Nokia has been through the wash a bit recently, with Microsoft buying its phone business and Chinese companies using the Nokia name to sell devices by. The Finnish company announced a return to the tablet market in May, and now it is announcing it will return to smartphones in 2017, along with manufacturing partner HMD Global.

A new section devoted to phones has appeared on Nokia's website - you'll see that the website is operated by 'HMD Global Oy,' which is now the exclusive licensee of the Nokia brand. HMD Global is also Finnish, so the company remains in Finland, although it's not clear if the devices themselves will be manufactured in Finland. In May, HMD Global said that the Nokia tablets would be manufactured in a plant in Vietnam. It's not clear if the same is going to happen with the new phones, although it would seem likely. Anyhow, the licensing deal will last for ten years, and is wholly exclusive.

The website encourages everyone to sign up for more news on the phones, which will be released sometime in 2017. Until then, we just have to wait and see if the dreams of a solidly built Nokia phone running Android will come true.