Nokia relaunches iconic 3310 mobile model

Yahoo – AFP, February 26, 2017

HMD global CEO Arto Nummela presents his company's new phone "Nokia 3310"
 during a press conference on February 26, 2017 on the eve of the start of the
Mobile World Congress

Finnish brand Nokia, a former mobile star, on Sunday launched three new Android smartphones and unveiled a revamped version of its iconic 3310 model more than a decade after it was phased out.

Unlike the original, which was known for its sturdiness, the new Nokia 3310 will allow web browsing.

The new version will bring back its predecessor's popular "Snake" game and distinctive ringtones, said Arto Nummela, the head of Finnish start-up HMD Global which will produce the phone under a licensing agreement with Nokia.

"The telephone will allow you to talk for 22 hours, ten times more than the original," he said during a presentation in Barcelona on the eve of the start of the Mobile World Congress, the world's biggest mobile phone show.

Launched in 2000, Nokia's original 3310 sold nearly 120 million units worldwide before it was discontinued in 2005, making it one of the world's best-selling mobile phones.

Analysts said resurrecting the popular model was a clever way for HMD Global to relaunch Nokia's brand.

"HMD launched three new smartphones and an iconic mobile. It is a way to create a halo effect around the other models by reviving talk about the Nokia brand," said Thomas Husson, a mobile analyst at Forrester.

In addition to the new 3310, HMD presented three new smartphones, the Nokia 3, Nokia 5 and Nokia 6 which will sell for different prices.

The Nokia 6 was already available in China and will now go on sale globally.

"We think (Nokia) could take 5 percent of the global smartphone market by the end of 2019. But it needs to get big quick or it won't work," said CCS Insight's device specialist and chief of research, Ben Wood.

Nokia was the world's top mobile maker between 1998 and 2011 but was overtaken by South Korean rival Samsung after failing to respond to the rapid rise of smartphones.

Its telephone brand remains widely recognised, especially in developing markets.

Now a leading telecom equipment maker, Nokia sold its entire handset business to Microsoft Corp in 2014.

Last year HMD bought Microsoft Mobile's handset business and the right to use the Nokia brand.

Under the agreement, Nokia will receive royalty payments from HMD for sales of every Nokia branded mobile phone or tablet.

emi/ds/pvh/kjl

The iconic Nokia 3310 is back, its revamped version including web browsing and the popular 'Snake' game https://t.co/aNZHJslsJ0 pic.twitter.com/xpycxA4qYT

— AFP news agency (@AFP) February 27, 2017

New Microsoft-Nokia smartphone is... Android

Yahoo – AFP, Rob Lever, 24 June 2014

CEO of Nokia Corporation Stephen Elop presents the new Nokia X at the

Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, on February 24, 2014 (AFP Photo/

Lluis Gene)

CEO of Nokia Corporation Stephen Elop presents the new Nokia X at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, on February 24, 2014 (AFP Photo/Lluis Gene)

Washington (AFP) - Microsoft on Tuesday rolled out its first new Nokia smartphone since acquiring the Finnish group's handset division -- using the Android operating system from arch-rival Google.

Microsoft said the Nokia X2, an updated version of a handset unveiled this year before the takeover was completed, was "designed to introduce the 'next billion' people to the mobile Internet and cloud services."

The device will be sold worldwide as a dual-SIM phone at a price of $135 (99 euros), Microsoft said in a statement.

While Microsoft has been struggling to get a foothold in the smartphone market with its Windows Phone operating system, the X2 "provides access to a world of Android apps and popular Microsoft services," the statement said.

Even though it uses the rival Android platform the X2 offers "a gateway to Microsoft services," including the Skype messaging program and OneDrive cloud storage.

The initial Nokia X was unveiled at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February, before Microsoft completed its takeover of Nokia's handset division in April.

The new version cuts the price of a phone which has had success in some countries.

"The Nokia X family is going from strength to strength, with the Nokia X smartphone achieving top-selling status in Pakistan, Russia, Kenya and Nigeria, while earning the third-best-selling smartphone spot in India,” said Timo Toikkanen, head of mobile phones for the Microsoft Devices Group.

"The Nokia X2 elevates the Nokia X experience with a stellar new design, ease of use and new Microsoft experiences. We're proud to continue to bring smartphone innovation to lower and lower price points."

