In the same year that Nokia sold its mobile devices division - including all the engineers who designed its phones and tablets - it has staged a comeback by launching its own tablet.
The N1 Android tablet has a 7.9in screen protected by Gorilla glass and an aluminium one-piece design. It is expected to be launched in China before being rolled-out to other markets.
This year Microsoft stepped in and bought some of Nokia - not the whole company, but its mobile devices division. It had a mobile operating system few except Nokia wanted to use. It wanted to start selling its own phones running its own software, but had no expertise - what simpler way to go about it than buying Nokia?
That left Nokia as a much smaller company operating in three main areas: telecoms infrastructure, its HERE maps service and 'Nokia Technologies' which carried out R&D. All of the company's mobile phone engineers and know-how now reside inside Microsoft.
But this latest launch suggests that it has been quietly working on building up this expertise again since the sale.
The 'Nokia' brand name for mobile phones is also currently in the hands of Microsoft: Nokia (the company) also sold Microsoft the right to use Nokia (the brand) on phones for ten years. That means that it is currently not allowed to sell phones bearing its own name, even if it has launched a tablet under the Nokia name.
We now have the slightly surreal situation where you can find the 'Nokia 130' - a cheap and cheerful handset that sells for around £20 - on Microsoft's website, and the Nokia N1 on Nokia's website.
Since the takeover Microsoft also continued selling 'Nokia Lumia' smartphones. Until this week, at least. The latest Lumia, the 535, is a 'Microsoft Lumia' rather than a 'Nokia Lumia'.
This hardly came as a surprise - Microsoft's intention was always to buy the ability to launch Microsoft phones, not to buy Nokia. Elop hinted as much when the Telegraph interviewed him last year at Nokia's last big product launch before the takeover.
Posted by Unknown on Tuesday, November 18, 2014 - Rating: 4.5
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