This is rather funny, yet 100% factual! Similar to the Meego story, where once dumped by Nokia, Jolla Mobile tried (and still is) to bring it back to life through their own hardware devices
Now Newkia has risen from Singapore, under the guidance of Thomas Zilliacus, who held the position of Nokia APAC CEO for several years (working for Nokia for a total of 15 years), alonsgide Jorma Nieminen, the Nokia Mobile Phones CEO, and Sven-Christer Nilsson, former CEO of Ericcson. They created Newkia the day the Microsoft acquisition of Nokia went public. It is said that they tried to buy-out Nokia a year ago but couldn’t raise the funds
On the day MICROSOFT – Nokia deal was announced, a new startup was born in Singapore. Titled ‘Newkia’, this new firm looks forward to producing Android running phones, but because the founder has always admired Nokia, he’s looking forward to acquire as much of Nokia talents, employees and know-how as much he can.
The founder, Thomas Zilliacus spent over 15 years as a Nokia employee including seven where he was its Asia-Pacific CEO. He left in 1993 but spent another three years under Nokia’s payroll as a regional consultant. He left to become an entrepreneur and currently runs investment company Mobile FutureWorks, which advisors include former Nokia’s mobile phones CEO Jorma Nieminen and Ericsson’s former CEO Sven-Christer Nilsson.
He has already gathered a team of former Nokia employees and is hoping to acquire more with expertise across the entire value chain,from smartphone design to logistics to manufacturing.
While the company will be based out of Singapore, Newkia plans for its core research and development (R&D) team to be based out of Finland and may set up other R&D divisions in locations where there are strong know-how, such as Silicon Valley, he noted.
Their plans are to launch the first device within a year, provided enough funding is available. Apparently the success of Xiaomi (overthrowing Apple in China) has given these ex-Nokians some confidence that they can succeed. Newkia is looking to attract former Nokia staff and use their know-how to create Android powered devices with the craftsmanship that Nokia is renowned for.
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