Nokia, the once-dominant smartphone manufacturer, is redesigning its famous emblem for the first time in over 60 years. The firm introduced a new corporate identity on Sunday, before the formal start of Mobile World Congress Barcelona, and it’s a significant makeover. The unique typography and “Yale blue” that marked its prior identity are no longer present. Instead, the corporation has chosen a more contemporary and digital appearance.
We are renewing our name to reflect who we are today: a business-to-business technology innovation leader pioneering the future where networks meet cloud,” Nokia claimed in a blog post attributed to CEO Pekka Lundmark. “We are still a successful mobile phone brand in most people’s views, but this is not what Nokia is about,” Lundmark told Bloomberg. “We want to develop a new brand that is focused on networks and industrial digitization, which is significantly different from legacy mobile phones.”
Is this the end of a well-known and beloved logo? No, not always. You may remember that Nokia’s phone division has not been a part of the corporation since Microsoft’s ultimately catastrophic $7 billion purchase of the company’s Devices and Services division in 2014. As the tech behemoth washed its hands of the transaction in 2016, HMD Global, a firm comprised of former Nokia executives, purchased the rights to use the Nokia name for smartphones and tablets and has been doing its own thing ever since. In fact, the business unveiled its most recent product, the G22, only one day before today’s announcement, and that phone, as it happens, has the iconic Nokia logo. Engadget has contacted HMD Global to inquire if the business intends to keep using that logo.
