Nokia made an official announcement, discrediting reports about getting into mobile business and reaffirming that it currently has no plans to manufacture or sell consumer handsets.

Last week, many websites started to report that Nokia is planning to get back into mobile handset manufacturing out of the R&D facility in China. The rumor started when Re/Code, citing an anonymous source, reported that Nokia said that the company is planning to enter into phone market in 2016. Today, Nokia made an official announcement, discrediting those claims and reaffirming that it currently has no plans to manufacture or sell consumer handsets.

Nokia notes recent news reports claiming the company communicated an intention to manufacture consumer handsets out of a R&D facility in China. These reports are false, and include comments incorrectly attributed to a Nokia Networks executive.

Nokia reiterates it currently has no plans to manufacture or sell consumer handsets.

Last year, Microsoft bought Nokia’s phone business with an agreement that Nokia will not use its brand name on phones until Q4 2016. However, according to Reuters, Nokia may be interested in returning to the world of smartphones via brand licensing.

Nokia sold its phone business to Microsoft last year, but just months after that it launched a new brand-licensed tablet computer, produced under license by Taiwan’s Foxconn, with an intention to follow up with more devices,

Nokia recently acquired Alcatel-Lucent for $16.5 billion, with a stated aim of focusing on IoT and cloud computing, not to mention 5G, networking, analytics, sensors, and imaging. Therefore, whatever Nokia is planning, we can be sure we will not be seeing any Nokia branded phone in the near future. If by any chance Nokia changes its mind then any phones from Nokia will be devices made in partnership with other manufacturers who simply license the name.

Source: Nokia