The HMD Global Oy is now known as the global licensee of Nokia, which was made up of ex-Nokia and ex-Microsoft shareholders that assigned the licensing rights to the Nokia brand earlier this year. The Finnish company has announced some big news after hiring Pekka Rantala as its chief marketing officer.

Rantala was the former CEO of Rovio Entertainment — the creator of Angry Birds. Before that, he was working as senior vice president of global marketing at Nokia. Rantala did 17 years tour of duty at Nokia’s mobile phone business back in the company’s greatest days. He served across different sectors such as sales, marketing and operations roles and later on as senior vice president for global marketing. Recently, he served as the chairman of Jot Automation – company supplying services to the electronics industry.

There have been rumours circulating for a long time that Nokia will re-enter the global smartphone market with Android devices. And seems like that day will come.

Upcoming Nokia phones and tablets made under HMD’s guidance will be manufactured and distributed by Foxconn. However, it may sound a bit confusing, but that’s how it’s going to be.

Nokia is planning a comeback with two new smartphones running Google’s latest Android Nougat 7.0 OS version. Brand new devices are expected for the first quarter of next year, but it may vary depending on the testing and development processes.

“Branding has become a critical differentiator in mobile phones, and 96% of global mobile phone users are familiar with the Nokia brand, our unique asset. We know people around the world are excited about a new wave of Nokia phones, and we are working hard to create a beautiful range of Nokia-branded devices that people will love,” said Nummela.

“There are very few opportunities like this, to work with a global brand with the power to touch hundreds of millions of people every day. It is a privilege to work with this unique brand, to engage with the millions of dedicated Nokia phone fans around the world and create a generation of new ones,” added Rantala.