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Nokia Crawls Towards Comeback With New Phones Announcement (theregister.co.uk)

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the prepping-return dept.

An anonymous reader shares a report on The Register: The "new Nokia" appears going for volume rather than margins as it makes a comeback into phones. A new venture called HMD Global has licensed the rights to the Nokia brand for use in phones, which will be made by Foxconn. Three or four new Nokia-branded devices will be launched, Nokia's China chief suggested in August, with the first to be announced before Christmas. Benchmarks for one device, named in the benchmarks as the "D1C" have been spotted, indicating a solid midrange device, with 3GB of RAM, and Android Nougat 7. The CPU is identified as a Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 octa core running at 1.4Ghz. In 2013, Microsoft bought the exclusive right to use the Nokia brand for phones, for a limited period. That exclusivity period expires at the end of this year.

7 of 73 comments (clear)

  1. D1C by lobiusmoop · · Score: 2

    Seriously?

    --
    "I bless every day that I continue to live, for every day is pure profit."
  2. Android? Meh... by clonehappy · · Score: 3

    Give me a solid OS alternative to iOS or Android and I might be interested.

    I am really tired of closed-source walled gardens and phones that leak personal information like a sieve. I want something better, and (since I use an iPhone currently) am obviously willing to pay for it.

    1. Re:Android? Meh... by TeknoHog · · Score: 4, Insightful

      This. Bringing back Nokia's GNU/Linux tablets and phones from the noughties (with modern hardware, of course) would be a good start. Imagine a phone with a real QWERTY keyboard that actually fits in your pocket, unlike today's thin and wide slabs -- that's the good old N900.

      --
      Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
    2. Re:Android? Meh... by gosand · · Score: 2

      Exactly! They should bet their entire re-emergence into a highly competitive market on antiquated features that statistically NOBODY is asking for.

      --

      My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.

  3. Re:Can the market support it? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Nokia Maemo was not "a 3rd platform (windows phones, BB10, FirefoxOS, etc)". It was standard Linux being able to run regular commandline (and some X11) applications compatible with UNIX API existing for approx. 50 years. Windows phones are not Win32 ABI compatible (and Windows applications are not distributed in source but AFAIK Windows phones are not even API compatible). And BB10 or FirefoxOS are also from-scratch OSes, no backward compatibility there. Nokia Maemo was special, this is also why Microsoft killed it by/after acquiring Nokia.

  4. Use GNU/Linux ! by DrYak · · Score: 2

    one day they ditch Android and replace with a new Symbian OS

    Common, Nokia had thrown money to their R&D department.
    They have thrown money at developping their Maemo/Meego platform.
    They have thrown money at building the N700/N800/N900/N9 series of Linux PDAs/Phones.
    They have basically paid all the things that became Jolla after the Linux R&D at Nokia got Sacked.
    (Hence the joke - name).
    In short they have already financed some sort of "new Symbian OS", i.e.: they have already financed a cool new OS.

    Jolla has built Sailfish OS, a very nice full-blown GNU/Linux platform (that has support for Android Apps, through at least 2 different solutions).
    But Jolla isn't that stellar with hardware (see tablet fiasco).

    Why the heck won't Nokia reach out Jolla and find possible uses for Sailfish OS ?
    They've basically paid for building it,
    it will help them to distinguish themselves from an over-saturated Android market (just like Samsung is trying with Tizen, build on the exact same "Mer" core),
    it will help them break the Andoird/iOS binary situation,
    and unlike Microsoft's failed attemps, it can also leverage an existing App eco system (Android) so it doesn't feel like the poor App-less parent (like Palm/HP WebOS was, or like Windows is trending now) but has access to a proven successful ecosystem of Apps *right now".

    --
    "Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
  5. Exists today. by DrYak · · Score: 3, Informative

    This. Bringing back Nokia's GNU/Linux tablets and phones from the noughties (with modern hardware, of course) would be a good start.

    Exists right now.
    Said GNU/Linux R&D team that was responsible for N900, got sacked by Nokia and went on to create "Jolla".
    The company responsible for Sailfish OS : an very nice looking full GNU/Linux smartphone OS, based around the "Mer" core - what is currently become of the Maemo/Meego platform of N900 - with a nice polished Qt interface, and at least 2 different solutions to run Android Apps - so it has access to a proven ecosystem.

    Imagine a phone with a real QWERTY keyboard that actually fits in your pocket, unlike today's thin and wide slabs

    ...and thought not featured as a base feature on the Jolla 1 phone, there were some 3rd party hobbyist sliding keyboards designed to work around the "Other Half" concept of Jolla (the back cover is supposed to be modular, well documented, and exports a few interesting things on pogo-pins, enabling 3rd party to create such things as this keyboard).

    Nokia should stop fumbling around and simply get an arrangement with them.
    (The paid for the development of most of what has ended up in Sailfish OS any way,
    and Jolla, though they have a super cool OS, are struggling producing good hardware).

    --
    "Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]