Nokia plays a new name game



The once giant of mobile phones - Nokia - is back in the consumer electronics game.

Analysts thought the Finnish company was, well, finished in the mobile computing world when it sold its phones division to Microsoft earlier this year. 

Redmond is now busy dropping the Nokia name from the Lumia range of smartphones and replacing it with Microsoft. 

But Nokia pulled a blinder last week by announcing the release of a tablet called the Nokia (yes, Nokia) N1 running Android and not Windows - a move apparently finally severing any remaining links with Microsoft. 

But Nokia is playing a new game. 

It's licensing its name and designs out.

The N1 tablet will actually be made and marketed by the Taiwanese Foxconn company, which puts together most of our most desirable shiny things like iPhones, iPads and PlayStations. 

Many other big names have gone down the same licencing road...and usually ended up falling off the end. Think Polaroid and Kodak. 

But Nokia insists it will be different. It will hold a tight rein on design and quality of manufacture.

So, what's going to happen? Will we be seeing Nokia TVs, Nokia Sat Navs and, more to the point, Nokia smartphones, which would go up against its old Lumia brand?

Yes, we probably will. And judging by the speedy unveiling of the N1 tablet (development started just days after the Microsoft deal was completed) we won't have to wait long. 





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