14 DAY TRIAL // There's been much talk surrounding Nokia's presumable comeback on the smartphone market, but that turned out to be just a dream for fans of the Finnish company who would still pay for Nokia smartphones.
Nevertheless, Nokia has made the first steps into the tablet market with its N1 slate, which is already available for purchase in some markets.
The smartphone business is still far from Nokia, as the Finnish company can't release its one handset until late 2016. The agreement signed with Microsoft forbids Nokia from entering the smartphone market until then, so we won't be seeing a smartphone from the Finnish company by that time.
In an interview for The Times of India, Nokia's CEO Rajiv Suri says that his company plans to maintain the Nokia feel in all its products.
If you followed Nokia's products before the company's smartphone business was bought by Microsoft, you probably noticed that all Lumia smartphones have a similar look or at least they are based on the same reference design.
Nokia is looking for brand licenses but will maintain its own product design
Microsoft has been trying to change that since it acquired Nokia's mobile phone business, but it's still far from coming up with its own device.
When asked about Nokia's return into the devices market, Rajiv Suri said “As a brand, we will be back in the consumer world. First we are tipping the toe in the water, seeing long-term opportunity. We find the brand is loved and recall is high in areas like India, China and Russia. Our view is to start with China, one step at a time.”
He is clearly referring to the recent launch of Nokia N1 tablet, but he then continues by saying that his company will find opportunities for brand licenses, “we have design capability, which everyone thought we sold to Microsoft, but we didn't sell it. We will maintain the Nokia feel in all our products. We can't have different products, each feeling different, in the market.”
So, we should expect Nokia to maintain its design capability for future products, which is something that fans will most likely find to their taste.