Helsinki, Finland-based company HMD Global Oy (HMD) announced its plans to release new Nokia-branded phones to the market yesterday, December 1.
The announcement marks the Nokia brand’s return to the smartphone market after Microsoft purchased Nokia’s smartphone assets in 2014.
Earlier this year, Microsoft sold its feature phone division to Taiwanese company FoxConn’s subsidiary FIH mobile and HMD.
In an official statement released on the company’s official website, HMD CEO Arto Nummela said, “Today marks a happy and important day for HMD. Nokia has been one of the most iconic and recognisable phone brands globally for decades. The excitement of re-introducing this much-loved, well-known and trusted brand to smartphone consumers is a responsibility and an ambition that everyone at HMD shares.”
The first Nokia smartphones will be released in the first half of 2017 and will make use of Android as their base operating system.
HMD was formed in 2014 after the Microsoft acquisition of Nokia’s mobile division and is made up of Nokia veterans.
“With our passionate team, start up attitude, a brand with a 95 percent worldwide awareness and a unique, asset-light partnership approach, we believe we are perfectly placed to forge a new way in mobile,” said HMD President Florian Seiche.