A New Look for the Global Nokia Site ...

http://www.nokia.com/

... which delivers http://www.nokia.com/global/wayfinder

... and/or jump off from http://www.nokia.com/global/about-nokia

- Eric -

Earnings Tomorrow: Sales Regrouped ...

... to reflect current structure and ptovide increased transparancy on the contribution of mobile phones v. smart devices.

>> Regrouping of Nokia Quarterly and Full Year 2010 and First Quarter 2011 Results

Nokia Corporation
Espoo, Finland
Stock Exchange Release
July 19, 2011

http://n1.aa.sl.pt

Nokia today provided historical results for its Devices & Services business, regrouped for comparability purposes according to the new reporting format that reflects the operational structure that became effective on April 1, 2011.

The historical results set forth below for each quarter and the full year of 2010 as well as the first quarter of 2011 are reported results regrouped (on an unaudited basis) for comparability purposes according to Nokia's four reportable segments effective from April 1, 2011:

• Smart Devices (within Devices & Services)
• Mobile Phones (within Devices & Services)
• NAVTEQ
• Nokia Siemens Networks

The key financial performance measures provided for these segments include net sales, gross margin as well as an additional measure of profit. For Smart Devices and Mobile Phones, we present these segments' profit contribution, which consists of revenues less these segments' own costs as well as their directly assignable and allocated costs. For NAVTEQ and Nokia Siemens Networks, we present operating profit.

Devices & Services Other primarily includes Nokia's luxury phone business Vertu, spare parts, intellectual property royalty income, as well as common research and development expenses. Other income and expenses includes major restructuring programs related to the Devices & Services business as well as other unallocated items.

It should be noted that the information provided herein is historical and therefore does not indicate future performance. [The Following 6 Tables can ve virewed at the link above]

• First Quarter 2010,
• Second Quarter 2010
• Third Quarter 2010
• Fourth Quarter 2010
• Full Year 2010, Reporte
• First Quarter 2011

###

>> Nokia Provides Historical Results for Devices And Services Business

RTT News
7/19/2011

http://www.rttnews.com/Content/EarningsNews.aspx?Id=1668430&SM=1

Finnish handset maker Nokia Corp. (NOK: News ) on Tuesday provided historical financial results for its Devices & Services business, which are regrouped for comparability purposes according to the company's four reportable segments that became effective from April 1, 2011.

Nokia's four reportable segments effective from April 1, 2011 are smart devices as well as mobile phones, both within the Devices and Services business, in addition to the company's digital mapping unit NAVTEQ, and Nokia Siemens Networks.

Nokia's net sales of smart devices in the first quarter of 2011 were 3.53 billion euros, while mobile phone sales were 3.41 billion euros. Devices & Services' sales in the quarter were 7.09 billion euros. Nokia Group sales in the quarter were 10.40 billion euros and the company's operating profit was 439 million euros.

In the year-ago first quarter of 2010, Nokia's net sales of smart devices were 3.36 billion euros, while mobile phone sales were 3.19 billion euros. Devices & Services' sales for the quarter were 6.66 billion euros. Nokia Group sales in the quarter were 9.52 billion euros, while the company's operating profit was 488 million euros.

In the 2010 second quarter, the company's net sales for smart devices were 3.50 billion euros. Mobile phone sales were 3.19 billion euros. Devices & Services sales were 6.80 billion euros. Nokia Group sales in the quarter were 10 billion euros, while the company's operating profit was 295 million euros.

Nokia's sales of smart devices in the third quarter were 3.61 billion euros, while sales of mobile phones were 3.36 billion euros. Devices & Services sales in the quarter were 7.17 billion euros. Nokia Group sales for the third quarter were 10.27 billion euros, while operating profit was 403 million euros.

In the fourth quarter, Nokia's sales of smart devices were 4.40 billion euros, while mobile phone sales were 3.95 billion euros. Devices & Services sales in the quarter were 8.50 billion. Nokia Group sales in the quarter were 12.65 billion euros, while operating profit was 884 million euros.

For fiscal 2010, net sales of smart devices were 14.87 billion euros and sales of mobile phones were 13.70 billion euros. Devices & Services sales in the year were 29.13 billion. Nokia Group sales were 42.45 billion euros, while the company's operating profit was 2.07 billion euros.

In late May this year, Nokia reduced its second-quarter targets for net sales and non-IFRS operating margin at its Devices & Services segment as the company continued to face pricing pressures. Nokia said it expects net sales in the segment to be substantially below its previous guidance of 6.1 billion euros to 6.6 billion euros, primarily due to lower than expected average selling prices and mobile device volumes.

Nokia is slated to report its financial results for the second quarter on Thursday, July 21. Analysts expect the company to earn $0.03 per share for the quarter on revenues of $13.04 billion. ###

- Eric -

Nokia N9-00: MeeGO 1.2 Harmattan Inside ...



Announced yesterday in Singapore ...

• The Nokia N9 Web Site: http://swipe.nokia.com/

• Forum Nokia N9 Specifications: http://www.developer.nokia.com/Devices/Device_specifications/N9-00/

• N9 Data Sheet: http://press.nokia.com/wp-content/uploads/mediaplugin/doc/1-nokia-n9-data-sheet.pdf

The Nokia N9-00 is a MeeGo 1.2 Harmattan based smartphone supporting quad-band GSM, penta-band WCDMA, HSDPA/HSUPA (HSPA) and WLAN. The device features unibody design with 2.5D glass, a 3.9" FWVGA 854x480 AMOLED display with capacitive touch screen and pinch zoom, 8 megapixel Auto Focus camera with Carl Zeiss optics and dual-LED flash. Additional features include A-GPS with included Ovi Maps, HTML5 capable Webkit 2 based web browser, real-time multitasking, social networking integration, NFC, Bluetooth 2.1 +EDR and USB 2.0.

Key N9-00 Hardware Features

• ARM Cortex A8 OMAP 3630 1GHz PowerVR SGX530 CPU

• Size: 116.45 x 61.2 x 7.6-12.1 mm; Weight: 135g; Volume 76 cc

• 3.9 inch AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, with a resolution of 854 x 480 pixels (16:9 FWVGA). 2.5D curved glass (scratch resistant Corning Gorilla glass), with anti-glare polariser.

