After cellphone unit sale to Microsoft, Nokia ditches Windows with launch of Android tablet

Nokia is back in the fray.

Just months after selling its ailing handsets unit to Microsoft, the Finnish company is launching a tablet.

The new offering operates Android instead of the Windows software that Nokia adopted on its cellphones when it started a strategic partnership with Microsoft in 2011.

The 7.9-inch N1 tablet will first be available in China in the first quarter of 2015 with an approximate price tag of $250, before being introduced to other markets.

Sebastian Nystrom from Nokia's technologies unit said Tuesday that the former global mobile phone leader was "pleased to bring the Nokia brand back into consumers' hands."

Nokia's earnings have improved since its $7.2 billion sale of its handset unit to Microsoft. The slimmed-down company has three remaining operations: networks, mapping and software.