After Microsoft bought the Nokia Mobile Division in 2013, they quickly announced that no more Nokia smartphones would be released, and the new devices were rebranded to Microsoft Lumia. Nokia fans hated this, and Lumia sales started to go down, up to the point in which Microsoft's smartphone market share was non-existent last quarter.
Yesterday, Microsoft announced that it had sold the Nokia brand for feature phones and some factories to the Foxconn group. Now they will produce new feature phones using the Nokia brand and market them as Nokia phones. At the same time Nokia Technologies signed a deal with HMD global Oy, a company which will now produce smartphones and tablets under the Nokia brand. HMD and Foxconn will also become partners to produce, distribute and market all the phones.
Also Read - New Metal Nokia Smartphone Images Leaked
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Seems a bit difficult to understand, right? This is a more simple explanation: Microsoft thought its brand was better than the Nokia brand for smartphones, so they killed it from Lumia but kept it for the low end feature phones. After some time their sales went down because people wanted Nokia, not Microsoft Lumia, so instead of admitting they were wrong, they decided to sell the feature phone division and Nokia brand.
On the other side, when Microsoft bought Nokia Mobile they made a deal in which Nokia couldn't use the brand or make smartphones late 2016. That time has passed now and instead of making the phones themselves, they decided to license the brand and patents to another company. The phones will have the familiar Nokia design and logos, and Nokia will earn money for each phone sold without making it (something similar to what Motorola does with its Bluetooth accessories and Home products).