• Orientation (accelerometer), compass (magnetometer), proximity, ambient light and location (A-GPS) sensors

• Penta-band WCDMA (3G) and quad-band GSM cellular connectivity

• WiFi a/b/g connectivity

• NFC (Near Field Communication) for easy sharing and pairing

• Bluetooth 2.1 (EDR), profiles include FTP, OPP, HSP, HFP, A2DP, AVRCP)

• microUSB connector for charging and PC connectivity

• 3.5 mm AV connector

• Use Micro SIM card

• 1 GB RAM

• Internal memory: 16 GB or 64 GB

• 8 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss Tessar optics with dual LED flash; camera has a wide angle lens with a F2.2 aperture (focal length 2.77mm / 28 mm). Video capture at 720p resolution and 30 frames per second with continuous auto focus and stereo sound recording.

• Materials: made from a single piece of polycarbonate with inherent colour (so if it scratches colour is no effected), curved glass that fits in seamlessly with polycarbonate shell.

• Available in cyan, magenta and black colour variants

Key N9-00 Software Features

• MeeGo for Nokia N9 (MeeGo 1.2 Harmattan)

• User interface simplified to three home views: events (notifications from system and social networks), applications (lauch and organise apps) and open apps (running applications).

• Apps compliant with Qt 4.7

• HTML 5 support, with browser based on Webkit 2 technology

• POP3, IMAP and Exchange mail services supported; including push email, homescreen notifications, multiple account support and attachment viewing for Microsoft Office, PDF and Open Office formats.

• Facebook, Skype, Gtalk and SIP services support

• Software updates over the air

• Audio formats: AAC, eAAC, eAAC+, MP2, MP3, WMA, FLAC

• Video formats: H.263 (M-PEG-4 and ASP), H.264 (BP/MP), WMV9 and Mkv (Matroska)

• Key applications include: Facebook, Twitter, Skype, Joikuspot Wi-Fi tethering, Accuweather, AP Weather, Swype, Track and Protect, Galaxy on Fire 2, Real Golf, Angry Birds Magic, Mail, Video player, Drive, Feeds, Search, Calculator, Calendar, Contacts, Music player, Web browser, Messaging, Photos. Photo editor, Ovi Store and Maps.

• Nokia Link for PC and Mac, which allows synchronisation of photos, music and video.

>> The Nokia N9: A Unique All-Screen Smartphone

Nokia Press Release
Singapore
Published June 21, 2011

http://press.nokia.com/2011/06/21/the-nokia-n9-a-unique-all-screen-smartphone/

Nokia today announced the Nokia N9, built for people who appreciate a stunning blend of design and the latest smartphone technology. To learn more about the design of the Nokia N9 visit: http://swipe.nokia.com

One swipe and you're home: The Nokia N9 introduces an innovative new design where the home key is replaced by a simple gesture: a swipe. Whenever you're in an application, swiping from the edge of the display takes you home.

The three home views of the user interface are designed to give fast access to the most important things people do with a phone: using apps, staying up to date with notifications and social networks, and switching between activities.

The industrial design of the Nokia N9 is an example of extreme product making and craft. The body is precision-machined from a single piece of polycarbonate and flows seamlessly into beautiful curved glass. The laminated deep black display means that the user interface just floats on the surface of the product.

The Nokia N9 also packs the latest in camera, navigation and audio technology for a great all-round experience.

"With the Nokia N9, we wanted to design a better way to use a phone. To do this we innovated in the design of the hardware and software together. We reinvented the home key with a simple gesture: a swipe from the edge of the screen. The experience sets a new bar for how natural technology can feel," said Marko Ahtisaari, Nokia's head of Design. "And this is just the beginning. The details that make the Nokia N9 unique - the industrial design, the all-screen user experience, and the expressive Qt framework for developers - will evolve in future Nokia products."

Innovative all-screen design: With no need for a home key, the all-screen Nokia N9 makes more room for apps to shine. The 3.9-inch AMOLED screen is made from scratch-resistant curved glass. The polycarbonate body enables superior antenna performance. This means better reception, better voice quality and fewer dropped calls.

Camera, maps and multimedia: The 8-megapixel Carl Zeiss autofocus sensor, wide-angle lens, HD-quality video capture and large lens aperture enable great camera performance even in lowlighting conditions. This makes the Nokia N9 one of the best camera-phones ever produced.

The Nokia N9 features free turn-by-turn drive and walk navigation with voice guidance in Maps. With the new dedicated Drive app, you can get in your car and start navigating to your destination right away.

You can watch videos in true 16:9 widescreen format. And because the Nokia N9 is also the world's first smartphone with Dolby® Digital Plus decoding and Dolby Headphone post-processing technology, you get a surround sound experience with any set of headphones.

Touch just got better: Fitted with the latest in wireless technology, Near Field Communication (NFC), the Nokia N9 allows you to easily share images and videos between devices by touching them together. Pair it with Bluetooth accessories like the new NFC-enabled Nokia Play 360° wireless music speaker only once, and you get a great surround sound music experience with just a tap.

Colors and Memory: The Nokia N9 will be available in three colors - black, cyan, and magenta with storage options to accommodate plenty of content: 16GB and 64GB. The Nokia N9 is scheduled to be in stores later this year, with availability and local pricing to be announced closer to the sales start. ###

The N950 MeeGO Target Device for Developers


>> Nokia N950 - Slide-out QWERTY MeeGo Harmattan Developer Device

David Gilson
All About MeeGO
June 21st 2011

Alongside the high profile release of the Nokia N9, limited details have emerged about another MeeGo Harmattan device. The N950, which was not talked about at the Nokia Connection event, and has been created for developers who will target the N9 and general MeeGo handset UI applications. The Nokia Developer website published a list detailing the hardware differences between both devices. Read on to find out about the N950's software stack and how to obtain one.

Below is a summary of how the N950 differs from the N9. You can download the orignal document (as a text file) here ...

http://sw.nokia.com/id/3744886f-69c1-4544-8ad3-72b352b4a832/Nokia_N950_OneClickFlashers_Release_Notes

Hardware differences

• N950 is physically larger and is made out of Aluminium, whereas N9 has a polycarbonate unibody.

• N950 has a physical slide-out QWERTY keyboard. The N9 is a touchscreen-only device.

• N950 has a 4" TFT LCD display whereas N9 has 3.9" AMOLED display. Display resolution is same on both devices (854x480).

• N950 has a different physical camera module than N9. Both camera modules have very similar image quality (Carl Zeiss branding in N9) and both modules support 8Mpix image mode.