With the Nokia X unveiled in February, Android applications work, but users cannot access Google's services, notably its applications store, Google Play.

Tuesday's statement said users would have access to the Nokia Store as "the place for finding the highest-quality Android apps" for the device.

Windows Phone has managed to get only around 3.5 percent of the global smartphone market, while Android has more than 80 percent, according to recent figures from research firm IDC.

'As many phones as possible

Roger Kay, analyst with Endpoint Technologies, said the Android phone makes sense in view of the fragile position of the Windows Phone platform.

"Google has the dominant platform and Apple is number two, so there is a question about whether there is room for a number three," Kay said.

He added that the Nokia unit appears to be maintaining some independence after being acquired by Microsoft and that "they want to sell as many phones as possible."

"Microsoft is hanging onto the phone business by its fingernails," he said. "One bump and they could be gone. You still have a whole phone business in Nokia so it makes sense to be on the dominant platform."

Microsoft closed the deal in April with some adjustments from the announced price of $7.52 billion (5.44 billion euros). The US company agreed to exclude factories in India and South Korea.

Nokia was the world leader in mobile phones until it was challenged by Apple's iPhone in 2007 and later Samsung.

Apple Unseats Coca Cola as World’s ‘Best Brand’

Jakarta Globe – AFP, September 30, 2013

Customers wait in line outside an Apple Inc. store to purchase at Easton Town
 Center in Columbus, Ohio, US, on Sept. 20, 2013. (Bloomberg Photo/Luke Sharrett)

 Paris. Coca Cola has lost its crown as the world’s best brand, a closely watched survey said on Monday, unseated by the iconic iPhone and iPad maker Apple.

This marks the first time the soft drink missed the top spot on the “best global brand report”, a line-up created in 2000 by marketing consultancy Interbrand, a unit of the Omnicom advertising conglomerate.

“Every so often, a company changes our lives – not just with its products, but with its ethos,” said Jez Frampton, Interbrand’s chief executive.

“This is why, following Coca Cola’s 13-year run at the top of Best Global Brands, Apple now ranks #1,” he said.

In fact, Coca Cola dropped two places in 2013, also losing to Google, the search engine, which came in second place.

Apple has always been on the list, beginning at #36 in 2000, but has slowly climbed the ranks.

But Interbrand warned Apple needed to keep a close eye on archrival Samsung (#9), especially on the crucial smartphone market.

“To maintain its number one position over the next year, Apple will have to slow rival Samsung’s momentum in the mobile market and never lose sight of what it does best: ‘Think different’,” the consultancy said.

According to Interbrand, the Apple brand is worth $98.31 billion, a 28 percent rise from the previous year with the Google brand weighing in at $93.29 billion.

Computing giants IBM and Microsoft fill out the top five.

Meanwhile, some recent rising stars have now lost their luster.

Blackberry, the embattled phone maker, has disappeared from the list completely and Nokia, once the mobile phone leader, tumbled from 13th place to a lowly 57.

Social network Facebook meanwhile jumped to the 52 spot from 69.

Agence France-Presse

Nokia to sell phone unit to Microsoft for 5.44 bn euros

Google – AFP, Raine Tiessalo (AFP), 3 Sep 2013

A sign points to the headquarters of Finnish mobile phone manufacturer

Nokia, in Espoo, on September 3, 2013 (Lehtikuva/AFP, Sari Gustafsson)

HELSINKI — Beleaguered Finnish company Nokia announced on Tuesday the sale of its mobile phone unit to Microsoft for 5.44 billion euros ($7.17 billion), bringing to an end its days as a phone maker.

Nokia will grant the US software giant a 10-year non-exclusive licence to its patents and will itself focus on network infrastructure and services, which it called "the best path forward for Nokia and its shareholders."

The company also announced the immediate departure of chief executive Stephen Elop, who was hired from Microsoft in 2010 to turn the company around.

He will be replaced in the interim by Risto Siilasmaa, Nokia's chairman of the board.

Nokia dominated the mobile phone market for 14 years, until it was overtaken by Samsung in 2012 as the top-selling brand, as it struggled to establish winning business models and mobile devices.

A Nokia Lumia 1020 smartphone is seen

 in New York, on July 11, 2013 (AFP/File, 

Timothy Clary)

Rumours of a Nokia sale have swirled in recent months.

