Nokia: ROI from Internet initiatives won't come for two more years

The world's leading handset maker Nokia said it doesn't anticipate seeing any returns on its investment in wireless Internet services until 2010. Nokia has invested a significant amount of money into services that include music and video to gain a competitive advantage over rivals and to sell services outside of the operator walled garden. But a return on investment won't come for two more years.

"We're going to continue to invest at that rate or more as we are in investment mode in 2008 and 2009. We look for 2010 to start to see where you go from investment mode... to getting more out than you're putting in," said Chief Financial Officer Rick Simonson during a telecoms conference in New York. 

Nokia also addressed its sagging market share in the North American handset market, which dropped 9 percent at the end of 2007. Nokia said to look for some custom-designed phones for U.S. operators. And in line with the studies that show high-end phone sales are growing, Nokia reported that such devices are growing faster than its overall phone unit sales.

To find out more on Nokia's revelations about its handset business:
- read this article in InformationWeek

Related: T-Mobile, Nokia renew deal for mobile web services