Nokia turns to Android for new mobile range

Tech brand Nokia is getting back into the smartphone and tablet arena, but its new range will be based on Android rather than Windows or Symbian.

It's a new company, HMD, which will be producing what it describes as being a "full range of Nokia-branded feature phones, smartphones and tablets."

The deal won't be done until the second half of 2016, but when it is, HMD can set about producing mobile devices using the Nokia label.

So who's involved with HMD? Its CEO is Arto Nummela, who worked for Nokia before transitioning to Microsoft – which bought Nokia's mobile division in 2013 and put it to work on a Windows-powered line of devices – where he oversaw the megacorp's mobile business in Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

Nokia has already developed and distributed an Android-powered tablet, the N1, in China and Taiwan in 2015.