A classic returns? Nokia CEO confirms comeback for phones

From CNET: Nokia smartphones will be a thing again. Maybe in 2016, but maybe not.

The Finnish company confirmed Sunday at the Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona that it's pressing ahead with plans to sell smartphones. It just doesn't know when.

"There's no timeline, there's no rush," said Nokia Chief Executive Rajeev Suri at a press event. "It could happen in 2016, it could happen later."

The company, whose phones were once a favorite with consumers, sold its devices business to Microsoft in 2014 for $7.2 billion. It has since regained the rights to sell smartphones under the Nokia brand. We've only seen the company release one lonely Android tablet over the past year. In July, Nokia hinted it would re-enter the phone market in 2016, but then it went quiet, until now.

Nokia's reign in the mobile world began in the early 1990s and lasted almost 20 years, peaking with consumer favorites like the 3210 and 3310. Around the dawn of the iPhone in 2007, feature phones made by the likes of Nokia started to lose their luster. The company's popularity waned as the smartphone revolution took hold and Nokia failed to keep up.

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