Speaking at a gathering of the big names in Silicon Valley, Nokia’s CEO acknowledged the threat posed by new competitors to their phone industry dominance, but vowed to put up a good fight in the coming months.
Nokia’s head honcho Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo realised that the introduction of businesses once rooted in the computing world have changed the focus of the mobile phone market to high-powered smartphones and online connectivity.
“Suddenly you have the mightiest companies in the world there as your competitors. That is a little mind-boggling,” Kallasuvo said, speaking of Google and Apple entering what was previously Nokia territory…and making waves.
Also Nokia have been impressed by BlackBerry makers Research in Motion making their handsets more appealing to the casual market, but have aligned with Microsoft to get Symbian compatible syncing software, thus remaining competitive in the business sector.
Apple did get a special shout-out, as the post-iPhone market has changed the requirements and desires of phone consumers forever:
“We have a new, credible competitor in this business. You know I need to take my hat off. Of course we need to be able to respond to any competitor and we will.”
Kallasuvo’s opinion of the new phone by online behemoth Google was somewhat muted, but not without a hint of recognition that the G1, and more importantly new operating system Android, as a threat: “They are a newcomer here. I think the jury is still out: What is the new thing they bring here?” Talking of the inception of Symbian architecture alongside Motorola and Ericsson, he said: “I realized that we could have made the same announcement 10 years ago.”
With the oft-rumoured 5800 Tube to be announced in mere hours alongside the iTunes-battling “Comes With Music” service, it is clear to see that Nokia can have become a bit of an industry also-ran as far as innovation is concerned, but they are far from comfortable there.
Moving into 2009, the Finnish company certainly seems to have the drive and determination to reclaim lost ground from their competitors, but you cannot shake the feeling that they would swap the hundreds of millions of handset sales for just some of the ‘cool’ that Apple has brought to the table.
Well, maybe not all those sales…
Source: Reuters
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