More Rumours of a Nokia Laptop Computer

Rumours that Nokia may start production of its own brand laptop computers have resurfaced after UBS analyst Maynard Um issued a research note saying that it was increasingly likely to happen

Nokia MikroMikko 1 (credit Mika Ojutkangas)

Ericsson Portable PC (credit Datasalen)

"Given the rise of net-books/dongles sales, convergence between high-end mobile phones and laptops, and forays by computer manufacturers (Apple, HP) into smartphones, we think it is only a matter of time before Nokia launches notebook type devices,” Um wrote in the note - warning that they he does not expect a product to hit the shops until Q3 2009 at the earliest.

"Our checks indicate Nokia may be working on a 9”-10” notebook/tablet PC with a second OLED display, touchpad, near field communication (NFC) capability, HDMI out, and Linux OS. Given its seemingly higher end functionality, we do not think it will compete in the traditional netbook (~US$400) market."

There were rumours around April this year that Nokia was looking at launching a range of computers - but this was firmly refuted at the time by Nokia’s global marketing VP, Anssi Vanjoki.

Vanjoki said: "I have heard the rumours and I can categorically say Nokia is not entering the laptop market." Although Apple is known for selling laptop computers, Vanjoki said: "They sell some Notebooks, but the growth is from iPods. I don’t think they’re having commercial success with Notebooks."

It is worth noting though that Nokia sold computers in the past.

In the mid 1980's Nokia had a PC division, and merged it with Ericsson Information Systems, whose origins lay in the purchase by Ericsson of the computer business of Saab. The merged company, Nokia Data was later sold to UK based ICL in 1991 - and later became part of the larger Fujitsu group.

Nokia Data's most notable computer was the MikroMikko 1 - which was sold around the world.

Ericsson for its part sold mainly IBM compatible computers - and even launched a laptop (by the standards of the time) in 1985.

Resource - cellular-news

Nokia's 5800 XpressMusic goes on sale somewhere in the world

If you've been gritting your teeth and letting the PR onslaught of the iPhone 3G, Storm, and G1 knock you around as you waited for Nokia's entry into the widescreen, touchscreen superphone market -- that wait appears to be nearing it's end. Nokia has gone and gotten all official and release-y with it's anticipated (if somewhat disappointing) 5800 XpressMusic... or as we know it, the Tube. According to the company's PR, the device "is now, or will be soon" available in Russia, Spain, India, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Finland, "among others." If you'll recall, the phone boasts a 3.2-inch, 16:9 resistive touchscreen (hey, they throw in a guitar pick stylus), a 3.2-megapixel camera, 8GB of on-board storage, and the constant assurance that you're using a phone once called the Tube. No word on price or plans, but we expect cheap, and lots.
Resource - Engadget

Nokia to cease sales in Japan (Reuters)

TOKYO (Reuters) - Nokia, the world's biggest mobile phone maker, said on Thursday it will stop selling mobile phones in Japan except for its luxury Vertu brand after struggling to expand its presence.

Finnish Nokia has previously said it will cut costs 'decisively', expecting global mobile phone sales to shrink next year amid an economic downturn.

Japan is the world's fourth largest mobile phone market after the United States, China and India. But it makes up only a tiny part of sales at Nokia, whose products have failed to lure customers away from more sophisticated Japanese ones.

Mobile phone companies also see limited scope for growth in Japan, where 109 million subscribers, or some 85 percent of the population, already own a mobile phone. In addition, a new sales model based on higher handset prices is expected to slash annual mobile phone sales in Japan by some 20 percent.

"In the current global economic climate, we have concluded that the continuation of our investment in Japan-specific localized products is no longer sustainable," Nokia executive vice president Timo Ihamuotila said in a statement.

He added that Nokia's Japanese business would concentrate on research, development and sourcing for the global market as well as specific projects such as the Vertu brand.

The quirks of Japan's mobile phone market have prevented foreign companies, including Nokia's rivals such as Samsung Electronics and LG, from successfully targeting Japanese consumers.

Most of the mobile phones used in Japan are part of third-generation networks and boast features such as TV broadcasting and electronic payment functions.

This makes it tough for foreign manufacturers to compete with domestic handsets.

Foreign companies, excluding Sony Ericsson, only occupy around 5 percent of Japan's mobile phone market, according to IDC Japan, a research firm. Japanese manufacturers, in turn, have only a small presence outside their home market.

"Nokia is facing global earnings problems and many other issues, and this shows Japan was a low-priority market at a time when they are shoring up global operations, even though it may still be attractive," IDC Japan analyst Michito Kimura said.

"I'm not very surprised by the decision."

The move was still rather abrupt as NTT DoCoMo Inc, Japan's biggest mobile phone operator, said just this month that it would sell a new Nokia smartphone as part of its product line-up for the winter shopping season.

Third-ranked Japanese operator Softbank Corp also sells Nokia phones.

Nokia, which has a nearly 40 percent global market share, had originally said it aimed to increase its market share in Japan to a double-digit figure. It took only around 0.3 percent of the Japanese market last business year, according to the Nikkei newspaper.

Instead of a broad expansion, it will now focus on Vertu, its luxury unit.

The Yomiuri newspaper reported on Saturday that Nokia plans to launch mobile phone services for Vertu customers in Japan, using DoCoMo's network.

Vertu, founded in 1998, sells gem-encrusted, hand-built mobile phones with prices ranging from 3,500 euros to over 100,000 euros.

