After Microsoft bought Nokia’s smartphone division, then shut it down after Windows Phone collapsed, some former Nokia executives formed HMD to sell Android-based Nokia phones. Now, HMD might be done with Nokia-branded smartphones.
The HMD website lists Nokia-branded phones, including the Nokia XR21 released in mid-2023, as “no longer available.” The company’s website still offers a lineup of HMD’s own Android-powered smartphones, including the Arc, Aura, Key, Fusion, Skyline, and Pulse, but its Nokia-branded devices have been relegated to a page dedicated to legacy devices. One interesting oddity is that HMD continues to sell the “discontinued” Nokia XR21 under the new HMD XR21 name.
HMD (formerly known as HMD Global) was the only company that had the rights to make Nokia-branded smartphones. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean we’ll never ever see a new Nokia-branded phone again; HMD seems to now only use Nokia’s brand name for low-cost feature phones resembling some of Nokia’s biggest hits of the 1990s.
The inexpensive Nokia devices released between 2003 and 2005 had an exceptionally good run in developing countries, turning the legendary Nokia 1100 and Nokia 1110 into the best-selling phones to this date (as of 2023). That was at the time when Nokia was the king of the hill as the dominant phone maker. Things went downhill for the Finnish company (and pretty much all other phone makers except for Google) when Apple released the first iPhone in 2007.
The move suggests HMD might have tweaked its licensing agreement, which permits it to sell devices under the Nokia name, so that it could continue selling Nokia-branded feature phones while marketing smartphones under its own name instead. It’s also possible the Nokia brand has lost some of its popularity over time, and it just makes more sense for HMD to build its own identity.
HMD started selling mobile devices under its name in 2024, including a Barbie-themed flip phone developed in partnership with Mattel. However, the company has been making Nokia-branded Android phones and tablets since 2016 through an exclusive licensing agreement with Microsoft, which acquired Nokia Corporation’s mobile and devices business in 2013. Three years later, Nokia sold its feature phone business to HMD. After Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform had spectacularly folded, HMD received a license to sell Android phones under the Nokia name.
Source: NokiaMob, Liliputing
