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Microsoft Android Businesses

Nokia Crawls Towards Comeback With New Phones Announcement (theregister.co.uk) 73

Posted by msmash 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.
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Nokia Crawls Towards Comeback With New Phones Announcement More

Nokia Crawls Towards Comeback With New Phones Announcement

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  • D1C (Score:3)

    by lobiusmoop ( 305328 ) on Tuesday October 11, 2016 @10:11AM (#53054757) Homepage

    Seriously?

  • I will buy IF... (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    one day they ditch Android and replace with a new Symbian OS. I'm tired of the binary Android or iOS choice. If Nokia can deliver new phones with Symbian and a great battery life, people will buy them in record numbers.

    • Nokia aren't making the phones they are just licensing the Brand Name Symbian is effectively dead https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by mlts ( 1038732 )

        The real Nokia, especially after buying Alcatel-Lucent, is more of a core/edge/telco networking company than anything else. They also make things like device management software, and have a decent, telco-grade cloud solution (Cloudband.)

        The ironic thing is that unless you are an ISP, or perhaps an enterprise poking at the IoT bear, most "true" Nokia offerings tend to be not visible. However, if you want to push out a firmware update to a large number of devices, Nokia is arguably the best game in town.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by radish ( 98371 )

      No, they won't (unless by "record" you mean "uniquely low"), because none of the apps they want will be available for Symbian. Battery life is irrelevant if it doesn't do what you want/need.

    • They should try Sailfish OS

    • 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 p

      • I agree with you.

        I have an N9 with MeeGo, which I think is the best of the mobile phone OS's I have seen, which includes Android, iOS, Ubuntu Touch and Symbian.
        Fixing bugs unfortunately stopped some years ago, and new models with faster HW are also not available, that are directly made for MeeGo,
        so it is less and less a viable platform, but actually it is still my favorite.
        What I like about it is the intuitive user interface, and what seems to be the way that applications are interacting with each other, so

        • I've since had a few Android Phones and iPhones, but my N9 still is my favourite one for the reasons you mentioned here. It just worked well together and was intuitive. Shame that there never was a successor. Maybe now there's hope.

        • What I like about it is the intuitive user interface, and what seems to be the way that applications are interacting with each other, so it seems like one system and not a bunch of independent applications, or apps as some people prefer to call them.

          Yup.

          That's also the thing I liked with Palm/HP webOS (another OS like Meamo/Meego/Mer Core/Sailfish OS which is a Computer shrunken down successfully to pocket size, rather than some Phone middleware bloated trying to make it look "Smart").

          There, the concept was called "synergy".
          One one side you had a bunch of providers : you sign your Google account, and that provides contacts, e-mails, calendars, XMPP chat, Youtube video.
          On the other side you had a bunch of consumer : generic e-mail application that conce

    • Symbian is dead tho, right?

  • Android? Meh... (Score:4)

    by clonehappy ( 655530 ) on Tuesday October 11, 2016 @10:24AM (#53054857)

    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.

    • solid OS alternative

      https://www.ubuntu.com/phone [ubuntu.com] is not solid enough?

    • Don't-Can't leak much info.

      Email only encrypted files from your laptop, no text. Oops, computers can be hacked, too.

    • Re:Android? Meh... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by TeknoHog ( 164938 ) on Tuesday October 11, 2016 @11:07AM (#53055237) Homepage Journal
      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.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by gosand ( 234100 )

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

      • Exists today. (Score:4, Informative)

        by DrYak ( 748999 ) on Tuesday October 11, 2016 @01:32PM (#53056429) Homepage

        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).

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Pascoea ( 968200 )
      As much as I'd like a viable third choice, I'd trust a "home grown" Chinese operating system about as much as I'd trust Bill Cosby bar tending.

    • 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.

      Uh, the last time they did that, they offered a Windows Phone, and we all saw where that went. I think they're doing fine here, although 3GB of RAM seems weird. Just do 4GB RAM if it's a 32-bit Nougat, or 16GB RAM if it's a 32-bit OS

      • I meant 16GB if it's a 64-bit OS. Also, one more thing about the summary - while it says that Microsoft's right to use the 'Nokia' brand name expires this year, they haven't been using it: all their Lumia phones are branded Microsoft.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mlts ( 1038732 )

      I don't see anything wrong with Android. One can run userland binaries under it (more than Busybox) and even install a full Linux distro.

      What would be ideal would be a phone with an unlocked bootloader, source code for the SoC kernel and userland stuff, and the ability to work similar to the short-lived Motorola Atrix line of devices, where it can run Android as a phone, but when docked with a keyboard/monitor/mouse attached, run a full Linux distribution.

  • After selling the name to microsoft, now this anyone who would choose a nokia because it's a nokia based off nokia's past heyday will know to steer clear because it will just be a piece of shit with the word nokia written on.

    • it will just be a piece of shit with the word nokia written on

      I rather doubt that, based on some clue of how Finns go about things. (Note: Linus Torvalds is a Finn, albeit of Swedish blood.)

      I'm expecting a rugged, unexciting device with good battery life, a flash slot and a long lasting and easily replaceable battery (not removable). In other words, exactly what I'm in the market for. Give me a fair price and I'll snap one up, maybe two.

      Oh, and I'm expecting a headphone jack.

      • That's because you're expecting a Nokia, and that would be a reasonable assumption if it was a Nokia but it'll be some cheaply made foxcon thing with the word nokia on it. Hopefully it will have a jack though.

        • Simple: if it's a rebranded HTC or equivalent I won't buy it - why would that be better than the real thing? Otherwise, if it is engineered by Nokia and possibly built in China, then I am quite likely to buy it.

  • If I ever actually won the lottery, how much would it cost to have someone design and build a smartphone to my very own specs?

    I would really like to see the Communicator line make a comeback.

    • You and me both. I like my E90 so much that if it completely failed today, I would most likely just buy another used one, assuming my current one would be unrepairable.

  • Wanna stand out, 'Nokia'? Make flip phones.

    If no else, Hollywood will buy them, as movie and TV directors cannot give up the dramatic closing of a flip phone.

  • ooooh, I didn't know or didn't remember about that. Explains a whole lot of stuff that has been happening.
    Nokia has been talking about new Android phones for quite a while now, it made me think why they haven't released it just yet.

    That exclusivity period might explain it. Also why Microsoft is abandoning the Lumia brand.

    Guess it's a good thing to have Microsoft changing directions next year, and Nokia coming back to the market.
    We'll see how that goes.

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