Resource - Yahoo! Tech

Nokia E63 joins the successful Nokia E71 to form a compelling QWERTY messaging device range

Espoo, Finland - Nokia today announced the latest addition to its Eseries range, the Nokia E63, designed for people who need to manage their business and personal lives equally well. Building on the success of the Nokia E71, the company's flagship messaging device, the Nokia E63 brings the QWERTY keyboard form factor to a broader audience at a great price. The Nokia E63 is expected to begin shipping in the coming weeks for an estimated retail price of EUR 199, before taxes and subsidies.

"Our research shows that people want a device that deals with both their personal and professional lives, but helps them to separate the two. When someone sits down at lunch, they want to update their social network or browse their personal email account and they don't want work getting in the way of that. It's another great case of technology adapting to the people that use it," says Soren Petersen, Senior Vice President, Nokia. "The Nokia E63 is a new proposition for Eseries - a messaging device where people will be just as involved in their social network as they are in their business network."

Whilst appealing to a new group of consumers with a design that feels great in the hand and has two new colors, the Nokia E63 is still very much a member of the Eseries family. Petersen continues, "People use Eseries to access their corporate mail, review their calendar and work in their business network, so the Nokia E63 still includes Wi-Fi connectivity, easy access to Mail for Exchange and dedicated key access to contacts, calendar and email."

The Nokia E63 also has the ability to switch modes with a single key press, switching from a view of corporate mail, appointments and intranet data, to a personal mode with a picture of friends, personal email and shortcuts to favorite hobby blogs or websites. Petersen adds, "The amazing response we have seen to the Nokia E71, which has very quickly become the best selling model in its category, let us know that we are heading in the right direction. People want a rich experience when using messaging, social networks and the Internet. With the Nokia E63 you can enjoy the web, update your status and work meaningfully with multiple email accounts."

The Nokia E63 also includes Files on Ovi, a service where people can get remote access to their PC files even when their computer is offline. Anyone buying the handset will have access to 1GB of online file storage for free.

The Nokia E63 will be available in ruby red or ultramarine blue with a range of multimedia features. Record and view images and videos with the digital camera and bright landscape display, listen to music downloaded from the Nokia Music Store, or a number of other sources, via the standard 3,5 mm audio jack or customize the device through the thousands of applications available for download.

Press materials and photos can be found at www.nokia.com/press

About Nokia

Nokia is the world leader in mobility, driving the transformation and growth of the converging Internet and communications industries. We make a wide range of mobile devices with services and software that enable people to experience music, navigation, video, television, imaging, games, business mobility and more. Developing and growing our offering of consumer Internet services, as well as our enterprise solutions and software, is a key area of focus. We also provide equipment, solutions and services for communications networks through Nokia Siemens Networks.
Resource - Nokia

Symbian Foundation Appoints Chief Amid Challenges

The news coming out of the Symbian Smartphone Show in London, an industry trade gathering for developers, manufacturers, and software companies, wasn’t just about the launch of the latest models this year. The choice of Nokia executive Lee Williams as the new chairman of the Symbian Foundation is raising questions about the consortium’s independence from Nokia—just at a time when analysts are projecting a slowdown in sales of high-end phones.

Williams is currently in charge of a division within Nokia that oversees S60, the dominant user interface used by the Symbian operating system. The announcement of his new appointment was made on Oct. 23 at the conference, which this year served as a kind of coming out party for the foundation.

London-based Symbian, the leading maker of operating system software for advanced mobile phones, was set up a decade ago to develop an independent software platform for smartphones. Its software is now used in more than half of all such devices, relegating rivals such as Microsoft’s Windows Mobile to a small slice of the market. But handset maker Nokia is its biggest customer, leading to questions about its independence.

Nokia announced a plan on June 24 to buy the 52.1% of shares it doesn't already own in Symbian and set up an open-source foundation, which aims to give away resulting software for free to other handset makers. The move was in reaction to shifts in the industry, which has seen a new crop of rivals enter, most using open-source Linux software.

The shift to an open source foundation required a change in Symbian's board. It had been owned by a consortium of rivals including Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Panasonic, Siemens, and Samsung. The new Symbian Foundation is being steered by a board of 10 members: five from phone manufacturers Nokia, LG Electronics, Motorola, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson, and five from network operators and chipmakers AT&T, NTT DoCoMo, Vodafone, STMicroelectronics, and Texas Instruments.

The new 10-member board unanimously approved the appointment of Lee, even though Nokia is Symbian's owner and its biggest customer. "It's hard to imagine a stronger candidate than the leader of an organization responsible for Symbian's dominant user interface, but we are still surprised the board has chosen a Nokia employee, potentially reinforcing the Finnish company's influence on the foundation," said a research note from mobile consultancy CCS Insight.

In the past it would have been "inconceivable" to have a handset maker chair Symbian, says Richard Windsor, a mobile analyst at brokerage Nomura Securities. But times have changed, and he notes, the fact that Williams worked for Nokia for just two years and agreed to give up all equity participation in Nokia goes some way towards alleviating concerns about his independence. Still, to maintain his credibility analysts said Williams will have to ensure the voices of rival handset operators, such as Sony Ericsson and Motorola, are also heard.

Williams' appointment comes as Symbian is facing competition on many fronts. With the rise of Apple's iPhone, touch screens have become essential to any manufacturer's range, so the Symbian platform will have to support them. The iPhone's success also puts more emphasis on developing attractive, user-friendly interfaces.

But, notes Windsor, the pressure to compete with Apple is causing more technology to be crammed into phones earlier, raising the cost of building smartphones. That means that price declines to consumers are slowing or stopping entirely. That's not good news as economic recession looms and people have less disposable income to spend on gizmos.

It is already hurting short to medium term growth of smartphones, leading Nomura to forecast only 25% growth to 177.4 million units this year. The forecast for 2009 is 20% growth but it could be smaller if the global economy continues on its downward spiral.
Resource - BusinessWeek