HMD Quietly Exits the U.S. Market, Nokia Phones Fade Away

HMD, the company behind modern Nokia-branded phones, is quietly bowing out of the U.S.

mobile market. In a statement shared by Wired’s Julian Chokkattu on Threads, HMD confirmed it’s “scaling back” its U.S. operations due to the increasingly difficult geopolitical and economic environment.

While the company avoids saying it outright, this move looks more like a full exit than a scale-down. HMD reassures current users that warranties will be honored and support will remain in place, but it’s clear the brand is no longer betting on U.S. consumers.

HMD took over the Nokia phone license in 2016 and tried to revive the brand with nostalgia-heavy releases like the revamped Nokia 3310 and 8110 4G – the “Banana Phone” made famous in The Matrix. For a while, it rode the wave of retro love, and even revived the PureView name in 2019. But products like the Nokia 9 PureView struggled badly, with outdated hardware and buggy software plaguing what was meant to be a flagship device.

Earlier in 2024, HMD officially dropped the Nokia branding from its new devices and moved forward under its own name – Human Mobile Devices. With Nokia’s license expiring in 2026, it looks increasingly unlikely that the name will be revived by anyone else. Like BlackBerry before it, Nokia appears destined to remain a nostalgic footnote in mobile history.

HMD’s exit underlines how brutal the U.S. smartphone market has become. Between tariffs, shrinking margins, and brand fatigue, even a name as iconic as Nokia couldn’t cut through the noise.