Nokia Phones

About Nokia Phones

Nokia Corporation owns the Nokia brand. It's the Finnish network equipment company listed in Helsinki and New York, and it sold its phone business to Microsoft in 2014.

The Nokia phones you can buy come from HMD Global, a separate Finnish company that has licensed the name for phones since 2016. Same logo, different company.

This page covers those Nokia-branded handsets: the simple feature phones HMD still sells, plus the Nokia Android phones and tablets it built under the licence. HMD's own-name phones, like the Pulse, live on the HMD brand page. Nokia's network business isn't covered here.

Who owns Nokia?

Nokia is owned by its shareholders. Nokia Corporation's shares trade on Nasdaq Helsinki, and its American Depositary Shares trade on the New York Stock Exchange under NOK.

Nokia's own list of its biggest Finnish-registered shareholders shows no controlling owner. At 30 September 2026, the largest was Solidium, the Finnish state's holding company, with 5.66 per cent. NVIDIA agreed in October 2025 to take 2.90 per cent through a share issue worth about USD 1 billion.

So what does Nokia actually do? It sells fixed, mobile and transport network gear, and it licenses its patents. It licenses its brand, too. That's where the phones come in.

Why doesn't Nokia make its own phones anymore?

Because it sold that business. Microsoft agreed in September 2013 to buy substantially all of Nokia's Devices and Services unit, and the deal closed on 25 April 2014.

The price was EUR 5.44 billion: EUR 3.79 billion for the business and EUR 1.65 billion to license Nokia's patents.

Here's the bit people miss. Nokia kept the name. Microsoft's announcement said Nokia would "continue to own and manage the Nokia brand." Microsoft took the Lumia and Asha brands outright and only licensed the Nokia name for the Nokia phones already on sale.

How did HMD Global get the Nokia name?

Through a ten-year deal announced in 2016. On 18 May 2016, Nokia said its licensing arm, Nokia Technologies, would give a new Finnish company, HMD global Oy, an exclusive global licence to make Nokia-branded phones and tablets for the next ten years. Japan was left out. Nokia earns royalties on the sales.

The same day, Microsoft agreed to sell its feature phone business to FIH Mobile, a Foxconn subsidiary, and HMD for USD 350 million. HMD's share included the right to put the Nokia trademark on feature phones.

Everything closed on 1 December 2016, when Nokia called HMD "the new home of Nokia phones."

Is HMD's Nokia licence still active?

HMD says it is. Its press releases through March 2026, and its website when we checked in October 2026, carry the line "HMD Global Oy is a licensee of the Nokia brand for phones," next to "Nokia is a registered trademark of Nokia Corporation." Nokia's own licensed-products page still sends phone owners to hmd.com for support.

What we can't give you is an end date. The 2016 deal ran for ten years, and neither company has published the terms of any renewal in anything we could open.

If a contract depends on it, ask HMD directly and get it in writing.

Is HMD the same company as Nokia?

No, and it's easy to mix them up. Nokia Corporation owns the trademark and sells network equipment. HMD Global makes, sells and supports Nokia-branded phones.

That shows up in practical ways. A warranty claim or software question on a Nokia phone goes to HMD, not Nokia. A handset distribution deal gets signed with HMD.

The name also turns up on TVs, laptops, headphones and car accessories, listed on Nokia's licensed-products page. A 2020 Nokia blog named separate licensees for those, such as Flipkart in India and StreamView in Europe.

How do Nokia phones fit next to HMD's own phones?

Since 2024, HMD has also sold phones under its own name. The HMD Pulse family, launched that April, was its "first line of smartphones under the original HMD line," built for what HMD calls Gen 1 repairability, with iFixit kits for swapping screens, charging ports and batteries.

On HMD's home page today, the Nokia models on show are feature phones, like the Nokia 3210 4G and Nokia 2660 Flip, pitched at people who want a digital detox. The Nokia smartphones and tablets page reads more like a back catalogue: model pages and user guides.

So, want a simple phone with a familiar name? That's Nokia. Want a current HMD Android phone? Head to the HMD brand page.

What to check before buying or partnering

For buyers: look the model up on HMD's security updates page, which lists Nokia and HMD smartphones side by side. An older Nokia smartphone may be past its update window, so check before you pay. User guides for older Nokia models live on hmd.com too.

For businesses: the brand owner and the phone maker are different companies, so get both straight. Handset deals are with HMD Global Oy. The trademark sits with Nokia. And the original 2016 licence excluded Japan, so don't assume worldwide rights.