Nokia has denied it has plans to re-enter the smartphone market in 2016 with new Android-powered devices. The Finnish firm says recent reports quoting a company official are false — but it doesn’t rule out new smartphones completely.

“Nokia notes recent news reports claiming the company communicated an intention to manufacture consumer handsets out of a R&D facility in China,” the company said in a statement today. “These reports are false, and include comments incorrectly attributed to a Nokia Networks executive.”

“Nokia reiterates it currently has no plans to manufacture or sell consumer handsets.”

The reports originated from Recode, which has an excellent track record, earlier this month. Two sources who had been “briefed” on Nokia’s plans told the website that the company was planning to launch new smartphones developed by the Nokia Technologies team.

This was followed up by a report just last week that quoted Mike Wang, Nokia China president, with saying Nokia would re-enter the smartphone market in 2016 with devices manufactured in Sichuan, China, where the company was to also relocate its R&D facility.

But according to Nokia, it’s all false, which — once again — crushes our dreams of an Android-powered Nokia smartphone. We shouldn’t be too disappointed, however, because it doesn’t mean Nokia won’t launch new phones ever.

The wording of its statement is interesting, because it says the company “currently has no plans to manufacture or sell consumer handsets.” That suggests things could change later; we still have a long way to go until it’s 2016.

Nokia has already seen success with its Android-powered N1 tablet, so the company has to be at least toying with the idea of new smartphones. Right?

• SourceNokia