Introduction
At present, it is difficult to say whether Nokia Mobile’s twitter account is handled by people who have great admiration for previous Nokia devices, or simply by someone who could care less about the implication of such tweets. Just a few days ago, Nokia Mobile “teased” the Nokia G20, which is surprising considering that the Nokia G21 has been on the market for several months.
Then a poll was conducted to see which was our favorite Nokia device and most people seem to be happy with the Lumia and Nokia N9. In what appears to be a follow-up to that tweet, Nokia Mobile teased the possibility of a rather unique combination, Lumia, Nokia N9 and even Nokia XR20. As usual, this article is written based on my own opinion as usual, as I am not affiliated with Nokia or HMD Global ‘
There are two options with these tweets. One is if we brush it off as an insignificant tweet where Nokia Mobile simply engages their fans for more interaction, and the other distant but exciting possibility that something great is at work. In this article, we will look at a hypothetical situation where fans get what they have been asking for all along.
The possibilities
There are a few concerns that need to be addressed before we move on. For those who chose Lumia in the first tweet, was it the design or the camera that impressed us? While a particular Lumia model seems to garner a lot of love, neither the design nor the camera was unique to the Lumia series. This confusion must be resolved before we continue.
What do we know now? Right now, a few things are certain. HMD Global will not pursue the high end market as stated in their recent interviews. HMD Global also seems to have taken a new design to their device, as we have seen with the Nokia G21.
So that solved our concern with HMD Global. What about the Nokia N9? A masterpiece designed under the supervision of Marko Athisaari. This design is in my opinion the most optimal design for a mobile device. What about the operating system? The promising Meego OS, which had the potential to bring Nokia back to greater heights, was killed in favor of giving live to Windows Mobile. This operating system, which is a brainchild between Nokia and Intel, was then purchased by Samsung, giving rise to the Tizen OS and the loyal Nokia N9 team that took the rights to the device and operating system to develop the Sailfish OS. Many fans including myself were impressed with how connected we are with the Nokia N9. The hardware really compliments the operating system, and for the first time, we had a buttonless front, as the interaction to control the user interface was based on the simplest gesture we all know, SWIPE! So the last piece in this puzzle is where Lumia stands in this equation. As I have said before, the Lumia designers were heavily influenced by the Nokia N9. This is not a Windows operating system for obvious reasons, leaving us with the Pureview camera. Pureview evolved a lot under the Lumia banner, and if there is any element of Lumia that I would like in a modern phone, the camera segment is certain. To acquire the rights to use the Pureview algorithm and continue where the Lumia 950 series ended.
So what does the tweet really mean? Well, there are a few scenarios that could happen here. There is a good chance that the parent company Nokia wants a more active involvement in the mobile segment, as there is no better time for Nokia to spread its wings again than now. As the last remaining European mobile phone manufacturer, Nokia has what it takes to cater to the western markets. Assuming Nokia is back to take charge, it would not be surprising if they could reunite their original team.
So, Scenario 1; Nokia unites HMD Global with the designer of the Nokia N9 and the Pureview engineers from the Lumia division. This is the most likely scenario to see how unoriginal their latest designs are, and they could certainly do better to maintain the Pureview branding following the Nokia 9 Pureview debacle. This will definitely be a winning strategy. Imagine a sleek fabula design with a Pureview image solution running on Android One. Whether it’s a midrange or even a high-end device, this will definitely be an audience pull. I would certainly be more than happy to pay for an original Nokia design and with a camera algorithm from the original Pureview engineers!
Scenario 2 is where HMD Global decides to restart the design by acquiring a license for the Nokia N9 design and making one yourself, and we get them in the cheerful Lumia colors with polycarbonate bodies. While this is not entirely impossible and more likely to see how HMD Global has the rights to produce Nokia branded device until 2026, this would certainly not bode well for true Nokia fans as this can be seen as yet another attempt to earn fast money, similar to how the restarted Nokia 3310 was.
Scenario 3 is that HMD Global decides to create a new generation of ‘midrange devices’ with the ‘impressive’ SD 480 series processor running on a Nokia N9 swipe gesture-based UI, using colorful polycarbonate bodies , similar to the Lumia device back then.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, we can all agree that fans are not exactly happy with where HMD Global is headed. Nokia is currently the choice of those who have grown up with it, and if they do not get the attention of new customers, the mobile division will be just as irrelevant as temperature scanners in malls these days. I really want Scenario 1, a rebirth of Nokia phones in the right way without relying on third-party software or hardware support vendors!
With that said, as always, the tweet may have no meaning to it, and we, the fans, might think about it as usual. So how do you feel about this? Are there other possible scenarios from this mysterious tweet?
For those with Nokia N9, here is my video on how to bring it back to life along with card and alternative store:
And this is one of my early videos to show how Pureview evolved over time: