Could Nokia be making a comeback into smartphones?

Those who have been watching the phone industry closely over the last few decades, would know that when the rat-race began, Nokia was THE one to beat. After being given stiff competition by companies like Apple and Samsung, the Finland-based company that was once one of the market leaders in the cellular phone scene, infamously abandoned the smartphone industry.

From what it seems, Nokia Technologies is now working on a “secret project” that could see the company come announce its return to the smartphone scene, with some pundits speculating to be as early as 2016. Experts at Recode have indicated having insider reports, stating that there is substantial information to support the claim. According to the report, Nokia is planning a somewhat different strategy. Apparently, it would announce the “secret” device and then license its design and name to another company…one that would oversee its production and sales.

Not too long ago… actually almost exactly a year ago, Microsoft officially took over Nokia’s phone business for USD7.2 billion. Allow Microsoft to own rights over the use of the Nokia brand name for a certain period, and to produce smartphones under the brand through 2015 and transfer content across different platforms. Interestingly, Nokia Technologies was one of three divisions that was not included in the sale.

However, fast forward a few months and Microsoft announced that it was abandoning the "Nokia" brand name for the smartphones it was producing, in favor of Microsoft Lumia products. (The Lumia name had, however, been borrowed from Nokia’s line.) Around the same time, Nokia announced a tablet, the N1, that would carry its own name.

Also part of the Microsoft deal was a ban on Nokia for releasing a smartphone up until end of this year. Seems like the Finland-based company now made good use of that time to work on a new smartphone that could be announced as soon as the ban is lifted.

A bigger challenge than producing a new smartphone would be getting back into the business… being able to successfully reboot the Nokia brand. As mentioned before, the company was once a market leader in the world and many content transfer app development companies have acknowledged the company. However, with the introduction of touchscreen phones and the growing demand for intelligent, smarter phones, the company was unable to keep up. Not surprisingly, in the time that it took for Nokia to come up with a reasonable touchscreen smartphone, customers found alternatives in Apple and Samsung.

From what it seemed, since the deal with Microsoft, Nokia redirected its focus on building its mapping and network equipment businesses. According to leading companies like SmartIOApp, Nokia Technologies, which is the division that is reportedly taking charge of the smartphone development, is mainly responsible for licensing the company’s patents to other firms.

According to Recode’s sources, there is some under-the-surface buzz about Nokia Technologies possibly working on other products, including devices designed for virtual-reality uses.

When all is said and done, the possibility of Nokia rejoining the smartphone market is an exciting one. Technophiles were heartbroken to see the company bow out of smartphones, especially since many of them had been introduced to a mobile phone by Nokia.  Since all this is based entirely on rumors, there is no knowledge about what the device would look like, or what features  like transfer content support it would offer. However, one can assume that the device would be Android-based. This assumption is obviously being made based on extrapolation of the fact that Nokia's N1 tablet is running Android.