Iconic cell phone brand to disappear

Finnish mobile phone manufacturer HMD Global, the maker of the iconic Nokia cell phones, has announced plans to launch a new product line under its own brand.

In a promotional video released last week, the company said it would take “some all-time classics,” add “modern features” to them and refresh their design to offer customers what it described as “new-stalgic dumbphones” under the HMD brand.

The video does not mention Nokia, which suggests that the iconic brand will disappear from the smartphone market once again.

The cell phones made by the Finnish telecom multinational Nokia were the world’s best sellers up until 2011, when the brand started to lose its market share to smartphones. In 2014, Nokia sold its phone division to Microsoft, which quickly phased it out.  

Nokia phones were considered dead until HMD, a company formed by several ex-employees of Nokia, acquired the Microsoft mobile phone business in 2016 and revived the brand. HMD Global’s CEO Jean-Francois Baril said last year that HMD-branded products would coexist with Nokia ones given that the licensing agreement with Microsoft expires in 2026.

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