• In the N950 the front facing camera is in top right corner and on N9 it is in the bottom right corner. The actual camera module is same.

• N950 supports Bluetooth version 2.1+EDR, whereas N9 supports version 4.0

• N950 does not have support for NFC

• N9 has slightly more sensitive magnetometer and ALS

• N950 has 1320mAh battery, the N9 has 1450mAh battery

Software notes

The N950's software is described as being in a “beta stage”. The summarised notes below, make it clear that the N950 is in an unfinished state. The notes also warn that an over-the-air firmware update may not be available for the N950. As of yet there's no suggested schedule for any kind of firmware update.

• If the device becomes unresponsive you can to perform a hardware reset. Press the power key on top of the device and keep it pressed down for 8 or more seconds

• Across the UI there are still logical IDs shown in some languages, icons may not be finalized and animations with opening windows are missing.

• Gallery application may sometimes display "no items"

• Help (Info buttons) is disabled from this release

• There are many applications and services which are not available inthis beta release.

• Performance of all use cases has not been optimized yet

• Echo may be heard during some voice calls. This can be eliminated by turning speaker phone on and off during the call.

• Chinese input method is not supported in this Beta release

Availability

The N950 is not intended for sale. Nokia are offering this as an ambassador device to developers to aid in development of applications for the platform. The MeeGo Community Device Program, currently has 250 N950s available for loan to MeeGo community members.


- Eric -

Nokia Connection 2011 (Singapore)

... Unveiling the Next Chapter:

http://www.nokiaconnection.net/

[There is a 1 hour Event Webcast with Srephen Elop, Mary McDowell and several others at the above link]

Slides from the Webcast: http://cdn-ep.world-television.com/sd/Nokia/GB4007/nokia_2011.pdf

Nokia made a number of important announcements yesterday at its Nokia Connection event in Singapore:

• The Nokia N9, a MeeGo Harmattan smartphone, was announced.

• Equally important was the announcement that Qt would be at the core of bringing applications to the next billion users, indicating that Nokia intends to bring Qt to its Series 40 platform ...

The most important and far reaching announcement at Nokia Connection was that Qt will be core "to bringing applications to the next billions users". This statement of intent by Nokia indicates that it intends to bring Qt to the Series 40 platform. The addition of Qt to the Series 40 software stack will blur the line between smartphones and mobile phones (feature phones). Given that the ability to run third party applications (excluding Java ME) is sometimes used to define what is and is not a smartphone, Series 40, with the addition of Qt, will effectively becomes a smartphone platform. In practise such definitions are unhelpful because they ignore the nuances of the technology context. Nonetheless, Series 40, as an open mobile phone platform, has very significant implications for the future of the mobile industry. Marco Argenti, Senior Vice President for Developer and Marketplace, said that Nokia will disclose additional information in due course, but made the announcement today so that developers can see the Qt opportunity in Nokia's mobile phone strategy. - All About Symbiam -

• Nokia also announced three new Touch and Type Series 40 devices scheduled to ship in Q3 including another dual-SIM device .-- the C2-03, with a a vertical slider form factor, 12 key keypad and touchscreen. Dual SIM features include the ability to change SIM cards without having to switch of the phone or remove the battery (Easy Swap) and the ability to save up to 5 SIM cards with unique information (personalisation):

http://press.nokia.com/wp-content/uploads/mediaplugin/doc/nokia-c2-03-data-sheet.pdf

Elop stated that over the next 12 months Nokia will bring up to 10 new Symbian devices to market but none were announced today.

The NY Times Take on the event is here ...

>> Nokia Unveils a New Smartphone, but Not a Product of Its Microsoft Deal

The NY Times
Kevin J. O’Brien (Espoo, Finland)
6/21/2011

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/21/technology/personaltech/21nokia.html?ref=world

Late last year, the Apple iPhone became the best-selling device at Finland’s leading mobile operator, a highly embarrassing situation for Nokia, the struggling mobile phone maker that has long been Finland’s corporate standard-bearer.

So Stephen Elop, who left a top post at Microsoft last September to lead the turnaround effort at Nokia, knows that his first priority is to steal a beat on the competition and quickly get Nokia back in the game.

Nine months into the job, after a reorganization that will eliminate 7,000 jobs and the introduction of a new operating system from Microsoft, Mr. Elop has taken the first visible step in that direction. In Singapore on Tuesday, Nokia introduced a sleek touch-screen smartphone, the N9, with a useful innovation not found on any competing device, including the iPhone and Google’s Android phones.

“It’s optimized for one-hand use,” said Marko Ahtisaari, Nokia’s head of design, whose team devised the N9, which allows users to switch between applications with a thumb, avoiding the need to return to a main menu screen or press a button, something required on both the iPhone and Android phones.

The N9, which will sell unsubsidized for the equivalent of about $670 to $760 for 16 and 64 gigabyte models, is no panacea for Nokia, which is well behind in the fast-growing market for smartphones and was leapfrogged in revenue by Apple in the first quarter. Late last month, Nokia issued a second-quarter profit warning and abandoned its 2011 outlook, a move that sent its stock tumbling more than 17 percent.

“The market is changing,” said Pal Zarandy, a partner at Rewheel, a Helsinki firm that advises operators on their mobile data strategies. “The whole smartphone data transformation is a window that will last one or two more years. Then that market will be saturated. The question is: Can Nokia and Microsoft come up with relevant phones fast enough?”

Mr. Elop, a 47-year-old Canadian who ran Microsoft’s Office products division before joining Nokia, said the alliance between the companies would deliver. The release of the N9 — which Mr. Elop said he pushed for relentlessly after he arrived — was a harbinger, he said, of a more competitive Nokia.

“It is an opportunity for us to test and to learn with the N9, but also to put a very clear statement in the market: Nokia continues to innovate, does beautiful work,” Mr. Elop said in an interview last week at Nokia’s glass-and-steel headquarters in Espoo, a suburb west of Helsinki. “Innovation is alive and well at Nokia.”

During a 40-minute interview, Mr. Elop said Nokia was on the cusp of a productive new phase that would re-establish the company’s credibility and increase its global smartphone share, which the market research firm Gartner put at 27.4 percent in March, behind Android, with 36 percent, and ahead of Apple’s 16.8 percent. During the interview, he used the words “innovate” or “innovation” 24 times.

