Nokia launches new logo after nearly 60 years, signals big shift in strategy

The iconic logo of the former smartphone giant Nokia is changing for the first time in nearly 60 years. The company presented a new brand identity on Sunday, just before of Mobile World Congress Barcelona's official opening.

The iconic typeface and "Yale blue" from its prior logo are no longer present. Instead, the company has switched to a style it describes as more contemporary and digital.

The new logo

“We are updating our strategy, and, as a key enabler, we are also refreshing our brand to reflect who we are today: a business-to-business technology innovation leader pioneering the future where networks meet cloud,” Nokia said in a blog post attributed to CEO Pekka Lundmark.

"In most people’s minds, we are still a successful mobile phone brand, but this is not what Nokia is about,” Lundmark told according to Bloomberg.

"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.”

The old logo

Is the logo that so many people know and love coming to an end? Not necessarily. Since Microsoft's ultimately disastrous $7 billion purchase of the company's Devices and Services division in 2014, Nokia's phone business hasn't been a part of Nokia proper.

Following the tech giant's 2016 decision to wash its hands of that transaction, HMD Global, a business made up of former Nokia executives, purchased the rights to use the Nokia name on smartphones and tablets and has been operating independently ever since.

The G22

The G22, the company's newest gadget, was unveiled just one day prior to the statement made today, and ironically, that phone has the iconic Nokia emblem.

To find out if HMD Global intends to keep utilising that logo, Engadget has been in touch with the business.

Published on: Monday, February 27, 2023, 01:53 PM IST