Nokia

Nokia to halve smartphone range, close flagship store

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 12:23:16 -0500

Having created a vast handset portfolio that did more to confuse potential purchasers, Nokia has admitted that its smartphone line-up needs a drastic pruning and plans to reduce its range of smartphones by 50 per cent.

Perhaps recognising that Apple managed to capture 3 per cent of the high-end market with the iPhone, Nokia says it will simplify the product range to allow the company to put more effort into fewer products. This effectively means cutting R&D and production costs by focusing on a smaller number of high impact smartphones.

Antti Vasara, head of Nokia's smartphones R&D, said the company could now put more effort behind the fewer products. "We have cut down unnecessary differentiation, so that we have a far more focused portfolio for next year."

Ian Fogg, an analyst at Forrester, commented that the move indicated Nokia being aggressive with its strategy in the smartphone market, rather than turning its back on it. "By reducing the number of models in its portfolio, Nokia is making it easier for developers to target its devices with applications that will work across all models." Fogg also suggested that a clearer product focus would give Nokia a far better marketing position around which to push its products in 2010.

A further sign of the times is Nokia's announcement that it will close its flagship Regent Street store in London, after disappointing sales. In a statement, the company said: "Nokia is crystallising its branded retail strategy, aiming at improving operational efficiency of its retail network. This requires revamping of the retail network."

Last year, Sony Ericsson closed its only UK-based flagship retail store after the outlet failed to turn a profit.

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Mobile Today

Ovi Store could be opened to other platforms, says Nokia

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 12:58:47 -0500

Disregarding the mass of criticism heaped upon Ovi Store since launch, Nokia has hinted that it might open the service to other platforms in the medium term. While Ovi Store is exclusive to Nokia devices today, the company's head of software, service and Go-To-Market, Rupert Englander, has indicated that opening Ovi to other manufacturers is under consideration.

However, Englander stressed that presently the company was focused very much on providing users with a ‘great experience' when using the app store, and no timescales were being put on any expansion of the service outside of Nokia handsets.

Englander also revealed plans for a host of new Ovi applications. "There are some exciting applications arriving early next year from the developer community, who use our core mapping infrastructure and web through Ovi to provide context enriched applications." He added that this was part of Nokia's strategy to transform itself into a services provider and increase the number of users to 300 million by 2012. "We have some interim targets that are well on track to hit this year."

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Mobile Today

Nokia to co-op on LTE-Advanced chipset

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 12:35:12 -0500

Looking to set the interface standard for 1Gbit/s LTE-Advanced data rates has seen Nokia announce a R&D partnership with Infineon Technologies to ensure its baseband modem technologies work with Infineon's RF chipsets.

According to Nokia, engineers from the two firms would cooperate on the development of RF transceivers for use in LTE products that could lead to systems delivering 1Gbit/s data transfer rates. The project will involve R&D teams working on the architectural and system issues with the compatibility verified by way of a technology reference platform. Striking a note of caution, Infineon would not commit to when the 1Gbit/s wireless data rate would be achieved or when the Infineon-Nokia verification platform would be demonstrated.

However, Nokia indicated that the joint work would incorporate an open interface to enable a fast roll out of HSPA and LTE networks, and the company confirmed it would be prepared to licence the new baseband modem design.

Prof. Hermann Eul, of the Infineon management board, said, "Pairing Nokia's advanced modem technology and Infineon's best in class RF transceiver solutions, would give the industry access to very competitive chipset solutions."

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EE Times

Nokia and Sony Ericsson cut R&D jobs

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:24:26 -0500

More than 300 R&D staff have been made redundant by Nokia as the company moves to developing fewer, but more popular, handsets. The company said 230 engineers at its Oulu, Finland, offices are to go, together with 100 based in Copenhagen, Denmark. This cull of R&D resource is part of Nokia's effort to trim costs at its handset division by more than €700 million.

Following Nokia's example, Sony Ericsson has announced it plans to close four of its smartphone centres, including the company's R&D centres in Sweden and India.

More than 130 R&D staff based at Kista, Sweden, will be cut, and around 100 consultants tied to the development centre are also in danger of losing their jobs. The Indian office will lose around 60 engineers as the company shifts from a focus on entry-level handsets toward smartphones.

Sony Ericsson said that it would also move its North American headquarters from North Carolina to Atlanta, and close down small operations in Miami, Seattle and San Diego.

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Reuters and The Local

Ovi Store sparks into life with 70% growth

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:22:41 -0500

Having been roundly slated since it was launched earlier this year, Nokia's Ovi Store would appear to be making headway following details that last month's downloads had increased by 70 per cent compared with September's.

According to Bill Perry, services marketing manager for Forum Nokia, there are more than 100 devices in 20 countries--with the N97 and the 5800 being the top devices--capable of accessing Ovi, with the average user downloading eight items.

Perry states that during the period from May until October of this year, the Ovi Store has hit these milestones:

Active users from more than 180 countries.
Developers from 65 countries are distributing content.
Eight countries today have local content, local language support and mobile billing: UK, Spain, France, Germany, Singapore, Australia, Italy and Russia. By the end of Q1 2010 there will be more than 20 countries.
Top 10 Ovi Store Markets by performance in alphabetic order: Egypt, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Spain, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Russia and UK.
In almost all of the top 10 Ovi Store countries, 5800 XpressMusic and N97 are the #1 and #2 devices for Ovi Store activity and consumer engagement.

According to Perry, the much criticised ‘redownload' facility is now working, and Ovi Store will be embedded on most new compatible Nokia devices including Symbian S60 and Series 40 from Q4 2009.

