Nokia Has No Plans To Return To The Smartphone Business, Says CEO

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Nokia CEO Rajeev Suri detailed the company’s future plans at an analyst meeting on Friday in London.

Suri has put an end to the rumours that said, even though Nokia sold its devices and services business to Microsoft, the company was looking to return to the smartphone manufacturing business.

“We are not looking to a direct consumer return to handsets per se. Brand will return to the consumer world” through licensing deals in the longer term.

The Nokia brand is still extremely powerful and we see considerable interest in licensing. We will pursue it… in a thoughtful and considered way.”

In the speech, which was largely aimed at investors, Suri focused on the company’s three core divisions (Networks, Here Maps, and its Technologies business) and its plans for future licensing deals. The Finnish company is willing to sell the rights to make smartphones under the Nokia brand to any company that is interested.

“For Technologies, licensing will remain a priority, with Nokia working on upping royalty payments as existing licensing deals expire. And, having struck patent licensing deals with many of the big handset manufacturers, Suri revealed that it would be moving on to opening discussions with mid and low-tier device companies, as well as non-phone related hardware businesses, including those making set-top boxes and digital cameras. It will also be looking to milk the parts of its patent portfolio it has not historically thought to monetise.”

Microsoft recently announced the first Lumia phone without the Nokia branding and the company also said that it has no plans include the Lumia branding on any future Microsoft product.

[via ZDNet]

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