BGR readers have known this for quite a while thanks to chatter from our sources, but Nokia’s CEO finally confirmed it: Nokia is plotting a smartphone comeback. Chief executive Rajeev Suri confirmed to German magazine Manager Magazin that the company is still working out the details, but it has plenty of time to figure things out. Per the terms of its deal with Microsoft, Nokia can’t use its name on cell phones until late 2016.
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Nokia sold off its struggling smartphone business to Microsoft last year in a deal worth more than $7 billion. Considering Windows Phones are showing absolutely no signs of life, Microsoft likely got the short end of that stick even though Nokia’s phone business was once the biggest on the planet.
Now Nokia dabbles in a number of different areas including wireless infrastructure and Android apps. The company also makes and sells an Android tablet that we were the first site in the world to handle.
“We will look for suitable partners,” Suri said in a brief interview. “Microsoft makes mobile phones. We would simply design them and then make the brand name available to license.” Further details are scarce for the time being, but don’t expect them to run Windows…