Nokia is set to start selling a group of E-series enterprise handsets and the top-of-the-range N96 multimedia device, a Reuters report said.
“We will in the third quarter bring to the market the N96 we have launched and a group of E-series multimedia computers that will be sure to have a strong stamp on where this market is going,” Anssi Vanjoki, senior executive vice president of Nokia Markets, told Reuters.
Nokia declined to comment on the models, but industry sources said the company is set to come out next week with new E66 and E71 models. They are both expected to feature GPS, a 3.2 megapixel camera and 128 megabytes of memory.
Nokia unveiled the N96 in February and it is seen as the successor to its top profit generator, the N95. It will come with 16 gigabytes of internal memory and is expected to retail around 550 euros , excluding subsidies and taxes.
Nokia said in its fourth-quarter earnings report it had sold 6 million of the N95, often seen as the key rival to Apple’s iPhone, by end-December. At the time this compared with Apple’s 4 million iPhones sold. Apple has said it aims to sell 10 million iPhones by the end of 2008.
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TeliaSonera signed an agreement with Apple to bring the iPhone to Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia later this year.
No other information was provided.
TeliaSonera provides telecom services in the Nordic and Baltic countries, in Spain and the emerging markets of Eurasia, including Russia and Turkey.
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- April 18th, 2008
- 12:01 pm
Shares in Nokia plunged more than 13.5% after the world’s largest mobile phone maker downgraded its forecast for the global handset market and posted lower than expected earnings in the first quarter.
An Associated Press report said Nokia reported a net profit of €1.2 billion (US$1.9 billion) in the first three months of the year, 25% more than €1 bilion (US$1.6 billion) in the same period in 2007, but below analysts’ forecasts. Markets had been expecting a better result: a Factset analyst poll, cited by Dow Jones Newswires, had forecast a 42% rise in profit
Revenue grew 28% to €12.5 billion (US$20 billion) from €9.8 billion (US$15.6 billion) a year earlier, with strong growth of handsets sales in Asia, the Middle East and Africa.
The report quoted the company saying that its market share slipped from 40% in the October-to-December quarter to 39% in the first quarter this year. But it sold 115 million mobile devices in the first quarter, up 27% from a year earlier, and its market share was 3 points higher than in the first quarter a year ago.
Nokia stock closed at €18 (US$28.76) in Helsinki after the company cautioned that the industry worldwide would be hit by poor economic conditions.
Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo said he was satisfied with the first-quarter result, despite the poor response from investors.
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Nordic operator’s chief financial officer quits after eight years to return to Finland.
TeliaSonera’s chief financial officer Kim Ignatius is leaving to take up a similar post in his native Finland, the Nordic telecoms operators announced on Wednesday.
Ignatius is one of the few remaining top-level ex-Sonera employees at TeliaSonera. Formerly finance chief at the Finnish incumbent, he retained his post when the company merged with Sweden’s national operator Telia in 2002.
51-year-old Ignatius will join Helsinki-based media group SanomaWSOY as chief financial officer at an as yet unspecified date.
“The past eight years in the company have been exciting and rewarding. I see my new position as an interesting opportunity to utilize and build on the experience from telecommunications, but also as a chance for further personal development,” Ignatius said in a statement.
Ignatius’ work at TeliaSonera was praised by new company president and chief executive Lars Nyberg, who highlighted his “important contributions to TeliaSonera in a time of major changes.”
Nyberg joined TeliaSonera last summer, relieving Ignatius of the acting CEO role he had undertaken since the apparently acrimonious departure of Anders Igel in June.
TeliaSonera has yet to comment on a possible replacement for Ignatius.
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Nokia, the world’s top handset maker, unveiled four new models targeting consumers in emerging markets who are about to replace their first phones, a Reuters report said. Nokia, which makes four out of every ten phones sold globally, has been fiercely defending its dominant position by looking to emerging markets and making cheaper models, as growth has slowed in Europe and North America.
The new phones cost €50 to €90, taking on even the cheapest offerings from its main rivals, all of whom have so far shied away from attempting to compete with Nokia in terms of the scale of production, the Reuters report said.
Nokia expects replacement sales to consumers in emerging markets to account for more than 60% of sales volumes this year, up from around 50% last year. It also expects the inclusion of FM radio receivers and recorders, cameras and music players to drive handset replacement in emerging markets.
Two of the new phones unveiled at a media event in Johannesburg, the Nokia 5000 and Nokia 2680, have a radio recording function, the report stated.
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- February 13th, 2008
- 2:45 pm
Finnish operator Elisa reported fourth-quarter sales of EUR 402 million, up from EUR 401 million a year earlier. EBITDA, excluding one-time items, rose 8 percent to EUR 128 million, while EPS grew to EUR 0.32 from EUR 0.31. Growth came mainly in the mobile market, as fixed-line operations were under pressure. While the number of broadband customers grew 5 percent last year to 521,844, analogue and other lines were down 10 percent to 471,542. The number of mobile customers rose to 2.657 million, including 322,800 in Estonia, from 2.489 million at the end of 2006, while mobile ARPU improved to EUR 30.1 from EUR 29.9 in Q3. Elisa now has over 1 million 3G customers, with network coverage at 75 percent of the population. Further growth in 3G and efficiency measures are expected to lead to further revenue and EBITDA growth in 2008. Capex for this year was forecast at 10-12 percent of revenues, while cash flow will substantially exceed last year’s level.