Aesthetically, the N9 is a quantum leap for Nokia in smartphone design, incorporating a sculptured four-inch glass screen and a polycarbonate plastic body made of solid color — cyan blue, magenta and black — so that scratches are barely visible. But beyond the features, it is the timing and strategy of its introduction that signal a deeper change at Nokia.

The N9 runs a variant of Nokia’s MeeGo operating system, a product of Nokia’s short-lived venture with Intel, the chip maker. The device was already in the pipeline when he arrived last fall, but Mr. Elop said he saw its potential and accelerated its release, working closely with his design chief, Mr. Ahtisaari, who now reports directly to him. Mr. Ahtisaari said design had a new priority at Nokia, a company traditionally run by radio engineers.

“Stephen gets design,” Mr. Ahtisaari said.

In a wood-paneled conference room flanking a row of idle Finnish saunas, Mr. Elop spoke pointedly about his efforts to retool the world’s largest maker of mobile phones to meet the challenges poised by Apple, Google and a host of Asian rivals led by Samsung, LG, ZTE and Huawei.

The saunas, one assistant said, were now used only twice a year. The company’s glass lobby, which a decade ago buzzed with visiting clients, suppliers and media people when Nokia was riding high, had only a handful of visitors on a weekday afternoon.

Nokia has gone through a bracing transition since Mr. Elop arrived last fall. The company is cutting 4,000 jobs, including 1,500 in Finland, and transferring 3,000 others to a consultant, Accenture. The moves were a consequence of Mr. Elop’s decision to phase out Nokia’s internal operating system, Symbian, in favor of Microsoft’s Windows software for phones.

Investors reacted skeptically to news of the Microsoft alliance, sending Nokia’s shares down 20 percent a day after the announcement. Then came the profit warning on May 31. Since Mr. Elop’s arrival, Nokia’s share price has fallen 40 percent. Shares closed at $5.83 in New York on Monday; they traded as high as $11.75 in February.

Mr. Elop acknowledged that the job cuts and transition to Microsoft, considered necessary to restore competitiveness, have been challenging. But he rejected criticism from some analysts who had questioned whether he could have better finessed the timing of the move to Microsoft’s software to limit any damage to Symbian.

“We are shifting a whole company,” Mr. Elop said. “There are tens of thousands of people here. What they do every day is being changed right now. And that’s not something you can do under the cloak of darkness or privacy.”

He said the phase-out of Symbian would be gradual. In fact, Nokia plans to introduce 10 new Symbian handsets over the next year, he said. Mobile operators, which are the main buyers of most handsets, continue to buy Symbian devices because they do not want to become dependent on its rivals, he said, without mentioning Apple or Google by name.

“There’s tremendous support from the operators for what we need to do,” Mr. Elop said. “They are not dropping Symbian en masse. That is absolutely not the case. It is the case that by going through a transition, it is hard. Our competitors want to attack us. That’s business. That’s O.K.”

In the midst of the battle, Mr. Elop spoke rapidly but appeared upbeat, even buoyant. He said the reason for his optimism was that the collaboration with Microsoft on smartphones was going better than he had expected. Just before the interview, Mr. Elop said, he spent two hours reviewing plans for the introduction of Nokia’s first Microsoft phones.

“This is still some number of weeks and months before that happens,” he said, adding that Nokia might unveil one or more of the first Microsoft handsets in time for the holiday season.

The first Microsoft handsets are being conceived at Nokia’s research facility in San Diego. Mr. Elop recently returned from a visit there with several working prototypes. The models have excited people within Nokia and Microsoft, he said. The two companies have combined some staff from Redmond, Wash., where Microsoft is based, and Espoo, to expedite their collaboration.

By using Microsoft’s operating system, Nokia has trimmed its time-to-market for new handsets by two-thirds, Mr. Elop said.

In view of the pending Microsoft introduction, Mr. Elop described the N9 as “one step in the journey to demonstrate that we are executing.”

Carolina Milanesi, an analyst for Gartner in London, said the N9 was a “night and day” improvement over its predecessor, the N900. “They have created something that consumers will want,” Ms. Milanesi said.

Mr. Elop suggested that many N9 innovations might be incorporated into the new Microsoft line.

Nokia’s work force is committed, he said, to taking on the competition. He invoked the Finnish word “sisu,” which he said translates into a combination of perseverance, energy and drive. ###

- Eric -

Nokia's Patent Win over Apple

A nice legal battle to get out of the way for both parties, but especially Nokia.


>> Nokia Enters into Patent License Agreement with Apple

Apple Payments to Nokia Settle All Litigation and Have Positive Financial Impact

Nokia Corporation
Espoo, Finland
Stock Exchange Release
June 14, 2011

http://press.nokia.com/2011/06/14/nokia-enters-into-patent-license-agreement-with-apple/

Nokia announced that it has signed a patent license agreement with Apple. The agreement will result in settlement of all patent litigation between the companies, including the withdrawal by Nokia and Apple of their respective complaints to the US International Trade Commission.

The financial structure of the agreement consists of a one-time payment payable by Apple and on-going royalties to be paid by Apple to Nokia for the term of the agreement. The specific terms of the contract are confidential.

"We are very pleased to have Apple join the growing number of Nokia licensees," said Stephen Elop, president and chief executive officer of Nokia. "This settlement demonstrates Nokia's industry leading patent portfolio and enables us to focus on further licensing opportunities in the mobile communications market."

During the last two decades, Nokia has invested approximately EUR 43 billion in research and development and built one of the wireless industry's strongest and broadest IPR portfolios, with over 10,000 patent families. Nokia is a world leader in the development of handheld device and mobile communications technologies, which is also demonstrated by Nokia's strong patent position.

This agreement is expected to have a positive financial impact on Nokia's recently revised outlook for the second quarter 2011 of around break-even non-IFRS operating margin for Devices & Services. ###

>> Nokia Patent Settlement a 'Sweet Defeat' for Apple

Having overpowered the iPhone's design patents, Nokia likely now to go after Android

Philip Elmer-DeWitt
Fortune
June 14, 2011

http://jp.2y.sl.pt

The settlement of its epic 20-month patent dispute with Apple (AAPL) that Nokia (NOK) announced early Tuesday could spell trouble for the makers of Android phones. There's no question Apple lost the legal battle that pitted its significant intellectual property holdings against Nokia's even deeper patent portfolio. The terms of the settlement were not disclosed, but they require Apple to make a one-time payment and ongoing royalties large enough to materially improve Nokia's earnings for the quarter. ... <snip> ... According to FOSS Patents' Florian Mueller, who had predicted this outcome, it frees up resources for both companies.

