Nokia at the weekend dismissed media speculation about a return to the consumer devices market, but did not close the door on licensing its brand to other manufacturers.
"Nokia notes recent news reports claiming the company communicated an intention to manufacture consumer handsets out of an R&D facility in China, " the company said in a statement.
"These reports are false, and include comments incorrectly attributed to a Nokia Networks executive," it insisted.
Re/code appears to have been the source of much of the speculation, reporting last week that Nokia is quietly planning a return to the consumer mobile market. Various other media outlets later added that the firm will produce Android-powered Nokia smartphones in China starting in 2016.
Under the terms of the deal that saw Nokia sell its devices business to Microsoft last year, Nokia is not permitted to use its brand on its own mobile devices until 2016.
"Nokia reiterates it currently has no plans to manufacture or sell consumer handsets," the firm said on Sunday.
That comment does not rule out the return of the Nokia brand to the devices space though.
Last year Nokia presented the N1, a tablet device that bears the Nokia brand but was manufactured by Taiwan’s Foxconn under licence. The N1 launched in China earlier this year and is likely to hit the shelves further afield in time.
The N1 will make it to Europe "at some point," Nokia CEO Rajeev Suri said at Mobile World Congress last month.
Suri indicated then that pursuing the brand licensing model through Nokia Technologies will be part of the company’s future.
"[However], we also want to be prudent with our brand," he said.
