While we already know that fallen giant Nokia is, at least in name, returning to mobile phones, a Microsoft exec has now seemingly specified when the next few Nokia handsets will arrive.
According to a Vietnamese publication quoted from by Nokiapoweruser, James Rutherford, who heads the mobile device commodities division of Microsoft Asia-Pacific, has revealed that “two new phone products” will arrive in 2016’s fourth quarter, followed by “at least two smartphones” early in 2017’s second quarter. All devices will be launched by HMD Global under license from Nokia.
Rutherford’s wording here, assuming that no vital details have been lost in translation from the Vietnamese language, suggests that the first two phones will be rudimentary “feature phones”. Meanwhile, though it isn’t explicitly stated in Nokiapoweruser‘s report, the smartphones arriving later look very likely to come with a version of the Android operating system.
Rutherford’s words seem likely to have surfaced in the Vietnamese media in particular because Microsoft’s phone-making factory in Bắc Ninh, Vietnam is run by FIH Mobile, a Foxconn subsidiary set to manufacture Nokia-branded phones and tablets on behalf of HMD.