"Apple is embroiled in litigation with the three leading Android device makers (Motorola, HTC and Samsung). Nokia doesn't have any litigation worries at the moment, but part of its new strategy is to ratchet up the monetization of its patent portfolio. The fact that Nokia has demonstrated its ability to defeat Apple -- after the most bitterly contested patent dispute that this industry has seen to date -- is a clear proof of concept. Other companies whom Nokia will ask to pay royalties will have to think very hard whether to pay or pick a fight."

Mueller says Nokia's next target is likely to be the cellphone manufacturers that have hitched their smartphone strategies on Google's (GOOG) software. "Given that Android is in many ways a rip-off of Apple's operating software," he writes, "Android-based devices are highly likely to infringe on largely the same Nokia patents that Apple now felt forced to pay for."

The dispute that started in Oct. 2009 when Nokia claimed that the iPhone was infringing on 10 patents Nokia holds on the integration of GSM, UMTS and wireless LAN, grew through suit and countersuit to the point where it covered a total of 75 patents in seven different legal venues, from Delaware to Dusseldorf. ... <snip> ...

"I don't hold shares in any tech company," Mueller writes in his post-decision analysis, "but if I were an Apple shareholder, I would probably view this outcome favorably. Nokia emerges victorious, but this is a sweet defeat for Apple because its competitors -- especially those building Android-based devices -- will also have to pay Nokia, and most if not all of them will likely have to pay more on a per-unit basis because they don't bring as much intellectual property to the table as Apple definitely did. So from a competitive point of view, I don't think Apple loses much. On the bottom line its profitability may even benefit from this because Apple's margins face no greater threat than Android-style commoditization of smartphone technologies." ###

- Eric -

The Dividend ...

<< I believe so ... Between 5 and 6 is a possibility, but shouldn't go much lower as long as div in tact. >>

The 2010 dividend has been paid so in that sense it's intact until January.

Speculation aside, however, there is absolutely no way of knowing if a dividend will be paid for 2011, and if it will be paid, what that dividend will be. The annual dividend is generally proposed at January end and voted for approval at the AGM in late April/early May for payment late May. I personally assume that the 2011 dividend (in Euros) will be lower than the 2010 payout.

Cheers,

- Eric -

Tomi T Ahonen on Nokia's Profit Warning ...

... has been referenced here before.

Tomi's Latest Trilogy Trashing Stephen Elop ...

... is darned near as long as Glyn Iliffe's "The Adventures of Odysseus" or so it seems. Ike and Tina Turner never ever did nothing nice and easy [or short] and neither does Tomi. This trilogy is several 10s of thousands of words ... and it ends rough, not nice and easy, like Ike and Tina's rendition of "Proud Mary" ends rough.

>> Part 1: Do I Really Have To? Ok, ok, ok. I will do update to Nokia disaster year, after Profit Warning

Tomi T Ahonen
Communities Dominate Brands
June 02, 2011

http://iy.jo.sl.pt

I really didn't want to write this blog nor its two follow-ups, but after I saw the Stephen Elop interview on CNBC just a few hours ago, I knew I really had to come and do these blogs. This is part 1 of a 3 part series of blogs about Nokia and its Annus Horribilis, year 2011. ... <snip rest. See his post at the abbreviated permalink above.> ###

>> Part 2: Timing? Why did Stephen Elop announce Microsoft in February when first phones take a year more?

Tomi T Ahonen
Communities Dominate Brands
June 02, 2011

http://iy.jn.sl.pt

So, the CEO announces the end of the operating system and the shift to the new rival operating system. But when he does so, it is nearly a year to when the first phones on the new system will be available. Wot? Wouldn't that be the act of a madman, a lunatic? You might think so, I could not possibly comment (quoting fictional UK Prime Minister Francis Urquehart of the BBC TV series House of Cards). I have been pondering that timing. Not the decision. I have said many times I think on the surface of it, the decision by Nokia to abandon Symbian and its MeeGo migration strategy only weeks from when the first MeeGo phone was to launch and after Symbian's first ever honest iPhone clone N8 was tearing up the sales charts - that was clearly a boneheaded move - on the surface of the parts we could see. But nobody is that stupid. There must be much more to the decision, things we cannot see (yet) and time will tell if the Microsoft gamble turns out to be a big winner (increasingly unlikely but is still possible, or shall we say, plausible haha) This blog is not about whether Elop's decision to switch suddenly to Microsoft is the right decision. This blog is about the bizarre timing of the announcement. And all of the analysis in this blog is pure conjecture, is my reasoning, with me pretending to be Sherlock Holmes and trying to piece together a picture knowing I do not have all pieces to the puzzle. But the timing is so very odd. ... <snip rest. See his post at the abbreviated permalink above.> ###

>> Part 3: Deluded? Seriously? Can I really honestly claim that Nokia's CEO Stephen Elop is deluded? Unfortunately.. yes

Tomi T Ahonen
Communities Dominate Brands
June 03, 2011

http://iy.jk.sl.pt

Guys, this is a bit different. First, lets be clear. Delusional. I am serious. Delusion as defined at Wikipedia is “a belief that is mistaken or not substantiated, that is held with vehemence.” Wikipedia further explains: “(delusion) is pathological and is held despite evidence to the contrary.” Wikipedia even explains that delusion is different from perception, so a delusional person has to take an active effort to suspend reality and believe in something contrary to the facts (where perception allows for example memory errors and to be unwittingly mistaken, etc). And for my regular readers and random visitors. This is a monster-long blog. Its 13,000 words in length, so it is longer than a typical chapter in a book. It will take you nearly an hour to read through, and it is stuffed with facts and data, so it will take effort to read and process. But the point is very important, if I am suggesting the CEO of Nokia is honestly, seriously speaking ‘delusional’ as per the above definition. Go get yourself a cup of coffee before you read this. ... ... <snip rest. See his post at the abbreviated permalink above.> ###

Hong Kong resident Tomi T Ahonen is a native Finn educated here in the States at NYC's St. John's (MBA with honors in International Finance), and he's a former Nokian who left them 10 years ago to form his own consultancy.

I'm a Tomi T fan and have been ever since I first heard him speak at Oxford almost 10 years ago. Unlike Tomi, however, I do NOT think Stephen Elop is delusional and I do think I understand why he decided he had to announce what he (with Nokia Board approval) announced, when he announced it, in the fashion he did, and even though I understand why Tomi (and many others) are distraught over it. Only time will tell if Stephen Elop is vindicated for doing so.

