Nokia Planning Mobile Comeback?

Re/code reports Nokia is "quietly plotting" a consumer mobile comeback, as the Finnish company plans to launch a mobile phone together with "ambitious technology projects" come 2016.

Nokia phonesSuch ambitious projects include stabs at virtual reality, unnamed sources "briefed in Nokia's plans" say.

Reportedly driving the move is Nokia Technologies which, together with maps and networking equipment, makes what remains of Nokia. It is the division handling the licensing of the vast (10000+) Nokia patent portfolio.

Nokia officially exited the consumer device market in 2011, when it sold its Devices & Services division to Microsoft. However, it did make a soft return to devices of sorts last year with the N1, a Nokia-branded Android tablet produced by Foxconn. Thus, it wouldn't be too surprising if the new Nokia phone is the result of a similar agreement.

“They have a lot of great stuff in development,” ex-Nokia exec Richard Kerris tells Re/code.  “It gave me complete confidence that Nokia is a company that is not going away.”

Go Nokia Plots 2016 Return to Phone Market (Re/code)