Is Nokia Back?

If rumour has it right, Nokia -- yes, the old beloved Nokia -- will be bringing two Android smartphones to the market very soon.

As usual, the rumour streams in from China but it's spread beyond and been supported by Nokia user sites.

The two smartphones that are being reported online are based on the very latest Android N, yet to be released into the wild.

Whether Nokia should come back or not, is another matter. Things are anything but the same in the smartphone space since Nokia became part of Microsoft for $7.2 billion -- and then was written off into the pages of tech history. Would users buy the phones from sheer nostalgia? Probably.

But will the company thereafter be able to build upon that and move on to once again becoming a successful mobile phone maker? Very difficult. When Nokia threw in its lot with Windows, users all over the world wished it had been with Android instead. Now that the phones will be on Android, will it be too late?

There's no doubt Nokia will make its new devices really well. Already, it's being said that these will be all metal, in two sizes 5.2 and 5.5 to please those who like big as well as smaller phones, and that they'll run on Qualcomm's Snapdragon 820 -- the current top-end processor, soon to be overtaken by newer versions. The OLED displays will be 2k. Another thing that users will like is that the devices will be water resistant.

The devices will be Nokia branded -- or perhaps re-branded. They're still a long way off, slated for the beginning of 2017, by which the market will have changed some more. Beyond the initial excitement, whether Nokia will be back to chase its former glory and whether it'll succeed at it is a very difficult guess to make.