Nokia EVP claims they might sell their handset manufacturing business. (updated)
Nokia‘s EVP, Anssi Vanjoki in an interview to a German publication (Wirtschaftswoche) admitted that Nokia may look to sell it’s hardware manufacturing unit.
After all, RIM (blackberry), Apple and Google don’t make their own handsets, they have all outsourced the hardware bit of it. Then, Why shouldn’t Nokia?
Interestingly, the smartphone segment is different from the mass market phone segment, but then there is pretty stiff competition there too.
As we all know, in Q3 2009, Apple did knock Nokia off to become the Most profitable handset vendor.
(Update) After the comments from Vanjoki, Nokia is in damage control mode now and Nokia spokesman Thomas Jonsson has issued a statement claiming that the “Logistics and Manufacturing network” are a very important “competitive advantage” for them (Nokia) and a core part of their business, and that they have no plans to change their business model.
Nokia plans to ship 3G phones to China in ‘08
Nokia expects to start selling phones for China’s 3G mobile technology TD-SCDMA in the first half of next year, when the network is up and running, a Reuters report said.
The Reuters report quoted Thomas Jonsson, Nokia’s spokesman in China, as saying that currently we see that there will be market need from the first half of 2008. Hence, we will have some kind of offering on the market.”
Beijing earlier this year extended pre-commercial testing of its home-grown TD-SCDMA standard to 10 cities from the original five, the Reuters report said.
Analysts say that trial extension is in effect a soft launch or roll-out that favors local gearmakers, who have more of an edge in TD-SCDMA, versus foreign firms who are more focused on the better-established W-CDMA and cdma2000 standards, the report said.
With a potential $10 billion of network equipment orders in the balance, global players such as Nokia Siemens Networks, Motorola, Ericsson and Nortel Networks have jumped onto TD-SCDMA, the report said.
The industry is still waiting for the official launch of 3G licenses in China, which analysts say could be pushed back until 2008, the report further said.
