“We’ve learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone. PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They’re not going to just walk in.”

Palm CEO Ed Colligan, December 2006

“Five hundred dollars? Fully subsidized? With a plan? I said that’s the most expensive phone in the world and it doesn’t appeal to business customers because it doesn’t have a keyboard, which makes it not a very good e-mail machine.”

– Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, January 2007

At 37.9 percent, Nokia’s share of the global handset market is the largest in the industry. Odd then to learn that it is not the most profitable. And odder still to learn that that honor belongs to Apple, which has been in the handset market for just two years.

According to Strategy Analytics, Apple’s third-quarter iPhone operating profit was $1.6 billion, while Nokia’s was $1.1 billion. Driving Apple’s profits: Strong sales, high wholesale prices and tight cost controls.

“We have identified at least 4 key factors underlying Apple’s success,” Strategy Analytics analyst Alexander Spektor explains. “First, Apple created a simple sub-brand–the iPhone–which was memorable and easy to remember. Second, the firm developed an attractive family of models with standout usability that enabled Apple to charge way-above-average prices to operators and consumers. Third, Apple distributed and co-marketed its handsets through top-tier carriers in numerous high-value countries. And fourth, the vendor has kept a solid grip on production costs by working with Foxconn, the world’s largest contract handset manufacturer.”

Quite an achievement for Apple (AAPL) and a major humiliation for Nokia (NOK), which has seen its dominance eroded by the likes of Apple and Research in Motion (RIMM), and not just in North America, but in Europe. Indeed, in its latest quarter Nokia’s smart-phone market share dropped by six points.

As Strategy Analytics analyst Neil Mawston noted at the time, “[Nokia has] no iPhone killer to drive a major revival in its smartphone volumes. [It] is still struggling in the U.S. smartphone market, and with competition intensifying in China as well, Nokia’s battles can only get tougher in 2010.”

“Demand for converged mobile devices has remained strong all year,” said IDC analyst Ramon Llamas. Driving that demand: Nokia (NOK), which maintained its position as the overall leader in the converged mobile device market, Research In Motion (RIMM), whose BlackBerry made some significant share gains internationally, and Apple (AAPL) and the iPhone, whose share of the smart-phone market rose to 17.1 percent from 16.6 percent in the previous quarter (see table below; click to enlarge).

“Apple reached its highest volume yet in a single quarter,” Llamas said. “The nearly global availability of the iPhone 3GS sparked another round of annual replacements for Apple loyalists, while the lower price on the iPhone 3G put the device well within reach of customers wary of the price. Although the iPhone has struggled within emerging markets, its arrival at China Unicom this year could foreshadow greater shipment volumes.”

[Image credit: AMUSEMENT]

This morning the Finnish mobile phone giant tapped Rick Simonson, currently its chief financial officer, as head of its handset division. And the company named Timo Ihamuotila, currently global head of sales, CFO.

While Simonson’s move from CFO to head of Nokia’s mobile phone business might seem a bit odd, analysts say it could be just what the company needs. “Simonson has been in the business for years,” Swedbank Securities analyst Jan Ihrfelt told Forbes. “He knows the company quite well, has the financial skills and the skills of a good communicator to make people in the company excited about new goals.”

And that’s clearly something Nokia (NOK) needs. For while the company is holding its ground in the broader mobile phone business, it’s losing it in smart phones, the fastest-growing segment of the market. As I noted yesterday, Nokia’s share of the smart-phone market slipped to 35 percent from 41 percent in its latest quarter, a grim reminder of just how poorly the company’s flagship smart phones are faring in their battle with iPhone maker Apple (AAPL) and BlackBerry manufacturer Research In Motion (RIMM).

Said Ihrfelt: “Nokia hasn’t been as quick as others in catching up with trends in the market and in bringing phones to consumers. One would expect a player the size of Nokia to have a product that competes with the iPhone, but that hasn’t been the case.”

Not yet, anyway. But that may soon change. A few weeks back, Nokia hired John Martin, former vice president of iPhone and Mac Internet Services at Apple to oversee development of new devices based on its Maemo platform.

This morning the Finnish mobile phone giant tapped Rick Simonson, currently its chief financial officer, as head of its handset division. And the company named Timo Ihamuotila, currently global head of sales, CFO.

