Nokia Said To Explore Return To Mobile Business

According to a report in Re/code citing two anonymous sources, the Finnish company is exploring a return to the mobile phone makingbusiness in 2016, though not in the same vein as when it was the world’s-biggest mobile-phone manufacturer.

After Nokia sold its handset business to Microsoft MSFT  3.08% last year for $7 billion, its licensing business Nokia Technologies was one of a trio of divisions left behind.

The other two units were its mapping and locations business which oversees HERE, and its network equipment business, which just bought France’sAlcatel-Lucent for $16.6 billion.

The resurgent mobile business would not be a straightforward manufacturing venture, but largely involve licensing Nokia’s brand and designs to a vendor like Taiwan-based Foxconn.

Foxconn manufactured Nokia’s first mobile device since the sale of its handset business to Microsoft, the Android-powered N1, which launched in Novemberlast year.

The tablet was given a unique Nokia flavoring with the inclusion of Nokia Technologies’ Z Launcher, an interface for Android which used gestures for navigation and allowed users to search for an app by tracing the first letter of its name on the device’s screen.