HMD gets iconic Nokia PureView trademark: Camera-centric phone in offing?

In 2012, Nokia introduced the Nokia 808 PureView, a camera-centric smartphone with a mammoth 41-megapixel primary lens, coupled with several industry-first camera-centric features

HMD Global, the Finnish mobile phone manufacturer behind the Nokia-branded devices, has acquired the rights to use the PureView trademark, according to a report by technology portal GSMArena, which has cited a listing of the European Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO). This could mean that the Finnish company might be working on a camera-centric flagship smartphone that could resurrect Nokia’s PureView series.

In retrospect, the PureView was once a trademark of Nokia’s camera-centric smartphones. In 2012, the Finnish company introduced the Nokia 808 PureView smartphone with a mammoth 41-megapixel primary camera, coupled with several industry first camera-centric features such as optical image stabilisation, ND filter, mechanical shutter, bright Xenon flash and ability to save photos in RAW format. These features revolutionised the smartphone industry and marked the beginning of camera-centric smartphones. This was followed by other smartphone brands such as Samsung, Sony and HTC.

The Nokia 808 PureView remained the best camera smartphone for several years after its launch. However, marred by a declining market share, given Nokia's dependency on an obsolete operating system when compared with Android and iOS, the company sold off the smartphone business to Microsoft. In 2013, Microsoft also resurrected the PureView trademark with the launch of the Nokia 1020. This phone also featured a 41MP primary camera, along with OIS and Xenon flash, and ran on Microsoft Windows Phone-based operating system. This operating system lacked application support, which led to the sluggish demand for the otherwise capable camera-centric smartphone.

Now, at a time when mobile phone cameras are at the centre stage, there is a chance that a Nokia-branded smartphone with PureView camera technology and Android-based operating system may bring the long awaited success to the trademark. Before acquiring the PureView trademark, HMD Global also partnered with Carl Zeiss optics, which earlier was the default choice of optics in original Nokia smartphones. Now, it is to be seen if HMD Global could resurrect the lost glory of the PureView trademark with the launch of a camera-centric Nokia-branded smartphone that the original Nokia and Microsoft could not.