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Analyzing Nokia's moves in the Internet and telecommunication businesses

Behind the Screen

- Nokia's success story in an industry of navel-gazing executives and crazy frogs

Nokia corporate headquarters in Espoo, Finland

Questions and Answers on management changes, products, and strategy at Nokia / 14:36 22-09-2010 When Nokia announced new CEO, Stephen Elop, for the company, all hell broke loose in Finland. To make things worse, iconic Nokia-veteran Jorma Ollila announced he will leave Nokia Board in the second quarter 2012. Nokia is so deeply rooted in the society and economy of the small Northern country that even the Prime Minister Mari Kiviniemi was consulted by TV news if Finns should worry for their precious welfare state.

The next 18 months will be crucial for the new CEO Stephen Elop and Nokia Board. Their mission is to find ways to improve Nokia’s performance in the Stock Exchange
el.azyzy.mouaad 23:24 30-06-2010 mohamed
mohamed 21:14 10-04-2010 i like ovi story
robert 16:18 24-10-2009 yes, OVI Files ACCESS invaluable as stated, certainly from my point of view, as I have a business and travel regularly, so it is vital to have access to certain business documents. I have a Nokia E71, using standard installed browser, I can access files without issue, I also have Opera mini latest version download, but, interestingly enough, I have not been able to access files using this browser, have checked all related settings, not sure what the problem is.
From RadioShack to iPhone: What\'s Next for Nokia in the US? 15:17 19-10-2009 Nokia became an overnight sensation in North America in the late 1990s, after the company had learned the tricks of the unique market with RadioShack. One of the key things was that Nokia was more than willing to customize mobile phones for US operators.

As a challenger, Nokia was agile and innovative. In 1998, it succeeded to beat Motorola in the race for the number one position. Nokia became the largest mobile phone vendor in the world and in the US. In 2001, Nokia introduced its first smartphone, the 7650. Since Nokia was a top ten brand globally and the new Symbian S60 softw
Nokia Ovi Shows Some Serious Potential / Posted by Ari 13:14 08-08-2009 Nokia Ovi, a suite of online services for mobile phones and PCs, is a strategic bet for the company's future. While Ovi is critically important for Nokia's top management, the service still has to prove its importance to Nokia customers. The Files service, however, shows potential beyond currently available backup and remote access features.

Today, Ovi consists of nine services: Calendar, Contacts, Files, Games, Mail & Messaging, Maps with navigation, Music Store, Share (photos & videos), and Store. Most services are free, or you have to pay a fee for advanced features or for ad
The Real Nokia Ovi Story / Posted by Ari 10:54 24-06-2009 I was invited to give a talk at the MobileMonday Helsinki event on June 8th, 2009. Here is a summary of my speech (as I recall it) titled "The Real Nokia Ovi Story".

Ovi Internet services and the Ovi Store are news even for many industry-followers. 10 years is a long time, especially in high-tech business, but that's how long Nokia has been developing online services for consumers. That's not all. The world's largest mobile phone company opened its first online application store back in 2003. Have
Patience, Nokia, patience - cloud services take time to succeed / Posted by Ari 11:23 23-05-2009 Just like most corporations, Nokia is tackling the economic downturn primarily by cutting costs. The company is applying three methods; layoff of employees, reducing purchases from contractors, and offering voluntary retirement packages. This is the first time Nokia has offered attractive retirement packages for managers and other knowledge-workers in larger scale.

The first round of packages that was available to 1000 senior-level employees in Finland was so badly wanted that many who hesitated too long, didn't get it. Those who used the opportunity to cash out, received an equ
The Future Scenario for Nokia Is an Image of Toyota Brand / Posted by Ari 12:08 03-05-2009 Nokia was one of the sexiest brands in the world at the end of 1990s. Investors loved the company so much that they quadrupled its share price in two years. Mobile phone shoppers adored the products so much that they made Nokia the biggest mobile phone manufacturer in the world. Nokia's management and employees loved the company that made millionaires from those individuals who had received stock options.

In the early 2000s, the dot-com crash returned Nokia back to earth and maybe even a few feet under. Despite the new CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, who returned Nokia to growth path in
The Secret Code for Success at Nokia / Posted by Ari 13:16 12-04-2009 Ten years ago, a small Scandinavian country got so much attention from the world's leading magazines, newspapers and TV channels that someone may have thought aliens had been discovered. No, it was something real. The media was looking for stories about Finns who had fallen in love with modern technology, and especially, reporters were trying to discover the secret code for Nokia's phenomenal success.

Jorma Ollila, who was the CEO ten years ago, avoided answering the question when Fortune magazine asked him what was the secret behind Nokia's success. Nokia had overtaken Motorola
Life changers – The top innovations of the last 30 years / Posted by Ari 17:06 18-03-2009 Ask a seemingly simple question "Which innovations have changed people's lives most dramatically during the last three decades?" and you might be surprised about the answers.