While Simonson’s move from CFO to head of Nokia’s mobile phone business might seem a bit odd, analysts say it could be just what the company needs. “Simonson has been in the business for years,” Swedbank Securities analyst Jan Ihrfelt told Forbes. “He knows the company quite well, has the financial skills and the skills of a good communicator to make people in the company excited about new goals.”

And that’s clearly something Nokia (NOK) needs. For while the company is holding its ground in the broader mobile phone business, it’s losing it in smart phones, the fastest-growing segment of the market. As I noted yesterday, Nokia’s share of the smart-phone market slipped to 35 percent from 41 percent in its latest quarter, a grim reminder of just how poorly the company’s flagship smart phones are faring in their battle with iPhone maker Apple (AAPL) and BlackBerry manufacturer Research In Motion (RIMM).

Said Ihrfelt: “Nokia hasn’t been as quick as others in catching up with trends in the market and in bringing phones to consumers. One would expect a player the size of Nokia to have a product that competes with the iPhone, but that hasn’t been the case.”

Not yet, anyway. But that may soon change. A few weeks back, Nokia hired John Martin, former vice president of iPhone and Mac Internet Services at Apple to oversee development of new devices based on its Maemo platform.

Dragging the company down: A 908 million euro goodwill write-off in the Nokia Siemens Networks venture it co-owns with Siemens (SI). Revenue was 9.8 billion euros, or about $14.6 billion, which was down about 20 percent compared to last year. Worse, smart-phone market share declined to 35 percent from 41 percent in the previous quarter.

Six points gone in three months? That’s a brutal loss and one that demonstrates just how much pressure the company is seeing from Apple (AAPL) and Research in Motion (RIMM), among others.

“Nokia is launching plenty of new high-end smartphone models, such as the N900 and N97 mini,” Strategy Analytics analyst Neil Mawston told Reuters. “But as yet there is no iPhone killer to drive a major revival in its smartphone volumes. Nokia is still struggling in the U.S. smartphone market, and with competition intensifying in China as well, Nokia’s battles can only get tougher in 2010.”

Still, Nokia (NOK) did have some good news to report. It expects mobile device volumes to increase in the fourth quarter of 2009 and it sees the global handset market shrinking less this year than analysts had feared–seven percent instead of 10 percent.

“It is encouraging to see some signs of recovery in our markets,” Kallasvuo said during a conference call. “But let’s be clear, uncertainty in end-consumer demand remains.”

Dragging the company down: A 908 million euro goodwill write-off in the Nokia Siemens Networks venture it co-owns with Siemens (SI). Revenue was 9.8 billion euros, or about $14.6 billion, which was down about 20 percent compared to last year. Worse, smart-phone market share declined to 35 percent from 41 percent in the previous quarter.

Six points gone in three months? That’s a brutal loss and one that demonstrates just how much pressure the company is seeing from Apple (AAPL) and Research in Motion (RIMM), among others.

“Nokia is launching plenty of new high-end smartphone models, such as the N900 and N97 mini,” Strategy Analytics analyst Neil Mawston told Reuters. “But as yet there is no iPhone killer to drive a major revival in its smartphone volumes. Nokia is still struggling in the U.S. smartphone market, and with competition intensifying in China as well, Nokia’s battles can only get tougher in 2010.”

Still, Nokia (NOK) did have some good news to report. It expects mobile device volumes to increase in the fourth quarter of 2009 and it sees the global handset market shrinking less this year than analysts had feared–seven percent instead of 10 percent.

“It is encouraging to see some signs of recovery in our markets,” Kallasvuo said during a conference call. “But let’s be clear, uncertainty in end-consumer demand remains.”

Not a week after confirming its interest in the netbook market, Nokia leapt into it, uncrating the Booklet 3G–a 2.8-pound “mini-laptop” with 3G, WiFi and A-GPS support, a 10-inch HD-ready display and a claimed 12 hours of battery life. The machine will feature an Intel (INTC) Atom processor and likely run a version of Microsoft’s (MSFT) Windows. Finally, it will support Ovi, Nokia’s (NOK) version of Apple’s (AAPL) App Store.

