The Finnish telecommunications company sold its cell phone business to Microsoft in 2014, although Nokia-branded phones are still sold by HMD Global.
Finnish telecommunications company Nokia changed its logo to remind the world that it no longer makes cell phones.
“In most people’s minds, we are still a successful cell phone brand, but that’s not what Nokia is about,” Nokia CEO Pekka Lundmark told Bloomberg . “We want to launch a new brand that focuses on networks and industrial digitalization, which is completely different from legacy cell phones.”
Nokia unveiled its new brand Sunday at MWC, the first major redesign of the company’s logo in nearly 60 years. The company has come a long way since it was founded in 1865 as a single paper mill. Its original logo featured a salmon head, a reference to the B River, by which the mill was founded and which gave the company its name.
Nokia once ruled the mobile world, but was unable to adapt to the smartphone era led by Apple and Google. The company sold its cell phone business to Microsoft in 2014, but the deal turned out to be a disaster.
By 2016, Microsoft had lost at least $8 billion on the acquisition and began winding down its own smartphone business, which couldn’t compete with iOS and Android. That same year, the Nokia mobile brand was sold to a new company, HMD Global, founded by former Nokia employees. Android phones began to be sold under the Nokia brand again, although they are now produced by Foxconn subsidiary FIH Mobile.
HMD confirmed to The Verge that the Nokia rebranding would not affect the use of the original logo. “The classic Nokia brand has an incredible history of cell phones,” said Lars Silberbauer, director of marketing for HMD. “Our Nokia-branded phones, such as the three new devices we announced this week, the Nokia G22, Nokia C22 and Nokia C32, continue the great momentum associated with the classic Nokia logo.” Just a few days ago, HMD unveiled the new repairable G22 with the original Nokia logo .
Nokia itself is now making money from business, including selling networking equipment and licensing its many patents, including to mobile device manufacturers. The company is also actively promoting 5G, and this part of its business is supported by bans on equipment produced by Chinese competitor Huawei.
In his blog, Lundmark said the company’s new logo “depicts Nokia as we are today, with a new energy and commitment to pioneering digital transformation.”
Lundmark said: “We built on the legacy of the previous logo, but made it more modern and digital to reflect our current identity … This is Nokia … but not as the world has seen us before.”