Amid increasing competition from Apple and Samsung, Nokia dramatically changed its strategy in February 2011 when Elop warned the company was "standing on a burning platform" and needed to shift course immediately.

The shake-up involved phasing out Nokia's Symbian platform in favour of a partnership with Microsoft, introducing handsets powered by Windows Phone software.

Nokia bet its future on its new Lumia smartphones, aiming to rival Apple's iPhone and Samsung's Galaxy.

But Tuesday's announcement marks the end of Nokia's days as an independent phone manufacturer.

Some 32,000 Nokia employees are expected to transfer to Microsoft once the deal is concluded, including approximately 4,700 people in Finland, the company said.

The operations affected by the transfer generated approximately 14.9 billion euros in 2012, or almost 50 percent of Nokia's net sales, it added.

Of the total purchase price of 5.44 billion euros, 3.79 billion relates to the purchase of Nokia's devices and services business, and 1.65 billion relates to the mutual patent agreement and future options.

Nokia will book a gain on the sale of some 3.2 billion euros, which would "clearly strengthen our financial position and it will provide a solid basis for future investment in Nokia's continuing businesses," Siilasmaa said.

Last month, Nokia finalised the purchase of German engineering giant Siemens' 50-percent stake in Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) for 1.7 billion euros.

NSN, which is specialised in high-speed mobile broadband, was set up as a joint venture between the two companies in 2007, a partnership that expired in April. The unit has posted stronger earnings than Nokia's mobile phone business.

NSN posted a net profit of 8.0 million euros in the second quarter of this year, compared to Nokia's net loss of 227 million euros in the same period.

The sale to Microsoft is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2014, pending approval by Nokia shareholders and regulatory authorities, Nokia said.

Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer meanwhile told reporters in a conference call that Windows Phone was "the fastest growing smart platform today, growing by 78 percent last year."

"Today's agreement will accelerate our success in smartphones," he added.

Three new suicides at Foxconn China factory

Google – AFP, 18 May 2013

Foxconn recruitment point is pictured in Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong

province, on February 22, 2013 (AFP/File)

BEIJING — Three Foxconn workers have committed suicide at a factory in China in the past three weeks, state media and a labour rights group said Saturday.

All three jumped to their deaths at a plant in the central city of Zhengzhou run by the Taiwanese electronics giant.

A 30-year-old married man killed himself on Tuesday following the similar deaths of a 23-year-old woman on April 27 and a 24-year-old man three days earlier, the Xinhua news agency reported.

"The reasons for these building jumpings are unclear," the New York-based China Labor Watch rights group said in a statement.

Foxconn, which assembles products for Apple, Sony and Nokia, has come under the spotlight after suicides and labour unrest at its Chinese plants since 2010.

In 2010, at least 13 Foxconn employees in China died in apparent suicides, which activists blamed on tough working conditions, prompting calls for better treatment of staff.

Although Foxconn denied the accusations, it raised wages by nearly 70 percent at its China plants in 2010.

Foxconn is the world's largest maker of computer components and employs up to 1.1 million workers in China.

Related Article:

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WhatsApp: the new text messaging

As texting turns 20, could this popular app that allows phone users to chat for free take the place of SMS?

Guardian, Charles Arthur, Tuesday 4 December 2012

WhatsApp … RU still using SMS? LOL! Photograph: Getty Images/
OJO Images

You've heard of texting, right? Billions of people use text messages, which have just turned 20. And you've heard of BBM (BlackBerry Messenger), the free system for users of BlackBerry phones where, unlike texts, sending or receiving messages costs nothing because it's done as data that you have already paid for in your contact.

OK. But have you heard of WhatsApp? If you're under 25, the answer is almost certainly yes. It is a cross-platform mobile messaging app that allows you to exchange messages without having to pay for SMS, and has an estimated 250 million users worldwide. That's more than four times as many as BBM, and it has the mobile operators increasingly worried, because it works like BBM – over data – but on any phone that can run the app, including phones running Android, Windows Phone, Nokia's Symbian and S40, BlackBerry OS and Apple's iOS. To communicate with someone, you both have to have WhatsApp installed. (It will recognise your contacts who do have it from their phone number.) That's a potential market of many hundreds of millions of users, and although the company hasn't released any formal numbers, it's safe to say that it's already really big, and likely to become even more so.