“A growing number of people want the computing power of a PC with the full benefits of mobility,” Kai Oistamo, Nokia’s executive vice president for devices, said in a statement. “We are in the business of connecting people and the Nokia Booklet 3G is a natural evolution for us. Nokia has a long and rich heritage in mobility and with the outstanding battery life, premium design and all day, always on connectivity, we will create something quite compelling. In doing so we will make the personal computer more social, more helpful and more personal.”
 
Quite a pledge. And one that Nokia must deliver on if it’s to become a full-fledged mobile solution provider.

“Nokia is not trying to move into the extremely competitive market for PCs in general, even though it describes the Booklet 3G as a mini-laptop. What it is doing is moving to protect its key markets,” said Gold Associates analyst Jack E. Gold. “Indeed, netbooks are increasingly being sold as mobile device alternatives (or supplements) to smartphones. Many have 3G radios included, can make voice calls (via VoIP) and are increasingly being sold and subsidized by traditional wireless carriers. Therefore, it is logical to see Nokia make this move.”

Not a week after confirming its interest in the netbook market, Nokia leapt into it, uncrating the Booklet 3G–a 2.8-pound “mini-laptop” with 3G, WiFi and A-GPS support, a 10-inch HD-ready display and a claimed 12 hours of battery life. The machine will feature an Intel (INTC) Atom processor and likely run a version of Microsoft’s (MSFT) Windows. Finally, it will support Ovi, Nokia’s (NOK) version of Apple’s (AAPL) App Store.

“A growing number of people want the computing power of a PC with the full benefits of mobility,” Kai Oistamo, Nokia’s executive vice president for devices, said in a statement. “We are in the business of connecting people and the Nokia Booklet 3G is a natural evolution for us. Nokia has a long and rich heritage in mobility and with the outstanding battery life, premium design and all day, always on connectivity, we will create something quite compelling. In doing so we will make the personal computer more social, more helpful and more personal.”
 
Quite a pledge. And one that Nokia must deliver on if it’s to become a full-fledged mobile solution provider.

“Nokia is not trying to move into the extremely competitive market for PCs in general, even though it describes the Booklet 3G as a mini-laptop. What it is doing is moving to protect its key markets,” said Gold Associates analyst Jack E. Gold. “Indeed, netbooks are increasingly being sold as mobile device alternatives (or supplements) to smartphones. Many have 3G radios included, can make voice calls (via VoIP) and are increasingly being sold and subsidized by traditional wireless carriers. Therefore, it is logical to see Nokia make this move.”

“…the PC and the mobile will continue to come closer and merge,” Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo said at a press conference in New Dehli. “A lot of opportunity can be seen in this converged area. We at Nokia is actively looking at this converged market….We are looking at the netbook market to see what kind of opportunity is there.”

Likely a decent one for a cellphone maker like Nokia looking to diversify a bit from its core business. The company’s Symbian smartphone platform could likely be optimized for the task were Nokia to bring some of its $6 billion R&D budget to bear on it. The OS already has a Microsoft-compatible office suite in MobiSystems OfficeSuite 4, so Nokia’s ahead of the game there. Question is: Might the company’s efforts be better directed toward developing a credible competitor to Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone?

Never mind that it faces some particularly long, historic odds. That it has launched a new bet-the-company product in the worst economy we’ve seen in 50 years, for example. That with the Pre, it is challenging Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone, one of the most successful mobile phones in history. That it’s competing in a market crowded by the likes of Research in Motion (RIMM) and Nokia (NOK), which shipped an astonishing 468 million phones in calendar 2008.

Never mind all that. Because, according to RBC Capital Markets analyst Mike Abramsky, Palm (PALM) has the “special sauce”–the means of orchestrating a second act, perhaps even one of Jobsian proportions.

“Following a period of decline and facing oblivion, we believe Palm has the potential for a remarkable smartphone turnaround,” Abramsky writes in a lengthy research note on the wireless industry that I mentioned here yesterday as well. “With its new strategy, WebOS product line and under the direction of a new management team headed by ex-Apple executive Jon Rubinstein, Palm (like RIM and Apple) is, in our opinion, well-positioned for smartphone leadership.”

Abramsky sees a promising future: “Our outlook calls for Palm to quickly recover, growing from an estimated 1.3 percent data-centric smartphone shipment market share (0.2 percent TAM) or 2.2 million units in calendar 2009 to 3.6 percent share (1.3 percent of TAM) or 18.2 million units in calendar 2012. Targeting the PIM-centric segment of the Palm legacy, Palm in our view faces near-term risks, but has the ‘special sauce.’” (Click on table below to enlarge.)

