I indeed have felt tempted to simply close them as things are pretty clear cut but being hyped up unnecessarily.

To those who love to post new threads/posts on every statement/tweet from a Nokia employee, let me remind you this is not speculations.nokia.com. Kindly, take your fantasies elsewhere and keep our boards clean of frankly rubbish news posted on slow news days.

Therefore I notify all that further threads on what Nokia is going to do or will be doing with the same bs that has been posted earlier will be sent to /dev/null.

Re: Nokia is looking for a partner to help it enter the smartphone business
 

This makes no sense, as a bot would do.
However, I believe it is quite a sophisticated bot that once it sees the phrase "bot" it will start posting in order to "prove" it is human.

Sometimes I wonder if I am a bot. Actually I am.

Re: Nokia is looking for a partner to help it enter the smartphone business
 

I'm not a bot

Re: Nokia is looking for a partner to help it enter the smartphone business
 

Time for a Turing test then. :)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_test

Re: Nokia is looking for a partner to help it enter the smartphone business
 

Are we ready for a bot to prove it's not a bot here at TMO?

Re: Nokia is looking for a partner to help it enter the smartphone business
 

Foxkia, explain why you find it appropriate to copy word for word, posts from other people elsewhere on the internet and then paste them here on this forum.

This reminds me of the witch hunt scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3jt5ibfRzw

Re: Nokia is looking for a partner to help it enter the smartphone business
 

I am truly sorry if I have offended you. Unless someone bothered to code a forum bot clever enough to detect and sidestep the forum swear filter (seems a bit far fetched), then I have made a mistake.

Re: Nokia is looking for a partner to help it enter the smartphone business
 

Ok, I've talked to him, he's not a bot.
now please stay on topic and be nice to each other guys :)

Re: Nokia is looking for a partner to help it enter the smartphone business
 

I don't know what clarifies as on topic here.
Should we do suggestions to help Nokia out with design, software, and marketing?

I suggest they do an advertising campaign exactly like this:
http://bfy.tw/sJy
Women, Sports, Music = Killer Combo