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Into Mobile

Ovi Store sparks into life with 70% growth

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:22:41 -0500

According to Bill Perry, services marketing manager for Forum Nokia, there are over 100 devices in 20 countries - with the N97 and the 5800 being the top devices - capable of accessing Ovi, with the average user downloading eight items.

Perry states that during the period from May until October of this year, the Ovi Store has reached these milestones:

Active users from over 180 countries.
Developers from 65 countries are distributing content.
Eight countries today have local content, local language support and mobile billing: UK, Spain, France, Germany, Singapore, Australia, Italy and Russia. By the end of Q1 2010 there will be more than 20 countries.
Top 10 Ovi Store Markets by performance in alphabetic order: Egypt, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Spain, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Russia and UK.
In almost all of the top 10 Ovi Store countries, 5800 XpressMusic and N97 are the #1 and #2 devices for Ovi Store activity and consumer engagement.

According to Perry, the much criticised ‘redownload' facility is now working, and Ovi Store will be embedded on most new compatible Nokia devices including Symbian S60 and Series 40 from Q4 2009.

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Into Mobile

Nokia's vision: Smart devices that learn from consumer usage

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 12:53:20 -0500

With hardly any mention of technology or what future handsets might look like, Nokia has presented a short video of how it sees the world of mobile communications evolving over the next five years.

The key aspect of this vision is that all of the company's devices will be connected to the ‘Nokia cloud' that will then allow apps to learn from how consumers use these services and adapt accordingly. There is also a strong emphasis on synchronisation at almost every level that is far removed from the voice and text oriented world of today.

However, other companies have painted similar, albeit less ambitious, images of this sort of scenario and little would seem to have got much beyond the ‘slideware' stage. Nokia's take on the mid-term future would also appear to have made the assumption that it has become the dominant player in mobile cloud services - something other handset vendors and global operators might not accept willingly.

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3G

'The Cloud' will not lead to dumb handsets, claims Nokia

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:43:35 -0500

With much being speculated about the impact of Cloud Computing on the wireless industry - particularly handsets, Nokia has batted back the concept by stating that mobile devices will not become ‘dumb clients' relying on the Cloud for the majority of intelligence.

The company's chief development officer, Mary McDowell, has stepped forward by accepting that the Cloud will grow, "we don't think the cloud is the total answer. Mobile devices are becoming more personalised and increasingly part of an individual's life. We think it will not be either/or," she said. "There will be a lot of intelligence in the Cloud and in the device, and the ability to exchange data with the Cloud will not pave the way for thinner devices, but increasingly powerful ones."

This rejection of dominance by the Cloud was supported by Heikki Norta, the company's head of corporate strategy, by claiming that Nokia was eyeing the opportunity beyond selling devices, and intends to connect "intelligent devices" to Cloud-hosted data. Norta revealed that the company was setting itself the target of 300 million users of its core service offerings, which will include messaging, map navigation, music and the Nokia Ovi Store.

McDowell added that the company was also investing in a ‘mixed reality', citing augmentative reality concepts such as "point and find" - a location-based service using GPS and camera technology that is already being provided on Nokia N-series phones.

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Total Telecom

Nokia continues to lead smartphone market; outpacing rivals

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:19:15 -0500

Much has been made of the rocketing growth of Apple, RIM and HTC in the smartphone market, while Nokia has been lambasted for failing to recognise the trend and has missed out on this fast growing handset segment.

However, IDC's worldwide quarterly mobile phone tracker continues to position Nokia as the overall leader in converged or smartphone shipments with the popular flagship device, the N97, driving its market share to 37.9 per cent in Q3/09, compared to 37.1 per cent a year ago.

RIM has overtaken Apple to gain 2^nd place, albeit that its shipment volumes were largely North American-based. However, the company also posted significant improvement internationally, with some regions recording triple digit growth year over year.

Apple recorded its highest volume yet in a single quarter, driven by the near worldwide availability of the iPhone 3G S which triggered another round of annual replacements for Apple loyalists. However, while the iPhone has struggled within emerging markets, its arrival at China Unicom this year could foreshadow greater shipment volumes (although early reports would seem to indicate otherwise).

HTC retained 4^th position, excluding phones sold under another company's brand, and remains the largest provider of Windows Mobile-powered devices. Samsung returned to the top five vendors during Q3/09, although volumes were flat from a year ago. The company saw marked improvement in Asia/Pacific, Latin America and EMEA, and has been a big supporter of Windows Mobile.

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Evertiq

Nokia readies new low-cost 3G Booklet

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:10:45 -0400

With its Booklet 3G netbook only just becoming available, Nokia is close to finalising the details for the next version that will likely ship during the second half of 2010. Having only announced its first 3G Booklet netbook three months ago, the suggestion of a follow-on product would seem to reinforce the comments recently made by Nokia execs that the company is keen to become a significant player in the 3G netbook market.

While the first 3G Booklet has been praised by the technical press for its high specifications, its €600 price has attracted understandable criticism. However, the new version is rumoured to be aiming at a lower price point and could include Intel's next generation Atom chip--codenamed Pine Trai-- that will feature an integrated memory controller and graphics processor on one chip, reducing the number of chips needed, which should also help boost battery life.

Reports from the electronics manufacturing community in Asia would indicate that the ODM partner for Nokia's Booklet 3G, hardware specialist Compal Electronics, is working hard to satisfy initial demand. This might see Nokia contract with a second ODM for the new low-cost version, providing it with additional capacity and sourcing options as it ramps up its netbook product portfolio.

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IT Pro