Telecoms equipment maker Nokia Oyj has announced a change of its brand identity, unveiling a new logo for the first time in nearly 60 years.
The new brand was launched on Sunday in Barcelona ahead of the Mobile World Congress which opens Monday. Chief executive Pekka Lundmark said the decision would stop people associating the company with smartphone manufacturing.
– A key point to note
The firm’s logo will no longer be the iconic letters of NOKIA but five different shapes forming the same word. The company dropped the iconic blue colour of the old logo for a range of colours.
“In most people’s minds, we are still a successful mobile phone brand, but this is not what Nokia is about,” he was quoted by Bloomberg as saying. “We want to launch a new brand that is focusing very much on the networks and industrial digitalization, which is a completely different thing from the legacy mobile phones.”
– Why it matters
After ending smartphone manufacturing in 2012, the Finnish firm focused on supplying wireless service providers with network equipment. It is also a key player in the 5G mobile technologies market.
With the rebranding, Nokia will seek to grow market share in the two businesses, a push that will be helped by restrictions on Chinese rival, Huawei Technologies Co., in many European countries.
“Today is another milestone. We are updating our strategy, and, as a key enabler, we are also refreshing our brand to reflect who we are today: a B2B technology innovation leader pioneering the future where networks meet cloud,” Lundmark said in a statement Sunday.
– Learn more
Lundmark said the company has completed the reset stage of a three-phase strategy he outlined when he took office in 2020, and the second stage which is accelerating will begin. The last is scaling.
“Our new visual identity captures Nokia as we are today, with renewed energy and commitment as pioneers of digital transformation,” he said. “We built on the heritage of the previous logo, but made it feel more contemporary and digital, to reflect our current identity.”
Nokia dominated the global phone industry for decades with its iconic models before shifting to telecom equipment making. Nokia-branded phones are still sold by HMD Global Oy, which got the license after Microsoft Corp., which bought the business in 2014, stopped using the name.
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