- Eric -

Nokia's Stephen Elop on Camera: June 1 Interviews ...

On Wednesday June 1, the day after Stephen Elop (and Timo Ihamuotila) publicly issued Nokia's Q2 warning from Helsinki negatively adjusting their Q2 forecast which was in itself a warning, Stephen Elop participated in 2 videocasted interviews in the US. The 1st was conducted by Bill Griffith and Jon Fortt of CNBC and it was followed by analysts Quint Tatro and Tero Kuittinen playing Bull and Bear for CNBC -- although it was hard to distinguish bull from bear. The 2nd Elop Interview was conducted by Walt Mossberg on stage at the The Wall Street Journal's AllThingsDigital D9 conference in Rancho Palos Verdes California.

The videos of both interviews held 5 hours apart and the analysts commentary on CNBC can be linked below and I've provided a transcript of the CNBC Elop "Closing Bell" interview and Engadget's LiveBlog notes of the D9 interview at the close of this post.

• CNBC'S "CLOSING BELL" -- Nokia's Shaky Connection (videocast)

Wednesday 01 Jun 11 | 03:21 PM ET: Discussing how the giant mobile phone supplier can regain its market share, with Stephen Elop, Nokia CEO, and CNBC's Jon Fortt in Rancho Palos Verdes (and CNBC's Bill Griffith).

http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000025225

• CNBC's "Stock Brawl" -- Nokia: Bull vs. Bear

Wednesday, 1 June 2011 3:30 PM ET: Discussing whether Nokia is a buying opportunity for investors or whether it's time to get out, with Quint Tatro of Tatro Capital, and Tero Kuittinen of MKM Partners

http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000025226

• D9 Video: Nokia CEO Stephen Elop

June 1, 2011: Nokia CEO Stephen Elop flew several thousand miles to get to D9, but jet lag is probably the least of the ailments plaguing him. He sat down with Walt Mossberg to talk about Nokia's ailing stock price, trying to catch up in the smartphone race, and the company's relationship with Microsoft.

http://iy.8l.sl.pt

• The Transcript of the CNBC Interview with Stepen Elop:

>> CNBC EXCLUSIVE: Nokia CEO & President Stephen Elop on CNBC'S "Closing Bell"

CNBC Press Release
Jennifer Dauble
2 June 2011

http://www.cnbc.com/id/43109642

Following is the unofficial transcript of a CNBC exclusive interview [yesterday] with Nokia CEO & President Stephen Elop on CNBC's "Closing Bell." [On Wednesday June 1, 2011] All references must be sourced to CNBC.

Griffith: Mr. Elop thanks for joining us today let's clear this up right now: <U>Are you talking to Microsoft about selling the company or not right now.</U>

Elop:: No. Those rumors are baseless there are no conversations.

Griffith: You are not talking about selling the phone business, you are not having any conversations beyond the fact that you have this deal with Microsoft to develop these Windows-based phones that will be out sometime later this year that's it?

Elop:: That is correct. There are no conversations of that nature going on. We're focused on the strategic announcement that we made in February and executing on the strategy and nothing beyond that.

Griffith: Very good. Jon.

Fortt:: Alright thanks Steve for being with us once again. Now Bernstein earlier today downgraded Nokia expecting losses in Q3 possibly Q1 of next year and I think what's on the mind of lots of investors how bad could this get how long could this turnaround take is this one year, two?

Elop:: So certainly yesterday's announcements were disappointing. I think they were indicative of the trends that have been facing Nokia and the trends that justified our need to make a strategic shift. But we're focused on now is going through this transition period as quickly and effectively as we can and making sure that we deliver great results in the future. We are not at this point providing any additional guidance beyond what we provided yesterday but we're very confident in our abilities to deliver great mobile products and to drive the results from there

Fortt:: But I am just wondering if you could put something more on that. I know you are a student of tech history. Adobe had some hiccups in the late nineties. They managed to get through those in about a year or two. Apple took five years for a turnaround is this more of an Adobe scale issue or an Apple scale issue.

Elop:: In this particular environment you have to move quickly. The nature of the mobile industry, it's changing rapidly. We're changing rapidly. We expect to be able to improve things rapidly as well.

Fortt:: what does changing rapidly mean in this case? Does this mean getting those Windows phone 7s out faster than expected? What?

Elop:: The range of change at nokia is multifaceted. It begins with a new range of great mobile products, some of which will use the Windows phone operating system which we announced in February and also a whole range of phones at lower price points to serve emerging markets. In addition to that we are introducing other change to make sure we're moving more aggressively in the future. Moving faster, better listening to consumers, executing better. While people have been focused on the product change, of course, there are many other changes under way at nokia to ensure success in the future.

Griffith: Here's the question I have, Mr. Elop. As you transition from the Symbien platform, the operating system you've had for so many years there, to the windows operating system, you are already scaling back research and development. Trying to cut costs as you make this transition. But you're making the transition to an operating system that's been, used for handsets for ten years and has failed to gain traction at this point. Against the likes of an Apple or Android. I guess my first question to you is, (you know) what if it doesn't gain traction? These new Windows Phones that you're going to bring to market later this year? You're already abandoning Symbien for down the road? What's plan B if this doesn't work?

Elop:: Plan B is to make sure that Plan A is very successful. The critical ingredient for success are there, consumers are saying the windows brand operating system is very good. Better in terms of their satisfaction than the competing platforms but Microsoft hasn't had a partner doing its best work for Windows Phone. That's the commitment Nokia made through this process. By bringing together our hardware, software and services assets with the strengths that Microsoft brings we have a formula we believe will drive great success. It's further supported by the fact that dynamics in the industry are such there is a need for a third or balancing ecosystem in the environment. So even in the last 48 hours as I've been speaking to some of the CEOs of large operators around the world, the support is very strong from them as well. They see the strength of apple. They see what it's going on with Android. They need a third force. Nokia and Microsoft represent that opportunity.

Griffith: We have been speaking to analysts in the last couple of days in preparation for this interview. A couple will join us after this interview. One of them had this question, and I think it's a pertinent question here. You're famous now, famous memo that came out earlier in the year, in which you said you're essentially on a burning platform at Nokia and had to do something sooner rather than later because of the erosion of your market share. The question they bring up, these analysts, is,you have yet to jettison the leadership that you were highly critical of that came before you that got you into this predicament. You still have those same guys around and you are expecting them to make this transition to the new windows operating system. They're wondering why you haven't brought in new management to make this transition?