WhatsApp was started in 2009 by two ex-Yahoo staff, Jan Koum and Brian Acton, and presently handles more than 10bn messages per day. And it's also one of the most popular paid-for apps on any platform. Why a paid app (you have to buy it on the iPhone; it's free for the first year on other platforms) rather than totally free? Koum and Acton recently posted on the company blog to explain: "These days companies know literally everything about you, your friends, your interests, and they use it all to sell ads," they wrote.

"We wanted to make something that wasn't just another ad clearing-house. We wanted to spend our time building a service people wanted to use because it worked and saved them money and made their lives better in a small way. We knew that we could charge people directly if we could do all those things. We knew we could do what most people aim to do every day: avoid ads."

Text messaging may still be pulling in the money from pay-as-you-go users, but these days they can get data bundles that let them send endless numbers of WhatsApp messages, and never touch the gold-plated text message (whose per-message cost, especially on PAYG, is miles out of kilter with what it costs to deliver or send).

Tero Kuittenen, of the Finnish consultancy Alekstra, says: "I believe we are facing a period of accelerating erosion of SMS volumes – this is not going to be a linear process." WhatsApp, he says, has grown tenfold in a year: "Even though WhatsApp is such a fresh phenomenon, it has already played a major role in pushing Spain's SMS volume into 25% annual decline."

So if you haven't heard of WhatsApp, you might soon do. And if you have, when's the last time you sent a text?

Facebook is updating its Messenger

 app for Android mobile phones allowing 

people send messages via their data

plan. Photograph: Manu Fernandez/AP

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Facebook turns Messenger into a text message killer - New

An operating system is nothing without apps

Deutsche Welle, 2 November 2012

With Windows 8 unveiled, Microsoft is in a desperate push to get developers to make apps to run on the new operating system. Microsoft knows it needs the apps to match or even better its rivals.

The message was clear: "Please go out and write lots of applications," pleaded Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer as he addressed 2,000 developers at a four day meeting near Seattle this week.

And just in case Ballmer's words weren't enough, Microsoft made sure it gave each paying attendee one of its Surface tablets and 100 gigabytes of free space on its SkyDrive cloud storage platform. Nokia provided free Lumia 920 smartphones running Windows Phone 8.

Microsoft knows it needs to convince developers that it is worth their while to create a thriving environment on the new Windows 8 operating system - an environment to compete with main rivals Apple and Google Android.

It's an area where Microsoft - the once dominant software maker - has been lagging behind.

All surface, no feeling

While Apple and Android based mobile devices have allowed users to swipe their way through the modern world, Windows users have - until now - been left clicking like the old days.

But that is to become a thing of the past. Windows 8 has a completely new look.

With the arrival of Microsoft Tiles, the company has changed its game. Desktops will no longer be filled with program icons - in fact, the company no longer even refers to programs - but apps - as everyone else does. And its customers are now "users." 

Oliver Guertler, director of Microsoft Germany, presents Windows 8 in Berlin

The tiles constantly update your status - users can see when new e-mails come in, check appointments, stock exchange figures or weather information. You can bid on eBay, watch YouTube videos and have Facebook and Twitter all in sight.

Touch technology has long been a feature on Apple devices. It released its first notebook with a multi-touch trackpad in 2008, making full navigation possible without a mouse.

Now, Microsoft has gone touchable - some have said Windows 8 will take some getting used to for old school desktop users.

But the company is making every effort to get in on the action, even on price.

Upgrades are available for an introductory price of 30 euros ($38). And even older computers running Windows 7 through to Vista and XP can upgrade to the new platform.

A fusion of laptop and tablet: Microsoft's Surface on display

Ripe competition

The arrival of Windows 8 coincides with that of Microsoft's high-end tablet, the Surface. A merger of tablet and laptop, the Surface has a widescreen and is docked on an ultra thin keyboard that doubles as a screen protector.

It's silenced some doubters and is starting to make the rest of the industry nervous.

Samsung, Acer and other big technological players, who use Windows, may face stiff competition from Microsoft's first real attempt at hardware. Apple has been quick to fight back by unveiling its next generation of MacBooks, iMacs and by launching the iPad Mini.

But Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer was keen to make a splash and staged a fancy Windows 8 release party in New York, where people could test drive the Surface tablet.

Microsoft's chief Steve Ballmer laid on a New York party to get people
 touching the Surface

"The Surface is really exciting," says Greg Lutz, whose company, ComponentOne, develops tools that software makers can build into their apps, such as calendars and charts. "It's been interesting to see people that would normally be critics of Microsoft surprised to see how good it is."

