Nokia to Make Big Comeback in 2016: CEO Unveils Plans for New Smartphones

Nokia plans to return to smartphone market in 2016, the CEO Rajeev Suri has announced recently.

Speaking to Manager Magazin in Germany, Suri noted that the ]company could design the new handsets and then license the designs and Nokia name to as yet un-named partners.

"We will look for suitable partners," Suri said in an interview published on Thursday. "Microsoft makes mobile phones. We would simply design them and then make the brand name available to license."

The statement indicates that Nokia will not get back into the business of actually manufacturing their smartphones, but will instead design and brand them while getting a third-party to physically produce them. This would be the same business model that they followed with their Android-powered N1 tablet which they announced last year in partnership with Foxconn.

The rumblings related to the plan have been going for some time. In late 2014, Nokia Technologies President Ramzi Haidamus said there was value in designing and licensing handsets. In April it was reported that Nokia was already pushing ahead with the plan and even going so far as to start designing products for next year.

Nokia cannot enter the phone market until 2016, a stipulation that was part of the agreement when Microsoft acquired it.