Elop:: So, in fact, there have been a number of senior management changes. If you look at the table at which I sit in terms of the leadership of Nokia today, of the 14 people sitting at that table with me on a regular basis. Seven are new people from either outside or inside company in different roles and seven of them are people who have been with us for some time. Its a nice mix of the talent. My fundamental belief is that people will succeed or fail in the context of the leadership that they're being provided. My specific leadership is one of very aggressive driven results orientation, and what they've heard also is there's accountability. For example, with some of the challenges we faced most recently and announced as it relates to China, that's resulted in management changes immediately.I'm not afraid to make the hard decisions but I am also willing to put people in role that I believe they can be successful in, in my management style.

Fortt:: Smartphone success. Is this essential to your financial results going forward particularly on the margin, cracking North America, something nokia failed to do in the past is key to that.part of why you're sitting in the chair now is key to that. Can you give some specifics on how you think you can do that in ways your predecessors weren't able to?

Elop:: What we can do in North America first of all, listen carefully to the consumers in North America. What is it that they want that's different than the markets where we've typically been most successful? It is the case in 2004, Nokia had somewhere between 30 and 40% market share in the United States just seven years ago. Yet at a certain point we stopped listening and decided, no.our interests were elsewhere. We weren't listening to the consumers the way we needed to do so. With that listening, with the focus on the critical operators in this country, who control a great deal of the activity and environment.we believe we can be successful. This is an example of that. Our first windows phone products are designed and put together here in California with the U.S. market very much in mind.

Fortt:: Are you going have enough of them? Samsung is a gold standard now in Morth America. They just put out a heck of a lot of phones in Morth America. More than anybody else. Will you be able to put out the volumes to serve the various customers in your first rollout -- how many are you going to have?

Elop:: So I am going to give you two answers for that, Jon. First of all, it's not about the number of phones you crank out. Throwing a bunch of phones at the wall to see what sticks is not the answer. It's about quality. It's about precision. It's about a great design, a wonderful user experience. Those are the things that we're most focused on now that being said, to answer your question slightly differently, Nokia has a long history of serving customers at all price points. Something we absolutely intend to continue to do using Windows Phone as our platform to do so.

Griffith: Last question from me, sir. I rarely ask a CEO this question. Given the rapid erosion of you current business for the Symbien platform phones and what its done to your stock price. Talking to shareholders now trying to hang in there, why should they hang in there waiting for the Windows operating system, even as your current business deteriorates as rapidly as it is? One of the analyst we spoke to said basically at these prices your phone business has no value to speak of, and even you admitted your operating margins are now basically flat. you're giving the phones away. So why should anybody want to own your stock between now and the time you're able to introduce these Windows operating system phones?

Elop:: Clearly we are focused both in the near-term in day-to-day execution as well as the implementation of our new strategy using Windows Phone. The reason to own the Nokia stock today is to recognize that Nokia in its 146-year history has repeatedly gone through these patterns of having great success, market conditions change, and then we have to change course and execute even better and more strongly than before. That's the path we're on today.and that's why we have great hope for the future of Nokia.

Fortt:: Thanks, Steve.

About CNBC:: With CNBC in the U.S., CNBC in Asia Pacific, CNBC in Europe, Middle East and Africa, CNBC World and CNBC HD+, CNBC is the recognized world leader in business news providing real-time data, analysis and information to more than 390 million homes worldwide. The network's 16 live hours a day of business programming in North America (weekdays from 4:00 a.m.- 8:00 p.m.) is produced at CNBC's global headquarters in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., and includes reports from CNBC News bureaus worldwide. CNBC.com and CNBC Mobile Web (mobile.cnbc.com) offer real-time stock quotes, charts, analysis and both on-demand and live streaming video. ###

• The Walt Mossberg interview with Stephen Elop from D9 (LiveBlog Notes)

>> Live from D9: Nokia's Stephen Elop Takes the Stage

Darren Murph
Engadget Live Blog
June 1st 2011 7:59PM

http://iy.cu.sl.pt

8:04PM Elop admits that the news released this week was painful, and that it could continue for a little while. Walt's asking him about the Symbian / WP7 transition.

8:05PM Walt:: "Are we looking at two years for this thing to be fully recognized?"

Stephen:: "Well, let's talk Symbian. There are hundreds of millions of these out there. Symbian support will be provided through 2016 in many places around the world. In the US, it doesn't feel quite that way, but in other places there's life left."

8:07PM Stephen:: "Our assessment was this -- with Symbian, it'd take too long to match the main competitors. It's a bit crufty, takes too long to change. To modernize, we had to evaluate what it would take to get there."

8:07PM Stephen:: "When I went to Finland, the plan was to move to MeeGo. I knew that Symbian needed to be assessed. We looked an Android as an option. We looked at WP7. We looked at all of these, we looked at everything."

8:08PM One of his lead devs said that a shift to Windows Phone 7 could allow Nokia to achieve certain goals in 1/3 of the time as it would take if it used Symbian.

8:08PM Walt:: "So, differentiation is why Android didn't work for you?"

8:09PM Stephen:: "Nokia felt that with Windows Phone, it had a better shot at maintaining long-term differentiation than with Android."

8:10PM Stephen:: "Nokia has the flexibility that we can differentiate over time -- we have the complete flexibility to do that."

8:10PM Stephen:: "The point of competition is with Android and Apple; those are the groups that we need to differentiate from."

8:11PM Stephen:: "We have tremendous assets -- map assets, etc. We need the WP ecosystem grow overall. I want to see Samsung and HTC be successful with Windows Phone 7. I'd like to be more successful than them, of course, but I still need them to succeed.

8:12PM Walt's pretty confused -- why wouldn't Nokia just want Nokia to be the bona fide best?

8:12PM Stephen:: "As the ecosystem grows, Nokia gets the app developers. You need the app developers. And they need volume and scale."

8:13PM Stephen:: "We will not do something on our WP7 phones that won't work on other WP7 phones -- it's a philosophy for success."

8:13PM Walt's asking if Nokia made the decision to side with WP7 due to its ability to have a say on the software revisions.

8:14PM The pattern that we're worried about on the Android side -- will the OEMs truly have assurance that their takes will be able to shape and form Android. Essentially, it seems that Nokia *wants* to fragment, or at least force a skin on the OS.