Microsoft hopes it can reestablish itself as a relevant platform for developers. It's also hoped that the release of Windows 8 will allow Microsoft to regain some of the street credibility it's said to have lost to competitors.

Once developers see the user base for Windows 8 grow, the momentum will start to have an effect, says Mike Cousins, a software developer in Calgary, Canada.

"All the new PCs people buy will be Windows 8 and people will start demanding Windows 8 apps from companies, and then they will start making them," says Cousins. "I think we'll see a wave of apps coming out pretty soon."

Lumia 920 smartphone running Windows Phone 8

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Windows 8 launch a 'defining moment' for Microsoft's Steve Ballmer

Samsung Indonesia Launches Smart TV

Jakarta Globe, Cinvy Anggriani & Michael Victor Sianipar, April 29, 2012

A shopper looks at Samsung Electronics' smart television at its showroom
 in Seoul, South Korea on Friday. Samsung Electronics, the world's largest
 consumer electronics firm by revenues, plans to bring their Smart TVs
to Indonesia. (AP Photo) 

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The Indonesian offshoot of South Korea’s Samsung Electronics says it is confident it can sell consumers on the benefits of its newly introduced Smart TV.

Smart TV, launched by Samsung Electronics Indonesia at Senayan City in Jakarta on Tuesday, enables users to interact with their television without direct contact.

Instead of using a remote control, users can use voice commands, motion control with hand gestures and facial recognition technology.

In addition, the Smart TV has an integrated Internet function, content designed for viewing children’s and sports programming and 10,000 applications.

“You have a smartphone, which is kind of like a small laptop in your hand. This function is something that a TV can do as well,” Samsung’s local managing director Yoo Young-kim told the Jakarta Globe.

“There’s no Smart TV market in Indonesia yet. It is a market we should create, and this is just the beginning ... the creation of a market for Smart TV is still in process,” he said, adding that Indonesians were this year expected to purchase about 4 million televisions.

Kim acknowledged that the Internet connectivity of the device could prove problematic because it depended on the sometimes-patchy connectivity of homes and businesses in the sprawling archipelago.

Related Article:

Smartphone boom lifts Samsung to global mobile phone leader

Smartphone boom lifts Samsung to global mobile phone leader

Deutsche Welle, 27 April 2012

Samsung has become the world's largest mobile phone maker, outselling Nokia by 10 million handsets in the first quarter. The South Korean firm now battles rival Apple in the lucrative smartphone segment.

Samsung Electronics raked in a record $5.2 billion (3.93 billion euros) in profits after selling 93.5 million mobile phones in the first three months of 2012, the South Korean firm announced Friday.

According to figures released by Strategy Analytics, more than one in every four mobile phone sold around the world was now made by Samsung, meaning the technology firm had replaced Finish handset maker Nokia as global mobile phone leader.

Strong demand for Samsung's high-end Galaxy smartphones caused its sales in this segment to surge to 44.5 million handsets in the first quarter, outnumbering even Apple's sales of 35.1 million iPhones, Strategy Analytics' data showed.

Samsung's mobile communications division contributed a $3.7 billion operating profit to the quarter result, masking lower profit from the firm's semiconductor business where sales more than halved to $669 million.

"We cautiously expect our earnings momentum to continue going forward as competitiveness in our major businesses is enhanced," Robert Yi, head of Samsung investor relations, said in a conference call Friday.

Smartphone duopoly

Samsung's mobile business president Shin Jong-kyun said the company was aiming to sell 380 million handsets this year, including 200 million smartphones - up from last year's sales of 330 million and 97 million respectively.

After outselling Nokia by 10 million handsets in the first quarter of 2012, Samsung is locked in fierce competition with US iPhone maker Apple in the lucrative smartphone market.

"Samsung and Apple are out-competing most major rivals and the smartphone market is at risk of become a two-horse race," Neil Mawston, an analyst with Strategy Analytics, told Reuters news agency.

Samsung hopes to increase its 30.6 percent share of the high-eng market over Apple's 24.1 percent with the launch of a new generation of its flagship Galaxy S smartphone this summer.

"The Galaxy S 3's specifications are expected to be sensational and it's already drawing strong interest from the market and consumers, Brian Park, an analyst at Tong Yang Securities told Reuters.