And what, exactly, is that? The stuff that goes between the two all-beef patties and the lettuce and cheese?

Not quite. Abramsky’s idea of special sauce includes vertical integration, “controlling the end-to-end smartphone software and hardware platform, a ground-up developed smartphone OS platform with unique innovations like multitasking, Synergy (user data integration), developer-friendly SDK, and compelling and clever hardware/software designs [that] all combine to offer a unique, iconic smartphone experience, differentiated from incumbent vendors.”

A hell of an ingredient list. But it’s one that the Pre and Palm’s webOS largely deliver on–despite some drawbacks. And if Palm can improve on that list, the company should have little trouble wooing back disenfranchised users and winning new ones.

Abramsky, again: “The huge positive reception to the launch of Palm’s Pre, its first WebOS device–despite the already broad awareness of iPhone–illustrates pent-up demand for innovative, non-intimidating smartphone user experiences. The accolades for Pre also show Palm has the potential to provide that rare iconic smartphone experience, above competitors, some incumbents and in the company of RIM and Apple.”

Which is pretty much what Palm has set out to do, as CEO Jon Rubinstein noted in the company’s last earnings call. “There is room for three to five players in this space,” he said. “We don’t have to beat one another to prosper.”

You do have to execute, though. And execution hasn’t historically been one of Palm’s strong suits. Perhaps it will improve with the addition of that special sauce Abramsky’s talking about.

PREVIOUSLY:

• Palm: The Turnaround Story of the Year
• Pre Makes Palm a New Man in Only Minutes a Day
• Palm: Execution Is Everything

Never mind that it faces some particularly long, historic odds. That it has launched a new bet-the-company product in the worst economy we’ve seen in 50 years, for example. That with the Pre, it is challenging Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone, one of the most successful mobile phones in history. That it’s competing in a market crowded by the likes of Research in Motion (RIMM) and Nokia (NOK), which shipped an astonishing 468 million phones in calendar 2008.

Never mind all that. Because, according to RBC Capital Markets analyst Mike Abramsky, Palm (PALM) has the “special sauce”–the means of orchestrating a second act, perhaps even one of Jobsian proportions.

“Following a period of decline and facing oblivion, we believe Palm has the potential for a remarkable smartphone turnaround,” Abramsky writes in a lengthy research note on the wireless industry that I mentioned here yesterday as well. “With its new strategy, WebOS product line and under the direction of a new management team headed by ex-Apple executive Jon Rubinstein, Palm (like RIM and Apple) is, in our opinion, well-positioned for smartphone leadership.”

Abramsky sees a promising future: “Our outlook calls for Palm to quickly recover, growing from an estimated 1.3 percent data-centric smartphone shipment market share (0.2 percent TAM) or 2.2 million units in calendar 2009 to 3.6 percent share (1.3 percent of TAM) or 18.2 million units in calendar 2012. Targeting the PIM-centric segment of the Palm legacy, Palm in our view faces near-term risks, but has the ‘special sauce.’” (Click on table below to enlarge.)

And what, exactly, is that? The stuff that goes between the two all-beef patties and the lettuce and cheese?

Not quite. Abramsky’s idea of special sauce includes vertical integration, “controlling the end-to-end smartphone software and hardware platform, a ground-up developed smartphone OS platform with unique innovations like multitasking, Synergy (user data integration), developer-friendly SDK, and compelling and clever hardware/software designs [that] all combine to offer a unique, iconic smartphone experience, differentiated from incumbent vendors.”

A hell of an ingredient list. But it’s one that the Pre and Palm’s webOS largely deliver on–despite some drawbacks. And if Palm can improve on that list, the company should have little trouble wooing back disenfranchised users and winning new ones.

Abramsky, again: “The huge positive reception to the launch of Palm’s Pre, its first WebOS device–despite the already broad awareness of iPhone–illustrates pent-up demand for innovative, non-intimidating smartphone user experiences. The accolades for Pre also show Palm has the potential to provide that rare iconic smartphone experience, above competitors, some incumbents and in the company of RIM and Apple.”

Which is pretty much what Palm has set out to do, as CEO Jon Rubinstein noted in the company’s last earnings call. “There is room for three to five players in this space,” he said. “We don’t have to beat one another to prosper.”

