Tropicana May-June 2024 #154 The Family Issue

TROPICANA MAGAZINE
105
Photo by https://images.fonearena.com
Nokia owned Finnish company - HMD Global, best known for
producing Nokia-branded smartphones, has announced plans
to release its own line of mobile devices. The announcement
was made on LinkedIn by HMD Global CEO Jean-Francois
Baril stating that the company will be broadening its range
of mobile devices with a new HMD brand smartphone that is
intended to co-exist alongside its Nokia phones.
Having had the exclusive position of being the home of Nokia
phones for the last six years, it was declared that it seemed the
next logical step to enter the market to produce and launch on
their own independently. A force focused on redesigning a new
world of telecommunications, HMD has shared very openly that
it will be purely based on the customer’s experience and needs.
Details regarding the new HMD products, including a
potential release date, remain undisclosed. Efforts to obtain
further information from HMD Global are underway, and
should be announced soon.
HMD Global is a company that was formed after Microsoft
relinquished its rights to the Nokia brand in 2016. Foxconn,
Taiwanese technological group, then took over Microsoft’s
feature phone business. Founder of Foxconn - Terry Gou,
is the main owner of HMD Global and so, Nokia-branded
devices are currently produced by Foxconn making it highly
likely that any HMD-branded products in the pipeline will
also be manufactured by the tech giant.
Nokia-branded phones like the Nokia C32 released by HMD
have largely sat in the budget-to-mid-tier category so far,
and it looks like future HMD-branded devices may follow suit.
The company will continue to design for a more sustainable
and affordable future without compromising on quality. Even
if Foxconn is behind the actual manufacturing of these new
devices, HMD Global, one of the largest smartphone companies
in Europe, is still largely run by former Nokia executives making
this an opportunity for the company to reclaim some of the
brand’s legacy under a new name.