The first thought that crosses the minds of many technology, business, media or research focused people might be things like the Internet, the telephone, the computer, the combustion engine, or the electricity. Sure, they are all among the top innovations of all time, but they older than 30 years. Yes, even the foundation for the Internet was developed during the 1960s. Not to mention e-mail as one of its fi
A Nokia netbook PC maybe closer than you thought / Posted by Ari 14:51 01-03-2009 Reuters created a buzz in the media and among bloggers when the news agency reported that Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo admitted Nokia was entering into laptop PC business. The news story was even titled Nokia considering entering laptop industry.

What exactly did Kallasvuo say? He was interviewed by a reporter at a prime time current affairs-show broadcast by Yle, the Finnish national broadcaster.
Reporter: Will Nokia make mini mobile PCs some day?
Kallasvuo: Never say never. Of course, we are
Is the Symbian Foundation already in trouble worth of half a billion euros ? / Posted by Ari 06:33 23-02-2009 Is there something wrong the Symbian software foundation because Nokia raised 500 million euros loan for assisting the Symbian Foundation? Nokia has billions of cash in the bank, and Symbian OS is by far the most successful software in the smartphone market with 250 million customers. What is going on?

Symbian Ltd, the company responsible for the development of the operating system software was established in 1998. The company wasn't started from scratch, but Psion Ltd, a UK-based enterprise that innovated a popular handheld c
Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo interview: A liberating feeling / Posted by Ari 15:41 15-02-2009 Many visitors at the Nokia headquarters in Espoo, Finland, are surprised if they happen to spot CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, or another member of senior management having lunch at the cafeteria. The top management is queuing up with everyone else and sharing tables with other lunch guests. Of course, the number of travel days and cabinet lunches reduce the likelyhood of spotting Kallasvuo at the cafeteria, but still.

Now, Nokia's CEO has moved away from his top floor office in the headquarters. He didn't pack and go home, he didn't camp at the airport, but he moved his desk to an o
75 percent of world population does not have email / Posted by Ari 19:08 08-02-2009 If you were in high-tech business and you would learn that 25 percent of the world population has one or more email accounts, but 75 percent doesn't have an account at all, which market would you target?

Many high-tech enterprises don't have a choice, because their products require powerful computers or high-speed Internet access. The companies target the 25 percent of the world population. For them, competition is fierce, because practically all businesses are targeting the same markets.

Apart from low-cost TV sets or FM radios, is there anything in consumer electron
Can anyone beat Nokia in low-end mobile phones (and make profit)? / Posted by Ari 19:28 02-02-2009 When Nokia published its financial results for 2008, it also admitted that it had lost a fair amount of market share in smartphones. Its total share of the global mobile phone market dropped slightly; it is still bubbling just under 40 percent.

ABI Research tallied up mobile phone sales numbers from its sources for 2008, revealing a couple of interesting pieces of information.

Smartphone trendsetters who have received plenty of media attention have 1.9%
If you are managing a GPS software company, watch out for Nokia / Posted by Ari 16:54 27-01-2009 It started innocently. A couple of years ago, Nokia saw that GPS receiver chips would be priced so low that it would make sense to integrate navigation and positioning services to smartphones. Location based services had been touted for more than ten years. Soon, they could become reality.

As everyone knows, a hardware chip that can read GPS satellite signals isn't enough. Maps and software were required as well.

So, Nokia went shopping and discovered an excellent piece of navigation software for smartphones; Gate5. The small company was based in Germany. Gate5 wa
Will Kallasvuo avoid the mistakes Ollila made five years ago? / Posted by Ari 13:17 26-01-2009 Towards the end of 2008, consumer spending dipped so rapidly that Nokia is planning to hit the breaks. The full year 2008 was profitable for the company, and even the fourth quarter 2008 was still profitable, with 10 percent operating margin. Yet, Nokia's CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo announced that the company will launch a cost cutting program that should save 700 million euros (860 million dollars).

About a month ago, Nokia's component supplier were served a letter where the company told that it will pay less for the parts they are delivering. Software makers engaged in Nokia pr
Comes with Music has started as expected, signaling problems for iTunes 13:25 19-01-2009 When Nokia told that it would give digital music away for free to customers who purchased Nokia a mobile phone, even the last executive in the music industry realized that the world had changed. Irreversibly.

Customers who have bought a Comes with Music-branded Nokia phone can download an unlimited number of digital tracks from Nokia's comprehensive online store. Unlimited downloading is valid for one year. An extension period can be purchased, but even without the extension, the customer can keep the downloaded tracks.

Although Nokia already is the largest manufac
An interview with Serena Glover, Nokia manager for Share on Ovi 16:01 16-01-2009 In early 2008, I reviewed practically all photo and video sharing services because I wanted to be able to share photos of a puppy who was about to become a member of the family. The requirements for the service were that it should manage both still images and videos, images captured on a camera phone and on a dedicated camera, video format could be anything (I had two cameras and a number of phones), and uploading should be possible from a phone and from a PC.

The best photo and video sharing service in my personal review was Twango. Well, it turned it to be Nokia's solution for