Summary
Back when HMD started making Nokia phones, the concept was exciting—Nokia was becoming an Android OEM like everyone else after making Windows-based phones for years under Microsoft. HMD has seen a scaled pullback in recent times, and now, it’s officially leaving the US. And the reason for it might be a very familiar one.
HMD is scaling back its operations in the United States, effectively halting the sale of both its own HMD-branded devices and Nokia phones in the country. In a statement, HMD confirmed the decision to “scale back” its US presence, and while this can mean anything (OnePlus famously “scaled back” from things like carrier deals but their phones continue to be available in the US), this appears to be a complete withdrawal from the American consumer market. The company’s US-facing webstore is no longer operational, and product pages for its devices have had their purchasing options removed. You might still find some phones in third-party retailers like Amazon, but these are likely residual stock and will probably just eventually sell out completely in the next few days or weeks.
As for the reason, the company attributed it to a “challenging geopolitical and economic environment,” which honestly just sounds like a PR-friendly way of saying tariffs. While we don’t have the crazy several-hundred-percent tariffs on Chinese products anymore, there are still tariffs, and the US government is seeing a revival in the past few days on its efforts to put tariffs on most countries. HMD is one of the OEMs that has diversified its production the most, and the company has not only made phones in China and India but recently (as of two years ago) began making phones in Europe.
Still, since tariffs are being put in place in most countries in the world and not just China, they’re still going to have a negative effect, whether you like it or not. HMD probably assessed the impact of tariffs compared to the phones it sells in the US (where it’s not a huge name either) and decided it wasn’t worth it to continue importing them. Or there could be other reasons at play. We will probably never know.
It’s a shame, but also, we weren’t really seeing any Nokia phones anymore as HMD is currently still trying to make a name for itself instead of just riding on nostalgia. The last phone to launch with the Nokia brand seems to be the Nokia XR21, launched back in 2023,and that’s already discontinued. HMD has continued releasing phones, even feature phones (sometimes withweird partnerships), but nothing under the Nokia brand. So this is not really a huge loss, at least if what you were craving here were Nokia phones specifically. This news just seals the deal and confirms you will never be able to buy a Nokia phone again, at least not under the current arrangement. The company’s main market seems to be Europe right now, and it will likely continue being this way going forward.
