Nokia is up to something new... and immersive.

Although Nokia is mostly about networking equipment and other boring things like that nowadays, the Finnish company is reportedly planning to take a bold jump into the virtual reality market. According to Re/code, it will even unveil its first VR product at an event in Los Angeles next week.

The launch is significant not only because Nokia would be attempting to tackle a hot trend right now but also because any new product from the company would be its first major hardware launch since Microsoft bought Nokia's phone business roughly two years ago. Also, VR could put Nokia back in the spotlight.

Not many people think of Nokia first when they hear the phrase "consumer electronics", but getting into virtual reality could help it to recover, especially because it would be competing against a long list of industry titans (like Facebook's Oculus, Microsoft, Sony, Samsung, and HTC) fueling the VR hype.

Not much else is known about the upcoming product, though Nokia Technologies - Nokia's advanced product group - is leading the project, and that's the same group rumoured to be getting back into the phone business by next year. However, it's thinking about phone design and leaving the manufacturing stuff to partners.

Also, keep in mind Rajeev Suri, Nokia's CEO, said during a shareholder meeting last week that “immersive imaging” is something Nokia has been working.