Nokia is relaunching the iconic 3310, but why wait?
The annual Mobile World Congress trade show is always full of surprises. It seemed as though nothing could top the shocking news that Samsung won’t launch the Galaxy S8 at this year's MWC conference, and then along came... the Nokia 3310.
It is being widely reported that HMD Global, the company that holds the licence to release phones under the Nokia brand, will relaunch the iconic 3310 handset at this year’s Mobile World Congress event.
It may be a marketing stunt, or perhaps an effort to reach developing markets. Maybe it’s intended to tug at the heartstrings of nostalgic phone users who don’t realise that the year 2000 was quite some time ago. Or perhaps your nanna just needs a new phone.
Any way you paint it, there’s no reliable word on when we’d see the resurrected 3310 in Australia, if at all. While the networks side of Nokia has a very solid presence in Australia, that’s a different company to HMD Global, who are basically just paying Nokia a licensing fee for the Nokia name as it relates to phones.
Still, there’s a small market that resolutely dislikes touchscreen smartphones, whether it’s the perceived complexity, a desire for physical buttons or customers who only needs basic telephony and SMS messaging functions. If that describes you, there’s no need to wait for the Lazarus-like resurrection of the Nokia 3310, because you can buy simple feature phones right now. Will you get that legendary robustness, or the chance to play Snake? Probably not, but if you need a phone that is simply a phone and you need it right now, why bother waiting?
We’ll be reporting live from MWC 2017, where we’re keen to see precisely how Nokia intends to sell the Nokia 3310, alongside the more powerful Android phones it’s rumoured to be launching at the show.