Nokia to make smartphone comeback

A few years after it exited the mobile phone business Nokia chief Rajeev Suri is planning a comeback to the smartphone segment, Reuters reported.

In July, the Finnish telecoms network maker Nokia confirmed it might start designing and licensing mobile phone handsets under its brand name in 2016. (See: Nokia confirms it might return to handsets business in 2016 )

Nokia is reported to be recruiting heavily once again to make dent in consumer areas, with dozens of job postings from the company in California calling for Android engineers, as the company prepared to embrace Google's operating system fully. 

Nokia had also recently taken to Android with the N1 tablet and Z launcher.

The company would, however, not be looking to do all the leg-work all by itself this time around and with an overflowing patent portfolio, it is  looking to team up with phone manufacturers for "brand-licensing" deals.

It would leverage the goodwill still felt towards the Nokia name in exchange for royalties and though there was less money to be made this way, it was a safer bet too, with the manufacturing risks passed on to someone else.

Nokia's comeback, however, not till 2016. When it sold its handset business to Microsoft in 2013, it also agreed to a non-compete clause, preventing it from reentering the mobile phone market until the end of 2016 at the earliest.