You do have to execute, though. And execution hasn’t historically been one of Palm’s strong suits. Perhaps it will improve with the addition of that special sauce Abramsky’s talking about.

PREVIOUSLY:

• Palm: The Turnaround Story of the Year
• Pre Makes Palm a New Man in Only Minutes a Day
• Palm: Execution Is Everything

This morning the struggling handset maker tapped Nordberg, executive vice president of Ericsson, as its new president and CEO. He’ll replace Dick Komiyama, who has apparently decided to retire, though he is smack dab in the middle of implementing the restructuring program that was intended to reinvigorate Sony Ericsson.

“The Sony Ericsson transformation program I began over a year ago is more than half way completed, and I am pleased with what we have achieved so far,” Komiyama said in a statement. “I believe it is the right time for me to begin transferring the leadership of the company to a person who is able to complete the transformation program and lead Sony Ericsson through its next phase of development.”

The right time, indeed. Over the past few years, Sony Ericsson has been overtaken in the high-end handset market by Research in Motion (RIMM), Apple (AAPL) and Samsung and beaten into submission in the low-end market by Nokia (NOK). Among the top five cellphone vendors, Sony Ericsson saw the steepest drop in sales from the first quarter, down 40 percent year-over-year, and continued losses at the joint venture have prompted some to speculate that it could be broken up.

That’s clearly not the case at the moment, though it could be if Nordberg doesn’t manage to speed up that transformation program. Said Nordberg: “Sony Ericsson has taken leadership in the music phones and the camera phones with the Cybershot and the Walkman, but there are some weaknesses in the smartphone segment and we need to restore that.”

Nokia (NOK) shipped 103.2 million units during the quarter, down about 15 percent year-over-year. Worse, increased competition in the smart-phone market from the likes of Apple (AAPL) and RIM (RIMM) forced the company to reduce forecasts for market share and profitability. Nokia had expected to increase market share in the second half of the year, but now it expects it to remain flat. And the company expects handset shipments for 2009 to be around 10 percent lower than in 2008.

“Nokia put in a solid performance in what was another tough quarter,” Kallasvuo said. “Competition remains intense, but demand in the overall mobile device market appears to be bottoming out.” Good news, because its search for the bottom has been having a calamitous effect on Nokia. Shares in the company are down more than 12 percent at $13.70 in early trading.

Nokia (NOK) shipped 103.2 million units during the quarter, down about 15 percent year-over-year. Worse, increased competition in the smart-phone market from the likes of Apple (AAPL) and RIM (RIMM) forced the company to reduce forecasts for market share and profitability. Nokia had expected to increase market share in the second half of the year, but now it expects it to remain flat. And the company expects handset shipments for 2009 to be around 10 percent lower than in 2008.

“Nokia put in a solid performance in what was another tough quarter,” Kallasvuo said. “Competition remains intense, but demand in the overall mobile device market appears to be bottoming out.” Good news, because its search for the bottom has been having a calamitous effect on Nokia. Shares in the company are down more than 12 percent at $13.70 in early trading.

Well, the ambushes to which Smith referred appear to have finally paid off: Intel (INTC) has landed a deal to develop chips with Nokia (NOK).

During a conference call this morning, Intel senior mobility VP Anand Chandrasekher announced a deal that will see the two companies developing something they ambiguously describe as a “new mobile platform beyond today’s smartphones, notebooks and netbooks.” Under its terms, they will work together on several open-source mobile Linux software projects and Intel will license Nokia’s high speed packet access technology.

“This Intel and Nokia collaboration unites and focuses many of the brightest computing and communications minds in the world, and will ultimately deliver open and standards-based technologies, which history shows drive rapid innovation, adoption and consumer choice,” Chandrasekher said in a statement. “With the convergence of the Internet and mobility as the team’s only barrier, I can only imagine the innovation that will come out of our unique relationship with Nokia. The possibilities are endless.”

