When news the other day surfaced about Nokia was bought out by Microsoft, people around the world began to wonder what this meant for the future of Windows Phone 8, Microsoft and especially the brand that Nokia had become since the very beginning of the cell phone boom. We all remember having, or at least seeing, the old "Nokia bricks", hearing the old Nokia ringtones, and probably wanting to have a Nokia phone of our very own. Although it's been a long time since Nokia was "the best" in the industry, it never really truly went away. In fact, Nokia is thought to be one of the most innovative and creative phone manufacturers by many, considering just how many models and crazy designs the manufacturer tried on for size.

But Nokia is gone now, at least the Nokia that we used to know. Now under the control of Microsoft, people aren't sure what to expect. For Finland, Nokia's home country, the merger is widely considered a sad thing considering the mobile manufacturer was one of the country's biggest pride and joys. But like many stories, this story comes with a twist; Nokia might not be as dead as you think. The brand name might be different (slightly), but former Asia-Pacific CEO of Nokia Thomas Zilliacus thinks he can bring innovation back into the heart of what was once known as Nokia, but with a new name - Newkia.

Newkia, according to Zilliacus, is not an idea or a dream - it's already a real company, and already has top executives from Nokia that are ready to to jump on board the team. While there are many employees that will continue with the merge between Nokia and Microsoft, not everybody was exactly thrilled with the decision to have the major manufacturer be bought out, especially since it wasn't all that long ago that Nokia publicly announced that they needed backup from Microsoft if they ever wanted Windows Phone to pick up off the ground. Along with good hardware, consumers also want to see mainstream apps from a platform's application selection. This is something that Windows Phone seems to be getting around to doing very slowly, if at all, and Mr. Zilliacus points this out in his interview about the company.

The idea behind Newkia is to finally give many consumers what they've been asking for: an Android device using Nokia hardware. Even here at PhoneDog I have read countless comments from readers that state they would love to purchase Nokia phones again, but only if it was running Android. Zilliacus states that although Nokia's problems started before Microsoft came into the picture, deciding to go with Windows Phone was a mistake and only caused more problems rather than fixed anything, which led to its eventual demise. But, like a phoenix rising from the ashes, all hope for Nokia, or Newkia, as it is, is not dead.

With a name like "Newkia", which is obviously very close in comparison with "Nokia" and is no doubt not only a pun on words, but also likely a ploy to get people to recognize the company being a spinoff of Nokia, but how far can it really go? I would think that they would have gotten off to a safer start at least by naming themselves something - anything - other than "Newkia". Honestly, it's a clever name and it's a nice play on the brand name, but I don't think that this is all going to go down without a fierce legal battle from somebody, including Nokia themselves.

I think the entire idea sounds pretty good in theory, and I kind of hope to see it come to fruition, if only just to see what a Nokia phone that was truly optimized to run Android would be like. I love the tanky build of Nokia's colorful Windows Phones; those polycarbonate bodies can really take a beating. I'm sure Google would be on board with letting Nokia do some work for them, but the real trouble will probably come in whenever it comes time to obtaining Nokia's patents, which the company has generally been pretty stingy with. And now that Microsoft has licensing to those patents for the next ten years, I have to wonder how this will play out exactly for Newkia.

Readers, what are your thoughts on Newkia? Is this company's idea and idea that you can get behind, or do you prefer Nokia phones to stay with the Windows Phone platform? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!