Recent developments suggest that Nokia is moving away from the consumer market. The company has been quietly losing licensing deals with multiple partners that manufactured products under the legendary brand. Furthermore, the company remains silent about the future of licensing the Nokia brand to third parties.
It has been a while since HMD Global decided to start releasing devices under its own brand instead of using Nokia. We were introduced to the HMD Skyline in mid-July as its latest smartphone, which draws on the Lumia design language. They are also said to be working on a tablet and more products. At first, the announcement about dropping the Nokia brand came as a bit of a surprise. However, it seems there was something bigger going on.
Several Nokia partners stop manufacturing products under the brand
As reported by Nokiamob, multiple partners are stopping manufacturing products under the Nokia brand. The company licenses its brand to third parties to offer devices in multiple tech areas. Some of these products are available in certain regions, while others are more widely available. For example, there are countries where “Nokia” smart TVs were relatively successful, although they were manufactured by StreamView. Now, the latter is manufacturing the same smart TVs, but under the Thomson brand.
You can also find earphones and headphones under the Nokia brand in more regions. However, RichGo, the manufacturing company, is no longer producing them either, even removing them from its website. Although they were less well-known, some countries received Nokia-branded laptops manufactured by OffGlobal. However, these laptops will no longer be produced either.
Nokia is still silent on the future of its brand licensing
The company offered an official statement to Nokiamob but remained silent on the future of licensing the Nokia brand. The statement reads as follows: “We continue to wish HMD every success in their transition to a multi-brand strategy and we do not have information to share on other brand licensees at this time.”
It is possible that Nokia wants to exit the traditional consumer market completely. However, this does not mean that it will disappear. The company occupies an important position in the telecommunications market. So, we may not see physical Nokia products in stores from now on, although it will continue to have an impact on the way we communicate with others.
2024-08-13 15:07:56