China - the world's biggest and fastest growing mobile phone market - has become the main battlefield of the two rivals with Samsung currently owning more than 30 percent of the Chinese market, but with Apple recently being able to boost its iPhone 4S sales five-fold there.

uhe/sgb (Reuters, AP, dpa)

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European technology company accused of enabling torture

Deutsche Welle, 24 Aug 2011  

NSN again faces charges its
technology is being misused

Bahraini security officials used systems from Nokia Siemens Networks to track dissidents, who were later tortured, a new report says. Human rights activists don't want repressive regimes to get surveillance technology.

Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) faces new allegations that technology it exported is being used by repressive governments to track human rights activists. Bloomberg reports that Bahraini officials used NSN monitoring systems to intercept text messages and gather information about mobile phone conversations.

Bahraini activist Abdul Ghani Al Khanjar told Bloomberg that security officials tortured him numerous times while he was in detention for some seven months. When questioning him, his captors were able to quote from his private conversations with alarming detail.

In a statement to Deutsche Welle, NSN said that it divested the monitoring center business in March 2009 and no longer provides the technology to any country.

The statement goes on to say that "such abuse, if it has occurred, is wrong and is contrary to [NSN's] Code of Conduct and accepted international norms. The company condemns such misuse. ... While Nokia Siemens Networks recognizes the risks of abuse and its responsibility to take steps to reduce the potential for abuse, it strongly believes that, on balance, individuals - including those who live under repressive regimes - are better off for having access to telecommunications."

Calls for government to step in

Companies often point out that they're not responsible for what people do with their products. But human rights activists don't accept this answer, and want regulators to step in to make sure corporations don't let technology get into the wrong hands.

Activists say Iranian officials used NSN
systems to monitor dissidents

"If the US or the EU are proudly focusing on internet freedom while security and other ICT products made in the West are used to repress the same citizens we are trying to protect, this is clearly neither credible nor effective," said Marietje Schaake, a European Member of Parliament from the Netherlands who closely follows human rights issues, via e-mail.

Schaake said that she wants to see more transparency from companies. She also sees a role for the European Union.

"The EU should take the lead in raising awareness of the double-edged sword technologies," Schaake said. "The EU could also implement an early warning mechanism in order to prevent the export of technologies to regimes that systematically abuse human rights."

A troubled history

The revelation about Bahrain is the latest in a series of human rights controversies to strike NSN. Last year, two Iranians, Isa Saharkhiz and Mehdi Saharkhiz, sued NSN in an American federal court. They alleged that the sale of surveillance technology enabled Iranian security forces to arrest and torture Isa Saharkhiz.

The case was subsequently dropped, but the Iranians' attorney Ali Herischi said at the time that he planned to revisit the suit later.

Nokia Siemens Networks is a joint venture founded in 2006 between the Finnish telecom giant Nokia and the German corporation Siemens.

Author: Mark Garrison

Editor: Stuart Tiffen

Nokia and Microsoft join forces against Google and Apple

Reuters, by Tarmo Virki, LONDON, Fri Feb 11, 2011

(Reuters) - Nokia and Microsoft have teamed up to take on Google and Apple in the fast-growing smartphone market as the Finnish cellphone maker attempts to regain its leading position in the sector.

A girl tests out the new Nokia N8 mobile phone at the Nokia
Flagship store in Helsinki September 10, 2010. (Credit: Reuters/
Markku Ulander/Lehtikuva)

Nokia said it would use Windows Phone as the software platform for its smartphones as part of new chief executive Stephen Elop's overhaul of the world's biggest cellphone maker.

"Nokia and Microsoft will combine our strengths to deliver an ecosystem with unrivalled global reach and scale. It's now a three-horse race," Elop said ahead of an investor day in London.

Investors were not convinced by Elop's eagerly anticipated strategy announcement and shares in Nokia tumbled more than 11 percent as the market reacted to Nokia' saying that 2011 and 2012 would be "transition years" as it built up the partnership.

Friday's deal marks a major breakthrough for Microsoft after years of struggling to establish itself in wireless. Its Windows Phone had a mere 2 percent market share in the last quarter.

Microsoft's Windows Phone platform is widely recognized by industry experts as a leading edge technology but has not yet gained success among consumers.

