The return of Nokia branded phones and tablets

by
in mobile on (#1ESPK)
A startup called HMD Global Oy (Helsinki, Finland) has been formed to takeover the Nokia brand for mobile phones and tablet computers and has said it intends to spend $500 million marketing Nokia as an Android-based mobile device over the next three years. HMD is owned by Smart Connect LP, a private equity fund managed by Jean-Francois Baril, a former Nokia executive, as well as by HMD management. As part of the same deal, Microsoft is selling remaining feature phone business assets to FIH Mobile Ltd., a subsidiary of Hon Hai Precision Industries (trading as Foxconn Technology Group).

HMD said it will produce smartphones and tablets that run the Android operating system. However while it is clear that HMD/Nokia will not be a manufacturers of mobile devices it remains unclear as to whether it will even perform its own design. The whole focus of the launch announcement was that HMD would focus on marketing and brand. It may yet also outsource the design of its devices and focus on putting its brand in front of consumers eyes and developing services that are accessed through those devices.

http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1329712
Reply 4 comments

Never had one (Score: 1)

by fishybell@pipedot.org on 2016-05-28 17:37 (#1FBCD)

I never had a Nokia phone, but their bulletproofness is legendary. If the new devices aren't amazingly resilient, they are doomed. Considering they're going for a an Android-based device, I'm guessing they are indeed doomed.

Re: Never had one (Score: 1, Insightful)

by Anonymous Coward on 2016-05-28 21:19 (#1FBTK)

"Branding has become a critical differentiator in mobile phones, which is why our business model is centered on the unique asset of the Nokia brand, and our extensive experience in sales and marketing. We will work with world class manufacturing and distribution providers to move quickly and deliver what customers want," said Nummela, in a statement.
So in other words "we're going to buy cheap android hardware, write nokia on it, fill it with undeletable Nokia apps and services and lose 500M in the process".

Re: Never had one (Score: 0)

by Anonymous Coward on 2016-06-04 22:52 (#1G4X8)

I had a Nokia 1100. It was one of the best phones I've ever had - I dropped it probably a dozen times, yet every time I reassembled it, it'd work like a charm. Even dropped it in a puddle, once.

If turned off when I went to bed, the battery lasted about three weeks. This of course decreased as the battery aged, but after several years it was still almost a fortnight when I upgraded to a Galaxy Nexus S. That would last about a day, in comparison.

I had to recycle my Nokia 1100 in the end, but it was a damned good phone for what it was.

Re: Never had one (Score: 0)

by Anonymous Coward on 2016-06-08 11:26 (#1GGR5)

Battery life was good for most phones when they had monochrome displays. The power consumption for a monochrome LCD is about 1/5th of a TFT at the same size. Here is an article comparing some displays. Here is some more discussion. I've read that the difference can even go up to 10x. This is for the same size. The Galaxy Nexus S has a screen 4 times bigger (4'' vs. 2'').

The display isn't all. A smartphone has a much bigger CPU with higher power consumption. I imagine an older phone would do fine with some 8-bit microprocessor, given the same GSM modules. Or even with no extra processor since the GSM module was probably the entirety of the phone. Typically has some extra radio like Bluetooth or WiFi etc.

Also, older phones were used for one purpose only: phone calls (ok, SMS also. Older phones were used for two purposes. phone calls and SMS and alarms). This meant that you spent very little time with the phone and it was able to sleep for long periods without consuming much power. With the new phones you surf the internet, play games or check your email etc. This causes the phone to come out of sleep many more times than before.

With all these things added, it's a wonder that a smartphone even can go thru a whole day with one charge.