Nokia Rebuffs Rumors of Return to Smartphones

Nokia (NOK) flatly denied reports last week that it will return to manufacturing and selling branded smartphones for the consumer market as early as next year, suggesting that its handset licensing and branding strategy had been misinterpreted.

“Nokia notes recent news reports claiming the company communicated an intention to manufacture consumer handsets out of a R&D facility in China,” Nokia said in a statement posted on its website. “These reports are false,” the company said. “Nokia reiterates it currently has no plans to manufacture or sell consumer handsets.”

However, Nokia did confirm that it’s mulling re-entering the smartphone market through a brand-licensing strategy.

The buzz that surfaced last week said Nokia’s Technologies unit, which licenses the vendor’s large patent portfolio, is spearheading a move back into the smartphone market. Nokia was said to be considering a blueprint it already has in place for designing new products and licensing the technology to OEMs, as it’s done with the Android-based Zlauncher program and the N1 tablet, currently selling in China under the Nokia brand.

At the end of this year, Nokia will be free and clear of legal constraints associated with the September, 2013, $7.1 billion sale of its mobile business to Microsoft to sell phones under its own brand. And, by Q3 next year it will be able to license its brand for others to use.

Last November, Sebastian Nystrom, Nokia Technologies product head, told Reuters that once the vendor is legally free to sell phones under its own brand name and license its handset technology to others, it “would be crazy not to look at that opportunity. Of course we will look at it.”

Word of Nokia’s plans comes on the heels of the vendor’s $16.6 billion purchase of Alcatel-Lucent (ALU), in a move to root its makeover to a networking equipment provider, competing with the likes of Cisco (CSCO) and Ericsson (ERIC).