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- February 7th, 2008
- 6:30 pm
JumpTap, the leading mobile search and advertising solutions provider, today announces that it has signed a multinational deal with TeliaSonera, the leading mobile operator in the Nordic and Baltic regions. This strategic move will see JumpTap deploy a comprehensive search and advertising solution across seven different network operators in Sweden, Spain, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Estonia and Lithuania.
JumpTap will be TeliaSonera’s exclusive partner for all mobile advertising and paid search ads served on SurfPort, TeliaSonera’s mobile Internet portal, and on SurfOpen, an Internet toolbar to be launched throughout the group during 2008, which follows the user both on and off portal.
Dan Olschwang, president and CEO at JumpTap, comments: “This is a monumental move for TeliaSonera and is testimony to the fact that the world’s most innovative and progressive operators are deploying integrated white label search and mobile advertising services.”
Benefits for TeliaSonera and Subscribers
- JumpTap’s white label solution will enable TeliaSonera to secure a sustainable position in the mobile advertising value chain, a market expected to be worth over US$14bn by 2011(1)
- TeliaSonera will capture long term advertising revenue, along with subscriber loyalty, as the gateway to the mobile Internet
- SurfPort and SurfOpen will both incorporate JumpTap’s built-for-mobile search and advertising solutions, to create a richer, simpler mobile web experience for end-users, and in turn encourage repeat usage and increase mobile web traffic
- TeliaSonera will be able to leverage search intelligence to enable highly targeted advertising
Benefits for Advertisers
- TeliaSonera’s networks enable advertisers to reach the largest subscriber bases in Scandinavia and the Baltics
- JumpTap’s fully integrated search and advertising solutions will use insight from search behaviour along with operator gateway data, to deliver the most targeted and tailored ad-delivery system available on mobile, no matter where users navigate to on the mobile web
- An extensive range of mobile advertising solutions to help marketers better engage with customers and achieve their marketing objectives
“SurfOpen is an important step into Mobile 2.0,” says Indra Åsander, Senior Vice President, Head of Content Services, Europe Mobility Services, at TeliaSonera. “SurfOpen will bring improved options to the market to communicate with our mobile customers in seven countries. Our partnership with JumpTap will help our customers quickly and easily access to their favourite content and services wherever it exists on the Internet.”
Olschwang concludes: “The full potential of the mobile marketing industry is only realised when subscribers are satisfied with their mobile web experience. By combining intelligence from search with operator gateway data, users get fast access to everything they are searching for in the most intuitive way possible. TeliaSonera understands the importance of openness and of simplifying the mobile web, which is why SurfOpen and JumpTap’s search and advertising solutions work together to provide a positive user experience.”
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- February 6th, 2008
- 1:31 pm
Nokia has launched the first version of its new N-Gage mobile gaming platform. The company has invited owners of its N81 device to download and try out the new application, which gives access to a range of games to try out or purchase. The company has signd agreements with game publishers such as Digital Chocolate, Glu Mobile and THQ Wireless to supply titles for N-Gage. Announced last year, N-Gage is part of Nokia’s new Ovi portal, offering a range of entertainment and services for mobile users. The Finnish company is also testing the service Share on Ovi, a social network for sharing videos and photos.
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- February 1st, 2008
- 12:02 pm
Nokia is facing a patent breach claim of up to EUR 12 billion from German intellectual property rights holder IP-Com, reports German financial newspaper Financial Times Deutschland citing IP-Com’s CEO Christoph Schoeller. IP-Com has been negotiating with Nokia to come to an agreement, but in the beginning of January of this year, IP-Com decided to launch a patent breach claim at the state court in Mannheim. The claim orders Nokia to stop using 8 mobile patent families owned by IP-Com asking for up to EUR 12 billion in patent licensing fees. If the claim is approved, Nokia could be ordered to stop selling mobile phones in multiple countries. Nokia dismisses the claims because parts of the patents are not valid and the company will defend itself vigorously according to Anne Eckert, Nokia’s Patent Director. She also said that the financial claims are excessive. IP-Com acquired the patents from its former owner Robert Bosch at the end of 2006, with the financial support of US-based private equity fund Fortress.
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- January 10th, 2008
- 2:17 pm
TeliaSonera’s Mobility Services business area will launch negotiations with employee representatives on the changeover to a new operating model in Finland. The changeover to a more customer-focused and less complicated operating model is estimated to lead to the termination of up to 165 jobs. According to the practice followed by the company in Finland, the holders of jobs that are to be terminated will not be dismissed. The aim of the new operating model is to respond more rapidly and efficiently to changing customer needs and to changes in the market. The function-based organisation will be abandoned and the aim is to establish a strong unit focusing on customer relationship management. The unit will be responsible for product and service offerings, pricing and customer communications of mobile operations and for customer-driven steering of other functions such as sales, the Sonera Piste chain and customer service.
The new operating model and the related reorganisation will clarify operations and eliminate overlaps. Other measures taken to achieve a more efficient and customer-oriented way of operating include broader job descriptions and responsibility areas. An invitation to the negotiations has been issued and the first negotiations are expected to be held on 15 January.
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Nokia rolls out new E-series phones (Finland)
