Nokia this week reiterated that if and when it gets back into the mobile business, it won't actually be producing the devices.
"Will Nokia return to mobile devices?" spokesman Robert Morlino said in a statement. "The answer is: it's complicated."
"The right path back to mobile phones for Nokia is through a brand-licensing model," Morlino said. "That means identifying a partner that can be responsible for all of the manufacturing, sales, marketing, and consumer support for a product."
Nokia has not yet identified that partner, at least not publicly. "If and when we find a world-class partner who can take on those responsibilities, we would work closely with them to guide the design and technology differentiation," Morlino said, something it did with the Nokia N1 Android tablet (pictured).
"That's the only way the bar would be met for a mobile device we'd be proud to have bear the Nokia brand, and that people will love to buy," he added.
Nokia sold its handset business to Microsoft last year—a purchase Redmond might now be regretting. "With it went all of the enormous manufacturing, marketing and channel distribution capabilities you need to be in the business of making and selling phones," Morlino said.
As a result, Nokia doesn't want to rebuild a business it just sold. So it will focus on the underlying design and technology of mobile devices and task someone else with actually building and selling them.
Whatever route Nokia takes, nothing is likely to happen this year. According to an agreement with Microsoft, the soonest Nokia could produce a new phone is the final quarter of 2016. "So it's safe to say Nokia won't be back (at least in phone form…) before then," Morlino said.
Rumors about Nokia returning to mobile emerged in April, with Re/code reporting that it would do so via the design route. A separate report said Nokia would build Android-powered smartphones in Sichuan and relocate its global R&D center there, but Nokia denied it.