The deal is a big win for Intel, whose last dalliance with the cellphone market ended in ignominy. The computing landscape is shifting from PCs to mobile devices and Intel must shift along with it in order to grow its business. And right now, 90 percent of its sales are PC-related. With the global market for cellphones at 1.2 billion units per year and growing, according to ABI Research, the chipmaker must figure out a way to dominate cellphones the way it has PCs. Allying with Nokia is one way of achieving that. But when will we see the first Intel-powered Nokia device? Intel and Nokia won’t say. “This is about technology collaboration and a licensing agreement,” Chandrasekher said in reply to repeated questions on the matter. “We are not commenting on specific products today, I’ll leave it at that. When we are ready to talk about products, we will.”

Incidentally, Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo was a speaker at our D7 conference. A video highlights reel of his appearance, below.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20090623/intel-inside-nokia/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20090527/olli-pekka-kallasvuo/ http://allthingsd.com/20090527/olli-pekka-kallasvuo/#comments Wed, 27 May 2009 22:10:19 +0000 John Paczkowski http://d7.allthingsd.com/?p=234

With a roughly 36 percent market share, Nokia is the world’s largest mobile phone maker. A hard won and enviable position, but a tough one to maintain, especially in a souring economy. More so now with innovative new rivals like Apple emerging in the sector the company has long dominated. But that’s the situation that CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo faces today.

The deteriorating mobile phone market is weighing heavily on Nokia (NOK). In January, the company warned that world-wide sales in ’09 are likely to fall 10 percent year-to-year. As Kallasvuo put it at the time, “the macro environment is challenging and, we believe, will remain so in 2009.” More challenging for Nokia, than for rivals Apple (AAPL) and Research in Motion (RIMM), which both gained market share at the company’s expense in the first quarter. Driving their success: Touchscreen phones and app stores, features Nokia has been late and lame to market with. Consider the embarrassing launch this past Monday of its Ovi Store, the company’s challenge to Apple’s App store. Clearly, lots to talk about this session….

Highlights Video

Live Blog

• Shifting gears quickly from the Plastic Logic demo, Walt welcomes Kallasvuo to the stage. First question: You have what share of the world mobile phone market? 35 to 40 percent, replies Kallasvuo.
• Walt: And the devices all these people are using range from low-end devices to devices like the ones Mike Lazaridis was just talking about? Kallasvuo agrees, and notes that he prefers to call the higher-end devices to which Walt refers “mini-computers.”
• Walt: Who are your main rivals? “Three years ago,” says Kallasvuo, “I would not have hesitated to say Motorola.” Obviously, he won’t be saying Motorola (MOT) today. Kallasvuo rattles off a list that includes Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Apple (AAPL) and Samsung. “You can compete with some of them some of the time, but not all of the time. So you must partner,” says Kallasvuo, adding that Nokia (NOK) works with Microsoft on email.
• “The cellphone industry is becoming a consumercentric solutions business,” says Kallasvuo. “We are roadmapping now on the basis of solutions and not devices….We are going through a major transformation here and all our operations are being aligned with this change.” A lot of learning must be done there, but there’s also lots of opportunity.
• Talking now about the Symbian OS. Why did Nokia open-source it? Kallasvuo: “We bought it to give it away. And it made Symbian better and faster.” Symbian, says Kallasvuo, is the only mobile OS today that is both open and mature. That’s an advantage when you’re competing against the likes of Apple and Google. If that’s true, asks Walt, why do you have these other operating systems? Kallasvuo admits that Nokia has three mobile OS’s, but says this is necessary to address different sections of the market.”
• Walt: Did you bring a new phone for us to look at? Kallasvuo says yes. He’s brought Nokia’s N97 handheld computer. Walt asks about price and carrier. Kallasvuo: It will initially come to the open channel and will be priced at $699.
• Nokia’s Davis Fields joins Walt and Kallasvuo onstage to demo the device. This is the best handheld Nokia’s ever made, he says. He runs through the specs, which are all impressive: Carl Zeiss lens, etc. Boasts a touchscreen. He moves quickly to the OS, which uses GPS to make the devices runtime applications location-aware. Example: The device’s weather app reveals the current weather in San Diego, the location of this conference. Apps will be available through the OVi store. Core photo application supports MMS and has built-in Twitter, Facebook, and Flickr support. Quick demo of the device’s music features. MP3 player, FM radio, music store, stereo speaker support, built-in FM transmitter, Bluetooth streaming. Everything but the kitchen sink in this thing apparently. Text-to-speech AND speech-to-text available in the email application. 3-D maps and turn-by-turn mapping (thanks to Nokia’s ownership of NavTec).
• Moving on now to the Ovi store, Nokia’s location-aware app store, which launched somewhat problematically earlier this week. Walt asks about those problems and Kallasvuo quickly jumps in to note that they’ve been resolved. “High traffic,” he says. Going over the device’s form factor now, Fields pops open its keyboard. Pulls up AllThingsD on its browser, noting that it browses “the real Internet.” Unlike Safari on the iPhone, it supports Flash. What about video? (This shouted out from the audience.) You can record video and submit it to YouTube, you can download movies from Amazon (AMZN) Unbox. Video chat also supported. Battery life (also shouted from audience). “This holds up very well for all the things you can do with it. It holds up until the end of the day.”
• Walt’s first review of the N97: “That was pretty cool.” Kallasvuo: “I think so too.”
• OK, says Walt. you’ve got this device that looks competitive with the iPhone, but you don’t have a carrier partner in the U.S. What is your problem here? Kallasvuo: “I’ve been working on this one for a long time. A few years ago we began making devices specific to this market.” Nokia’s hope is that these efforts will be recognized and their products and services will be embraced by the local carriers. Kallasvuo recalls AT&T (T) CEO Randall Stephenson’s remark earlier this morning about network quality and device being top consumer concerns. He believes Nokia is in prime position to cater to the latter.
• But Randall and AT&T aren’t carrying this phone. Kallasvuo says the issue here is simple: The device isn’t CDMA. “But I’m working on Randall.”
• On to the Q&A: Could you talk more about your strategy around location? Kallasvuo says location is very important. The company is working to develop more location-based solutions for people. “The phone knows where you are. It might know where you’re going or what you’re going to do.” He says Nokia is looking forward to social location.
• How do you see WiFi and 3G coming together to resolve any potential network bottlenecks in the future? Is there a smooth way to offload traffic from 3G to WiFi? Kallasvuo says the technology is there, but ultimately this will be a carrier solution.
• The final question references the Eve Ensler session and the issue of rape-free phones. Unlike RIM’s Lazaridis, who preceded him, Kallasvuo seems quite knowledgeable about the issue. “We’ve been working on this issue in the Congo since 2001….We are doing everything we can to ensure that we do not use the coltan from the mines in the Congo.” He says Nokia has turned to other suppliers in Australia.
• End of Q&A

