HMD
is
crossing
its
fingers
for
a
second
summer
of
Barbie.
The
company,
which
has
exclusively
sold
phones
under
the
Nokia
brand
name
for
the
past
seven
years,
has
announced
plans
to
release
a
Barbie-branded
flip
phone
this
July
in
partnership
with
Mattel.
It’s
one
of
several
devices
HMD
has
on
the
way
for
this
summer,
which
also
include
a
new
Nokia-branded
retro
feature
phone,
and
an
HMD-branded
smartphone.
Finally,
the
company
has
also
announced
early
plans
for
a
new
development
platform
it’s
calling
“HMD
Fusion.”
No
pricing,
specs,
or
features
were
announced
for
the
as-yet-unnamed
Barbie
phone,
but
expect
it
to
be
a
traditional
feature
flip
phone
rather
than
a
smartphone.
In
an
interview,
HMD’s
global
head
of
insight,
proposition,
and
product
marketing
Adam
Ferguson
confirms
it’ll
be
an
all-new
device.
“Barbie’s
is
not
the
kind
of
brand
that
you
go,
here’s
an
off-the-shelf
solution,”
he
says.
Expect
a
flip
feature
phone
bearing
the
Barbie
name.Image:
HMD
The
collaboration
is
an
extension
of
the
plans
first
announced
in
September,
in
which
the
Finnish
company
(now
styling
itself
as
“Human
Mobile
Devices”
rather
than
simply
“HMD”)
said
it
planned
to
move
away
from
exclusively
producing
Nokia-branded
products
to
selling
devices
under
its
own
name,
as
well
as
collaborating
with
“exciting
new
partners.”
Mattel
is
the
first
such
partner,
but
Ferguson
says
it
won’t
be
the
last.
“Are
there
other
partnerships
other
than
just
working
with
Mattel?
Absolutely.
Are
they
as
massive,
and
triple-A
as
Mattel?
Absolutely.
Can
I
tell
you
what
those
are
at
this
point?
Absolutely
not.”
As
for
the
own-branded
phone,
the
company
isn’t
ready
to
talk
specifics,
but
we
know
that
it’ll
also
be
coming
this
summer.
The
announcement
comes
a
little
over
a
month
after
91Mobiles
leaked
images
of
a
smartphone
that
looks
very
similar
to
the
company’s
existing
Nokia
phones,
albeit
with
an
HMD
logo
where
the
Nokia
one
used
to
be.
None
of
this
means
HMD
is
ditching
the
Nokia
branding
entirely,
and
Ferguson
denied
that
HMD
is
exploring
other
brand
names
because
of
any
decline
in
the
popularity
of
the
Nokia
name.
“It’s
absolutely
not
that
we
think
that
there’s
a
lessening
of
the
power
there,”
Ferguson
says,
“It’s
just
that
there
is,
from
the
business
HMD
standpoint,
we
have
the
opportunity
to
do
more…
with
this
multi-brand
strategy.”
The
company
says
it
plans
to
“bring
back
an
iconic
phone
this
summer,”
similar
to
its
other
retro
revivals
of
devices
like
the
Nokia
3310
and
Nokia
8110.
Away
from
branding
announcements,
HMD
had
a
couple
of
more
product-focused
initiatives
to
announce.
The
most
interesting
of
these
is
HMD
Fusion,
a
new
smartphone-style
device
that
HMD
is
pitching
as
a
DIY
platform
for
tinkerers.
Like
Moto
Mods,
but
you
have
to
make
and
program
your
own
accessories.
Essentially,
HMD’s
aim
with
the
Fusion
is
to
offer
the
kinds
of
tinkering
possibilities
of
a
Raspberry
Pi,
but
in
the
form
factor
of
a
smartphone
complete
with
a
built-in
screen
and
battery.
It
achieves
this
with
an
array
of
six
pogo
pins
on
the
back
of
the
device,
which
are
designed
to
allow
the
attachment
of
hardware
accessories.
For
software
it’s
running
Android
with
an
unlocked
bootloader,
and
HMD
is
calling
the
kinds
of
hardware
you
might
build
around
the
device
“outfits.”
Between
them,
HMD’s
ambition
is
to
provide
a
device
that
end
users
or
even
businesses
can
customize
to
suit
their
needs.
“Let’s
say,
for
example,
you’re
working
in
the
medical
field
and
you
need
to
be
able
to
help
test
people’s
blood,”
Ferguson
says.
“You
have
a
software
service,
you
have
an
app
that
you
need,
but
it
needs
hardware
attached.
It
can
be
expensive
and
people
won’t
necessarily
know
how
to
use
it.
You
build
an
outfit
based
on
this,
for
the
Fusion
device,
and
it
can
then
do
the
blood
test,
compute
it,
work
out
whether
you
need
to
book
an
appointment
and
all
of
that
kind
of
stuff.”
Other
ideas
Ferguson
mentions
are
building
a
case
with
built-in
flashing
notification
lights,
or
a
streaming
accessory
with
a
built
in
high
quality
microphone
and
stream
controls.
For
now,
HMD
is
just
announcing
the
Fusion
platform
and
is
releasing
initial
designs
and
specs
for
the
device
to
allow
would-be
tinkerers
to
start
thinking
about
how
they
might
like
to
make
use
of
it,
but
Ferguson
warns
that
these
specs
could
change
as
people
start
feeding
back
about
the
company’s
plans.
Rounding
out
its
MWC
announcements,
HMD
also
reaffirmed
that
it’s
plowing
ahead
with
the
repairability
initiative
it
kicked
off
with
the
Nokia
G22
at
last
year’s
MWC,
and
that
this
initiative
will
also
apply
to
its
HMD-branded
devices.
The
company’s
target
is
for
half
of
the
phones
it
sells
this
year
to
be
easily
repairable,
and
it’s
also
specifically
improving
how
repairable
the
screens
of
its
devices
are.
“The
fact
that
it
we’ve
done
it
without
glue
and
all
of
that
was
was
a
great
step
for
the
time,
but
it
needed
to
be
better,”
Ferguson
says.
But
although
he
says
it’s
“much
better”
this
time
around,
we’ll
have
to
wait
for
the
actual
announcement
of
the
device
to
find
out
how.
(Originally posted by Jon Porter)
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