Nokia is dead, long live Newkia!

[BladeVenom]

Former Nokia employees have started Newkia to use their Nokia experience to make Android phones. After all, "Nokia for 14 years was the world's market leader and its reign ended only two years ago."
http://www.zdnet.com/nokia-is-dead-newkia-rises-from-its-ashes-7000020271/

 

[MontyAC]

Good luck to Newkia.

 

[Deeko]

Ask the Jolla people how that goes...

 

[Crono]

I prefer the Oldkia. Better value for their cars.

 

[Ravynmagi]

They need to spend a bit more time on the name.

 

[WelshBloke]

I wish them all the best but I can't see anything big coming from this.

 

[Bateluer]

It'll be amusing when Nokia and Microsoft sue them for patent infringement. Still, wish them well. Lot of people would love to see a Lumia phone with a decent OS on it.

 

[lothar]

Ask the Jolla people how that goes...

Jolla is essentially taking a dead OS and trying to revive it themselves.
Newkia isn't doing the same thing that the Jolla people are doing.

You missed this little gem in the article.

"The world has changed a great deal in the last few years in the manufacturing and distribution of mobile phones. You no longer need your own factories like Nokia did, and you can quickly achieve quite significant market share with the right product and concept," he said. China's Xiaomi, for example, launched its first phone only a year ago and today outsells Apple in China.

The Chinese smartphone marker today is worth US$10 billion, he noted. "So we have a company that didn't exist two years ago and is now worth more than what Microsoft paid for Nokia. It shows you can build something new with the right concept and products."

 

[lothar]

I wish them all the best but I can't see anything big coming from this.

Pretty much, and it tells that this company is headquartered in Singapore too.
I expect the company's phones to be relegated to Asia only, where most countries there don't care about infringement.

If they come to US or Europe, they will die with a two pronged patent infringement attack from both Microsoft and Nokia(remember Nokia earlier had started transferring it's patents to patent troll companies and in the Ballmer/Elop deal, Nokia is keeping ownership of it's patents meaning it no longer needs do so and it now itself is a patent troll since it won't be making any consumer devices that uses it's patents.)
Not to mention the fact that this new company will have to license Samsung, Motorola, LG and Sony's patents as well.

This Newkia company doesn't have any patents and unless it remains in China, India, and a few select Asian and African countries where they either don't care about the patent system or have a patent system in the first place, this Newkia company will die a horrible death or get acquired for pennies on the dollar by a company like Samsung which might be interested in design for their Galaxy phones.

 

[Deeko]

Jolla is essentially taking a dead OS and trying to revive it themselves.
Newkia isn't doing the same thing that the Jolla people are doing.

You missed this little gem in the article.

That's a bit of an exception, though. And these guys aren't a startup with fresh ideas, either, they're members of the old guard that want to try to revive a sunken ship. Could it happen? Sure, but I won't hold my breath. Its not just the manufacturing, its the fiscal resources and patents too. You know a team of ex Nokia employees is going to be heavily scrutinized for that, a lot more than an upstart in china.

 

[blairharrington]

Newkia is an embarrassingly bad name.

 

[Bateluer]

Pretty much, and it tells that this company is headquartered in Singapore too.
I expect the company's phones to be relegated to Asia only, where most countries there don't care about infringement.

If they come to US or Europe, they will die with a two pronged patent infringement attack from both Microsoft and Nokia(remember Nokia earlier had started transferring it's patents to patent troll companies and in the Ballmer/Elop deal, Nokia is keeping ownership of it's patents meaning it no longer needs do so and it now itself is a patent troll since it won't be making any consumer devices that uses it's patents.)
Not to mention the fact that this new company will have to license Samsung, Motorola, LG and Sony's patents as well.

Regardless of one's stance on the validity of these patents, does it bother anyone else that a handful of large players can stamp out a potential strong competitor in a court room instead of in the market place?

 

[Deeko]

Regardless of one's stance on the validity of these patents, does it bother anyone else that a handful of large players can stamp out a potential strong competitor in a court room instead of in the market place?

Sure, but the patents on something like GSM antenna design is a lot different than, say, pinch to zoom. If they make something truly impressive enough, they should get the financing to pay for licensing. We'll see.

 

[ravestar]

Pretty much, and it tells that this company is headquartered in Singapore too.
I expect the company's phones to be relegated to Asia only, where most countries there don't care about infringement..

Singapore is actually the headquarter for alot of international banks and tech companies in Asia. There's good reasons for that including business friendly infrastructure, political stability and good security.

You could say the same about Eastern Europe, Middle East, South America, Africa. Pretty much if you're a USA company, your rights are protected only in USA and Western Europe.