Nokia – the services division in Helsinki, Finland – will be returning to the hardware market in some form tomorrow. The Nokia Twitter account revealed they were “up to something” and would reveal all at Slush 2014 startup conference.
Though the reveal is submerged in mystery, the photo that came alongside the tweet shows a black-box. It is unclear whether the box has some significance to the product, we would assume so, since Nokia presented it in the invitation to Slush 2014.
The Nokia black-box looks similar to set-top boxes in the past. It would be an interesting market for the new Nokia to enter, considering the launch of the Android TV ecosystem, making it easy for Nokia to port a platform onto the hardware.
It might also be a router or storage device. The former would be right up Nokia’s alley, with all of the patents for networking they have stored away. An AirPort Time Capsule style device might also be in Nokia’s interest, but it seems less likely.
Or, it might be nothing and Nokia has fooled us. Hopefully it is not, several Nokia executives have spoken about using the brand in new hardware devices, but have not given any specific dates or markets.
Nokia will most likely get the product manufactured by someone else, instead of opening up factories. After 18,000 employees got fired in the Microsoft acquisition, we doubt Nokia is too keen on re-employing a workforce, especially after just regaining profit for the company.
