Nokia changes logo for first time in almost 60 years to distance itself from smartphones

[midian182]

What just happened? Finnish telecoms giant Nokia has announced that the company is rebranding and, for the first time in almost six decades, changing its logo. The move is part of a strategy to disassociate Nokia from smartphones, which it hasn't made in around ten years.

On the eve of Barcelona's Mobile World Congress, Nokia announced a new corporate logo that is made up of five different shapes to form the company's name. The famous blue-colored lettering of old has been replaced in favor of a range of colors that change depending on the use.

Chief Executive Pekka Lundmark told Reuters, "There was the association to smartphones and nowadays we are a business technology company."

Nokia hasn't made smartphones since the Nokia Lumia 1020 in 2013, the year before Microsoft bought its mobile phone business - and we know how that turned out. Microsoft sold its Nokia-branded feature phone business to HMD Global in 2016.

The old Nokia logo. Is the new version better or worse?

Because of a long-term licensing agreement between the companies, phones carrying the Nokia name manufactured by HMD Global have been around since 2017 and are still being released today. The Nokia G22, a phone designed to be easily repairable thanks to repair guides and tools produced alongside iFixit, was announced yesterday. The battery can be swapped out in five minutes, and replacing the screen is supposedly possible in about 20 minutes.

"In most people's minds, we are still a successful mobile phone brand, but this is not what Nokia is about," Lundmark told Bloomberg. The CEO said that Nokia wants to launch a new brand focused on networks and industrial digitalization, "which is completely different from the legacy mobile phones."

Nokia hopes to increase its market share when it comes to serving wireless service providers with network equipment, something that should be easier now that Huawei is prohibited from selling its 5G networking gear to many countries. But Nokia's main focus will be selling equipment to private companies, an area that made up 8% of its revenue last year, or around 2 billion euros (roughly $2.11 billion). Lundmark said Nokia's aim is to take that figure into double digits as quickly as possible.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/97743-nokia-changes-logo-first-time-almost-60-years.html

 

[Blqckout]

Its worse now
every company has the same font and 'futuristic and simple disign' nobody cares about that, stick to your roots, old logos are better than the 'new and improved, modern designs'

they all look the same nowadays

 

[Tetr1s]

I mean it's alright, like the only complaint I have is you can't tell that there is an N at the start of the logo now, but otherwise it looks quite nice

 

[VariableSpike]

I can sort of get why as the network focused remainder of the company clearly wants everyone to see it as independent from making phones so it can sell more commercial stuff without being connected to the new unrelated mobile phone business, but the logo is ugly and confusing, without context I bet a lot of people would not know that is meant to say Nokia

 

[RudyBob]

You can trust something made by Bell and Howell

 

[p51d007]

I bet they paid a ton of money for an "unfinished" logo.

 

[Neatfeatguy]

Looks bad, but at least it's not as bad as the new KIA logo that came out in the past couple of years. First time I saw their new logo on a car I was thinking, "What car company is KN?"

My daughter, 12 at the time I first noticed KN on cars, told me it was the new KIA logo and she said it was stupid. I have to agree with her.

 

[Tams80]

Urrrghh. How much did that cost to make?

I'd say it only took 5 minutes in [vector editing program of choice], but all know they had multiple meetings, consultations, testing for it, etc.

And all for a logo that is harder to read and replaces an iconic one that was clear and versatile.

 

[Feng Lengshun]

Urrrghh. How much did that cost to make?

Either: a.) $500 and the original creator has no further rights; or b.) $15,000 of billable hours not including the constant meeting to finally decide on which logo to go with.

For what it's worth, I'm in a teleco company in SE Asia, I showed it to my friends, and they said it looks cool. My issue with it is with readability, but I suppose to Nokia the main value is psychological -- making them look hip and cool and the right company to work with to roll out next generation networking infrastructure to the younger Project Managers.