After years of languishing in obscurity and low sales, HMD Global has finally taken the Nokia smartphone branding out back, put a gun to its head, and put it out of its misery. A report points out that the global smartphone brand, HMD, has removed all Nokia-branded smartphones from their store and has moved currently available Nokia-branded phones to a different site. Sadly, Nokia feature phones are still alive and kicking.
I can’t say I’m surprised – HMD Global’s high-profile revival of the Nokia smartphone brand a few years ago hasn’t produced anything of note. If I were to be harsh, I’d call most of the phones that they churned out with that iconic Nokia brand at the back could be called glorified e-waste since HMD Global sold very little of them and did nothing to distinguish themselves from their competitors in both price, design and features. HMD Global seemed content on just coasting on nostalgia baiting instead of innovating. While people who grew up with Nokia were amused, no amount of 3310 throwbacks will make people buy Terribad phones just because we used to own one when we were growing up.
If you remember, I begged HMD Global to just let the smartphone brand die a dignified death two years before, but hey – better late than never I suppose. If this were to be the end of the Nokia legacy, this former Nokia fan would have preferred it to have ended on a high note, and not like this.
In any case, Nokia smartphones had a good run, and HMD Global’s treatment of them might still serve a purpose if only to serve as a cautionary tale of what NOT to do when reviving a globally revered icon and then doing nothing of note with it for nine years. Good riddance.
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