One-time phone giant Nokia has been reportedly planning to make a comeback to the smartphone market with a new launch likely to take place by as early as 2016. Until now, the Finnish phone manufacturer had not commented on this speculation, but Nokia China's president has just confirmed that the company will be launching new Android smartphones in 2016.

Microsoft had formally acquired Nokia's phone business almost a year ago, though one of its divisions, Nokia Technologies, which licenses the company's huge portfolio of more than 10,000 patents, was not included in the sale. As part of its deal related to Microsoft's purchase of Nokia Devices and Services, the Redmond giant holds the right to use the Nokia brand name for a period of time and continue producing Nokia smartphones through 2015. This means that Nokia cannot compete in the smartphone market with a branded device until 2016.

Nokia Technologies has earlier designed new products and licensed them to other companies. The division has released two products – an Android program named Zlauncher and an Android tablet named Nokia N1, which is manufactured by Foxconn and has been licensed to another manufacturer for marketing under the Nokia brand name in China.

With the ban on releasing a Nokia smartphone slated to end this year, Nokia Technologies has reportedly been working on a secret project that is likely to lead to a new smartphone being announced by as early as 2016. According to the latest reports, Nokia's president in China, Mike Wang, has said that the company will use its Chinese factories to build new Android phones in 2016. Wang also said that Nokia's R&D center would be permanently relocated to Sichuan, China. It is not yet known which platform Nokia will be using for its smartphone, but is more likely to choose Android as the company's recently launched N1 tablet is also an Android device.