A note about our coverage: This liveblog is not an official transcript of the conversation that occurred onstage. Rather, it is a compilation of quotes, paraphrased statements and ad-lib observations written and posted to the Web as quickly as we were able. It was not intended as a transcript and should not be interpreted as one.

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]]> http://allthingsd.com/20090527/olli-pekka-kallasvuo/feed/ 1 http://allthingsd.com/20090526/ovi-done/ http://allthingsd.com/20090526/ovi-done/#comments Tue, 26 May 2009 14:11:12 +0000 John Paczkowski http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=18288 The Ovi Store, Nokia’s much anticipated response to the wildly popular Apple App Store, debuted this morning–ignominiously by most accounts.

Early criticisms point out the store’s paltry selection, slow performance and sign-in errors, disappearing apps and a less-than-intuitive UI. Nokia blamed the store’s unresponsiveness on unusually high traffic and did its best to address the problem, but even those efforts by its own admission resulted in only “intermittent performance improvements.”

Not the sort of grand opening you hope for when your smartphone market share has been tumbling, largely thanks to the growth of the iPhone and BlackBerry and their respective app stores. Obviously, thin selection and unreliable performance are poor foundations for an online bazaar, especially one so late and so long in coming. Certainly, it makes for a poor comparison to Apple’s App Store, which has already shown up an industry of which it wasn’t even a member a few years ago. As Bengt Nordstrom, chief executive of telecom consultant Northstream, said when Ovi was first announced, “As much as iPhone and App Store is a success for Apple, it’s a humiliating defeat for the rest of the mobile industry. Twenty years of efforts from operators and vendors to create mobile applications that customers like is overtaken in a heartbeat by someone that’s never done it before.”

And now this stumbling launch for Nokia (NOK). Growing pains? I suppose. The Ovi store is being made available to an estimated 50 million Nokia devices globally and it’s enhanced with “social location dynamics” to show you relevant applications and those that your friends have bought, so perhaps early missteps like these are to be expected. Don’t seem to recall Apple (AAPL) or RIM (RIMM) suffering from them, though.