"This is a partnership born out of both parties' fear of marginalization at the hands of Apple and Google but there is no silver bullet," said analyst Geoff Blaber from CCS Insight.

Nokia has rapidly lost share in the higher-margin smartphone market to Apple's iPhone, and products based on Google's Android platform, which claimed the top spot from the company last quarter.

"This is a very frank admission that Nokia's platform strategy has failed and underlines the seriousness of Nokia's position. Such a move would have been unthinkable just 12 months ago," Blaber added.

In a bid to stem Nokia's losses, Chairman Jorma Ollila brought Elop in from Microsoft last September. The 47-year-old is the first non-Finn to head the company.

Nokia said in a statement it would stick with its current management team, with only one senior executive to leave. There had been speculation of a wider cull at the company.

Nokia also said it would use Microsoft's Bing search engine across its cellphones, potentially opening up a huge market for Microsoft as it seeks to build up its challenge to Google as the world's leading search engine.

Analysts said the Finnish company, which invested billions of dollars in building up mobile internet services under its previous CEO, had effectively admitted defeat in its services strategy by joining forces with Microsoft.

(Reporting by Tarmo Virki; Writing by Alexander Smith; editing by Jane Merriman)

Nokia's global mobile-phone market share drops

English.news.cn   2011-01-28

HELSINKI, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- Nokia Corp.'s global market share of mobile phones shrank by 4 percent in the 4th quarter of 2010, the world's largest mobile phone maker said Thursday.

Nokia said in its 2010 annual report that its global market share shrank from 35 percent a year ago to around 31 percent in the fourth quarter.

In the three-month period, the company sold 123.7 million mobile phones, up 12 percent from the previous quarter, but down 3 percent from a year earlier.

With competition in the mobile market growing tougher, Nokia, which performs well in the mid-end smart phone segment, is struggling in the high-end and low-priced phone segments, analysts say.

In the smart phone segment, its market share in Q4, 2010 was at 31 percent, decreasing significantly from 40 percent of the corresponding period in 2009.

Nokia CEO Stephen Elop said Thursday that faced with growing competition and a changed business environment, the company will have to adjust itself faster.

Nokia's share price at the Helsinki stock exchange fell 3.3 percent after the report's release.

Editor: yan

Nokia Pledges Easy Payment for Phone Apps in Indonesia

Jakarta Globe, Shirley Christie | November 23, 2010

Jakarta. Struggling mobile phone giant Nokia plans to allow cellphone operators to bypass credit cards and deduct the cost of downloaded applications directly from users in Indonesia next year.

A Nokia E75 mobile phone is being used in this file
photo. Nokia say that distribution of phone apps will be
conducted via 'operator billing' which allows even prepaid
users to buy. (AFP Photo/Lehtikuva/Antti Aimo-Koivisto)

Dubbed “operator billing,” it makes it easier for software vendors to sell applications directly to users through Nokia’s Ovi Store without the hassle of credit cards.

Nokia also promises a minimum 60 percent revenue share for developers, considerably more than many current arrangements.

During a press briefing in Jakarta last week, Kenny Mathers, head of developer relations for Forum Nokia Asia Pacific, said the company’s Ovi Store was the only mobile application store in the world to offer operator billing.

With low credit card penetration often cited as a barrier to customers buying mobile applications in Indonesia, Nokia said operator billing should eliminate that hurdle, even for prepaid users, since the cost of applications can be deducted directly from a user’s mobile phone credit.

“Our research shows that two out of three people choose to pay with operator billing instead of credit card billing,” Mathers said.

Nokia began the program with the launch of the Ovi Store in May 2009. It has deals with 99 cellphone providers in 29 countries to offer operator billing.

However, the company refused to say which cellphone operators it would be working with in the Indonesian market or give an exact date for the launch of the service here.

Local software start-up Swamedia, which currently offers its Shopping Planner and two other applications for free through the Ovi Store worldwide, hopes operator billing will allow it to generate online revenue.

Deded, Swamedia’s account manager, says the company is currently just seeking global recognition on the Ovi Store but will soon start charging customers for its applications.

For Nokia, giving developers a bigger share of the revenue pie is a way to try and reverse the ongoing slide of its Symbian operating system, which has seen an 8 percent market share decline in the last year, largely due to the rise of Google’s open source Android system.

In the third quarter of 2010, Symbian had a 36.6 percent market share worldwide, compared to 25.5 percent for Android.

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