Nokia Reiterates Its Return to Phone Market Would Come Via Licensing

As we’ve been saying for months now, Nokia is indeed looking to re-enter the mobile phone market, but only through a brand licensing partnership.

And, as we’ve said, the return is dependent on finding the right partner and, per its contract with Microsoft, wouldn’t come until late next year at the earliest.

“The right path back to mobile phones for Nokia is through a brand-licensing model,” Nokia Technologies spokesman Robert Morlino said in a statement on Nokia’s website. “That means identifying a partner that can be responsible for all of the manufacturing, sales, marketing and customer support for a product.”

Nokia is still looking for such a partner in phones, but it has already made a tablet — the Nokia N1 (pictured above) — using a similar approach.

Speculation on Nokia’s plans has grown as Microsoft, which bought Nokia’s handset business, continues to decrease those efforts. Last week, Microsoft said it would cut thousands more jobs and further scale back its range of phone models and the markets in which it sells them.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.