Forrester analyst Thomas Husson says that the success of the Ovi Store depends on, among other things, “the quality of the execution…how easily can the content be accessed, how large is the catalogue of content, how simple is the new merchandizing approach?” Sadly for Nokia, the answers to these questions–at least initially–are not the best.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20090526/ovi-done/feed/ 1 http://allthingsd.com/20090526/ovi-done-2/ http://allthingsd.com/20090526/ovi-done-2/#comments Tue, 26 May 2009 14:11:12 +0000 John Paczkowski http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=18288 The Ovi Store, Nokia’s much anticipated response to the wildly popular Apple App Store, debuted this morning–ignominiously by most accounts.

Early criticisms point out the store’s paltry selection, slow performance and sign-in errors, disappearing apps and a less-than-intuitive UI. Nokia blamed the store’s unresponsiveness on unusually high traffic and did its best to address the problem, but even those efforts by its own admission resulted in only “intermittent performance improvements.”

Not the sort of grand opening you hope for when your smartphone market share has been tumbling, largely thanks to the growth of the iPhone and BlackBerry and their respective app stores. Obviously, thin selection and unreliable performance are poor foundations for an online bazaar, especially one so late and so long in coming. Certainly, it makes for a poor comparison to Apple’s App Store, which has already shown up an industry of which it wasn’t even a member a few years ago. As Bengt Nordstrom, chief executive of telecom consultant Northstream, said when Ovi was first announced, “As much as iPhone and App Store is a success for Apple, it’s a humiliating defeat for the rest of the mobile industry. Twenty years of efforts from operators and vendors to create mobile applications that customers like is overtaken in a heartbeat by someone that’s never done it before.”

And now this stumbling launch for Nokia (NOK). Growing pains? I suppose. The Ovi store is being made available to an estimated 50 million Nokia devices globally and it’s enhanced with “social location dynamics” to show you relevant applications and those that your friends have bought, so perhaps early missteps like these are to be expected. Don’t seem to recall Apple (AAPL) or RIM (RIMM) suffering from them, though.

Forrester analyst Thomas Husson says that the success of the Ovi Store depends on, among other things, “the quality of the execution…how easily can the content be accessed, how large is the catalogue of content, how simple is the new merchandizing approach?” Sadly for Nokia, the answers to these questions–at least initially–are not the best.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20090526/ovi-done-2/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20090317/nokia-ramps-up-pink-slip-production/ http://allthingsd.com/20090317/nokia-ramps-up-pink-slip-production/#comments Tue, 17 Mar 2009 15:08:34 +0000 John Paczkowski http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=15046 Nokia (NOK) is following up the voluntary redundancies it announced last month with a few involuntary ones. Its hand forced by the continued deterioration of the mobile phone market, the company said this morning that it will sack 1,700 employees. “Nokia plans to scale sales, marketing and technology management to match the pruned portfolio and global consumer demand,” the firm said in a statement.

A grim announcement. But an inevitable one. As I’ve noted here before, Nokia shipped 113 million handsets world-wide in the fourth quarter of 2008, down 15 percent annually. And in January, the company warned that world-wide sales in ’09 are likely to fall 10 percent year-to-year. As CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo put it at the time, “the macro environment is challenging and, we believe, will remain so in 2009.”

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20090317/nokia-ramps-up-pink-slip-production/feed/ 1 http://allthingsd.com/20090224/reason-for-leaving-last-job-voluntary-redundancy/ http://allthingsd.com/20090224/reason-for-leaving-last-job-voluntary-redundancy/#comments Tue, 24 Feb 2009 17:54:50 +0000 John Paczkowski http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=13508 Sack yourself now or risk being sacked by us later. That’s the choice Nokia (NOK) presented to employees today, announcing plans to offer severance packages to the first 1,000 workers who resign their posts. The resignation-for-severance deal is aimed at reducing personnel-related costs and, in the words of Hallstein Moerk, Nokia’s head of human resources, “lessening the need for involuntary redundancies.”

“Involuntary redundancies.” What a nice little euphemism.

Anyway, Nokia’s Global Voluntary Resignation Package will kick off on March 1. Employees can register for it until 1,000 applicants have been let go or until May 31– whichever comes first.

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