Ever since Nokia announced the Android powerd Nokia N1 tablet, there has been countless reports and speculations that Nokia will be making smartphones yet again after the Microsoft acquisition lockdown ends in Q4 2016. Initially, Nokia refuted these reports but today, a spokesperson for Nokia Technologies went out and confirmed that Nokia is indeed working on coming back to the smartphone space after Q4 2016.

However, as usual things are not how it sounds like, Nokia does indeed plans to make a comeback in the smartphone market but since they sold their mobile division to Microsoft last year, they have lost the logistics to manufacture and distribute smartphones.

So, Nokia's big plan now is to look for a 'world-class partner' which will license Nokia's design to manufacture and distribute these said smartphones to the market. Nokia will be exclusively making smartphones through the brand-licensing model and this move is similar to that of the Nokia N1's distribution model through Foxconn.

At this point in time, Nokia says that they are looking for a right partner to work on this new licensing model and if they've secured that partner, both of them will work closely with Nokia to produce a smartphone that lives up to the age old Nokia name. If all goes well, we should see a Nokia branded smartphone coming right after Q4 2016/ Q1  2017.

SOURCE: PHONEARENA via NOKIA