The Nokia brand, which was brought back to life through a partnership with HMD Global, may soon be on its last legs.
Nokia is finally heading for its final resting place. HMD Global, the exclusive owner of phones bearing the iconic name for the past eight years, announced on Thursday that it will no longer use the iconic name on future releases, signaling that it is time to move on. This marks the end of an experimental effort that the Finnish startup in 2016 to reintroduce the beloved phone brand to a new audience.
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With HMD going it alone, Nokia is once again returning to the past, joining BlackBerry and Palm, the name brands that once ruled the phone sector but were unable to compete with Apple and Google, leading to their early exit from the market.
“While we were known as the makers of Nokia phones, we are looking beyond that legacy. We are moving from being a sister brand to a multi-tier manufacturer with our own distinct HMD branded product range, complemented by several licensing agreements and significant brand partnerships,” wrote Lars Silberbauer, CMO of Nokia Phones/HMD on LinkedIn.
Things to check
The demise of Nokia-branded phones came as no surprise. Last year, the company had already signaled that it would launch its own line of mobile devices. However, this does not mean that HMD will immediately drop the Nokia name from its phones, but will focus mainly on its own brand in the future. While Nokia, which is a giant in the telecommunications infrastructure space after selling its mobile unit, has licensed the Nokia brand to HMD Global for 10 years, according to the licensing agreement. With two more years left, HMD Global will be forced to launch phones under the Nokia name, which is why the brand's website still states that the Finnish company is the "Manufacturer of Nokia phones.".
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However, HMD Global is already looking ahead and laying the groundwork to transition from making Nokia-branded phones to creating an independent brand. The change has already begun, with Nokia.com/phones and social media accounts being shut down and moved to a new HMD Global website. The Helsinki-based company has signaled the return of the old Nokia Lumia to its new phone lineup, which will be unveiled for the first time at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona from February 26 to 29. It also teased an upcoming feature phone with 5G connectivity, as well as upcoming tablets and wireless headphones.
Nokia's journey through the years
At one point, Nokia was the largest technology company in Europe and a powerhouse in the mobile phone market. By the end of 2007, Nokia's mobile phones accounted for 50% of all mobile phones sold worldwide, commanding the largest market share and making it a global telephony powerhouse. The brand catered to all segments of the market with a product range that ranged from basic devices to high-end cameras and business devices. Incidental fact: Nokia also had plans to sell luxury phones made of exotic materials, costing thousands of dollars under the "Vertu" brand.
Over the years, Nokia has had many successes, such as being the first mobile company to introduce a GSM handheld mobile phone, the Nokia 1011, in 1992. In 1996, it released the first smartphone, the Nokia 9000, which featured a dialer, business-friendly software, a Qwerty keyboard, and the ability to send and receive faxes and e-mail. The company is also credited with launching the first mobile phone with a built-in camera, the Nokia 7650, in 2001.
However, with the launch of the iPhone in 2007 and the launch of Google's Android mobile operating system , Nokia's decline as a mobile handset maker came slowly and gradually. While the market shifted towards smartphones and the app-store model, Nokia was unable to adapt to the change and when the otherwise-called "iPhone killer" in the form of the Nokia N97 was released, the device lagged behind the competition. Many attribute Nokia's downfall to the arrogance of upper management who failed to see the iPhone as an imminent threat, resulting in the company's inability to create a modern mobile operating system that could compete with iOS and Android.
Downhill
In 2010, Nokia began to feel the pressure when sales began to decline. That year, Stephen Elop took over as the new CEO, replacing Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo. A year later, in 2011, Nokia partnered with Microsoft to make Windows Mobile phones. Over the next two or three years, Nokia produced phones with top-notch cameras, such as the Nokia 808 PureView and Lumia 1020, but by that time, Windows Mobile was already in decline due to a lack of apps and developer support. Even today, many in the technology industry characterize this move as an accident, which negatively affected Nokia's mobile phone sales but benefited smartphones running Android, giving Google the upper hand to dominate the phone market.
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In September 2013, Microsoft announced that it would buy Nokia's mobile phone business for $7.2 billion. However, two years later, the Redmond giant announced that it would write off its investment in Nokia, resulting in the cutting of more than 7,800 jobs. By that time, Microsoft had already realized that it could not compete with both Apple and Google in the smartphone market, so abandoning the mobile business would be a logical move. The brand name – Nokia – was sold to a new company called HMD Global, which took over the design and release of the phones. At the same time, Foxconn took over the manufacturing.
The Nokia name rose from the ashes and was given new life when HMD Global started selling smartphones running Google's Android mobile operating system. In the early years, Nokia-branded phones held out hope, and critics liked what HMD Global was cooking up. However, the failure of the Nokia 9 PureView had dented its confidence in competing with the biggest phone makers. It came with five cameras on the back, a first for any smartphone, and the company partnered with Light (makers of the 16-camera L16) to make those cameras possible in a mobile device.
Unfortunately, the device was problematic, and the Nokia 9 PureView camera phone remained an experimental arm. After the failure of the Nokia 9 PureView, HMD Global focused on budget to mid-range phones, while also aggressively promoting feature phones. Its decision not to offer a “high-end” Nokia phone disappointed fans who eventually moved on to other brands, especially from China, which aggressively promoted high-end phones at lower costs. All this, plus Google’s lack of decision to promote budget phones under the Android One program, negatively affected Nokia-branded smartphones. In recent months, HMD Global has been promoting repairable smartphones, which have been well received.
The Nokia brand, once worth $300 billion at its peak, is far from the glory of its past. The lack of enthusiasm for Nokia among modern-day consumers is a testament to why HMD is making the independent entry with its own brand. Nostalgia has brought some consumers to classic brands like Nokia, which have a history and reference value, but not on the level of the iPhone, and perhaps that is the biggest lesson to be learned from Nokia's history.
Source: indianexpress
