Nokia says it won’t be making more phones, and that’s not a bad thing

Rumours emerged late last week that claimed Nokia was preparing to manufacture smartphones again come the end of the 2015, but a terse statement from the Finnish company has poured cold water on the gossip.

We didn’t believe a word of the ‘Nokia back in the smartphone game’ gossip doing the rounds last week, as Nokia had already confirmed it was out for good at the end of last year. Looks like that is indeed the case, as Nokia has broken its silence to squash the recent rumours.

Buzz about Nokia’s planned resurgence was wrongly attributed to a ‘Nokia Networks Executive’, claiming that the company planned to begin making phones again as soon as its non-compete agreement with Microsoft expired, on December 31st, 2015. Rumour was that the Finns already had a deal in place with a Chinese manufacturer to get things going, but the suits in Espoo have moved quickly to tell the world, in no uncertain terms, that that simply isn’t going to happen.

A statement was posted to the company’s website, stating:

“Nokia notes recent news reports claiming the company communicated an intention to manufacture consumer handsets out of a R&D facility in China. These reports are false, and include comments incorrectly attributed to a Nokia Networks executive.

“Nokia reiterates it currently has no plans to manufacture or sell consumer handsets.“

While we could leap on the word “currently” and respond with, “so you’re telling us there’s a chance?” it might be more prudent to consider Nokia’s recent moves in the market. The long-awaited merger with French telecoms firm Alcatel shows that infrastructure appears to be the Finns’ number one concern, now that its highly respected phone manufacturing arm has been sold to Microsoft.

And that’s really not a bad thing. Microsoft has successfully snatched up the Lumia torch and the recent duo of the Lumia 640 and Lumia 640 XL prove that it’s more than capable of producing excellent value handsets, just as we expected when Nokia was in charge.

While the romantics would probably love to see Nokia return to the phone market like a phoenix rising from the ashes, they might have a long wait. Never say never of course, but we can’t see it happening next year as many hope.