Early Monday morning, Nokia tweeted a mysterious picture of a simple black box with the company’s logo on top, and it has got a lot of people dying to know what the company is up to.
It’s no secret that Nokia’s brand has been fading as bigger names like Samsung, Apple, and LG dominate the smartphone market. Ramzi Haidamus, president of Nokia technologies, is aware that Nokia is “diminishing in value,” and he plans to lead the company to revive the brand. But whatever is in the mysterious black box isn’t a new smartphone.
When Microsoft acquired Nokia’s phone business, the deal restricted Nokia to use their name on smartphones until the end of 2016 and feature phones for another decade. “It is our goal to start licensing our brand in areas other than these two restricted areas, starting this quarter actually,” Haidamus says, discussing how Nokia will use their brand in “areas that we can and the areas where the brand is relevant.”
The first step the company has taken to revive their brand is allowing third-party manufacturers to create devices that use the Nokia signature. These products “will look and feel just like Nokia built it.” Polaroid practiced a similar approach, licensing its own brand to allow other parties create cameras, TVs, and other electronics.
The future of Nokia brand could be determined this week, starting with the reveal of the mysterious black box. At the Slush conference tomorrow, Nokia‘s product business head, Sebastian Nystrom, will discuss what’s next for the company. This same date is listed on the mysterious tweet, so the answer to what the black box is will be revealed at tomorrow’s conference.
Nokia is definitely up to something, but can this simple black box determine Nokia’s future? Nystrom is scheduled to speak at 11:25 a.m. Helsinki, Finland time tomorrow morning. Hopefully all questions will be answered then.