8:15PM Stephen confesses to understanding Google's intentions to limit fragmentation, but he'd still rather have the power to tweak things heavily. Makes us wonder if we're going to see significantly overhauled versions of WP7 on Nokia devices...

8:16PM Walt's asking yet again if Elop's relationships with Microsoft folk had any impact on the decision.

8:17PM Stephen:: "Microsoft had a critical requirement for a partner to do their best work for Windows Phone. On the other hand, Nokia -- from a software platform perspective -- we were serious challenged. We had to look for someone who would give us hope to differentiate from a software perspective." Those two needs obviously lined up.

8:18PM Stephen just admitted that Nokia's paying Microsoft for some things, and vice-versa. The net is that both companies will reduce expenses due to this. Elop won't talk about who is paying who more. Elop is convinced that it's a "very positive financial thing" for Nokia over the term of the agreement.

8:18PM Walt's talking about the rumor of Microsoft buying Nokia's hardware business.

Stephen:: "We will remain in possession of the hardware business. The rumors are baseless."

8:19PM Stephen:: "It doesn't make sense when you think about it. Look at the synergies between the companies -- if you sell, you destroy value in the process."

8:20PM Walt:: "When are you going to ship your first Windows Phone?"

Stephen:: "We're making very good progress -- in the fourth quarter."

8:24PM Stephen isn't going to show off a Windows Phone / Nokia product, darn!

8:28PM Walt:: "Talk to me about RIM -- do you consider them a strong competitor for the future? What's the deal?"

Stephen:: "First of all, I have a huge amount of respect for them. It's no longer a battle of devices, it's a war of ecosystems. We were fighting the device battle, and now we're partnering with Microsoft to take on the ecosystem."

8:31PM Stephen:: "There's clearly fragmentation in the market. To what extent does that matter? Time will tell -- that's always been the challenge in the mobile market, it goes back to Flash vs. J2ME. There were scores of J2ME variations."

8:32PM Walt:: "Are you going to get into the tablet game?"

Stephen:: "I'm not going to announce a tablet here today. But as a high level point, there's a connected digital experience will increasingly define what consumers are looking for. It's important for us to play across that space. We have to address that whole space."

He stopped short of confirming a tablet, but let's be real -- there's a new Nokia tablet coming.

8:34PM Nokia's still characterizing MeeGo as "experimental," though there will be a MeeGo device out this year.

8:40PM And that's a wrap! Apologies for spotty updates at the end, had an unforeseen brush with security that we're going to sort out. ###

• Tero Kuittinen (MKM Partners) Nokia (NOK) Upgrade

It should be noted that while Tero Kuittinen who has been very bearish on Nokia for several years, and played Bear for CNBC in Wednesday's 'Sock Brawl' issued a cautious and rare NOK upgrade on Friday because "The stock is simply too cheap to recommending selling."

>> Nokia: MKM Ups to Neutral; Tricky To Short

Tiernan Ray
Barron's Tech Trader Daily
June 3, 2011

http://blogs.barrons.com/techtraderdaily/2011/06/03/nokia-mkm-ups-to-neutral-trick-to-short/?mod=BOLBlog

Shares of Nokia (NOK) are down a penny at $6.56 this morning after MKM Partners analyst Tero Kuittinen did something rare this morning: he upgraded the stock, from Sell to Neutral, with a fair value on the ordinary shares of €4.80. Nokia’s ordinary shares traded in Helsinki fell 4% today to €4.52. The stock is simply too cheap to recommending selling, writes Kuittinen. “Next winter looks grim, but at least investors have now priced in losses for 3Q11 and 4Q11, in our view,” he writes. “We believe Nokia’s market share losses are likely to be steepest during 2Q11 and 3Q11 and then to moderate, as emerging-market share is more defensible than Western European market share.” Kuittinen updated his model for Tuesday’s cut in forecast by Nokia: he now sees the company making €0.04 per share in earnings this year, down from €0.49 previously, and cut his unit shipment estimate by 25 million, to 375 million.

The problem in Western Europe is now well understood, and the handset business having a valuation now below $1 billion means the stock may be dominated by speculation about a takeover (as happened earlier this week), and by speculation about the release of the first phone running Microsoft’s (MSFT) Windows Phone 7.

That makes shorting the shares “risky,” he thinks. As far as emerging markets, Nokia could manage to hold together there better than it has in Europe. “In our view, Nokia’s position in the emerging-market smartphone market of sub-$300 is more defensible, and the company may well be able to moderate overall smartphone market share losses after 2Q11 and 3Q11.” Nokia’s current software, “Symbian,” may be able to hold onto the high volume of the low-end of the market in developing markets, he thinks.

Lastly, as others have done, Kuittinen draws a lesson from the history of how the old Motorola melted down: “It’s worth pointing out that Motorola’s share price bottomed in early 2003 – well before company-saving RAZR phones debuted in 4Q04.” ###

- Eric -

Noise: Eldar's Latest Tweet ...

... will be retweeted around cyberspace ad nauseum and find its way into numerous media headlines, articles, blog posts, and message board posts.

One small software company decided last week that they could spent 19 bln USD to buy a part of small phone vendor. Thats it.

@eldarmurtazin (Eldar Murtazin) [Editor of Mobile Review, Moscow]

http://twitter.com/#!/eldarmurtazin/status/75664430670680065

>> Nokia Calls Report of Microsoft Deal "baseless"

Reuters
Helsinki/New York
June 1, 2011

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/01/nokia-microsoft-idUSLDE74Q09G20110601

• Nokia says report is "100 percent baseless"

• Website says Microsoft will buy phones business for $19bn

• Nokia shares climb back from 10 percent slide on report

• Microsoft shares fall 1.8 percent

Shares in struggling mobile phone handset maker Nokia Oyj (NOK1V.HE) jumped on Wednesday in reaction to a web site report that said U.S.-based Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) had struck a deal to buy its mobile phone business for $19 billion.

Nokia called the report "100 percent baseless."

Nokia shares have been in steep decline in the past two days after its latest failure to deliver on recovery targets.

Dealers said Microsoft shares also fell on the report, which appeared on the web site www.bgr.com, citing a person called Eldar Murtazin, whom it described as an industry insider.

Microsoft and Nokia struck a deal earlier this year under which the Finnish company will move to using Microsoft software in its phones instead of its own Symbian software. Nokia's new CEO Stephen Elop is a former Microsoft executive.

"These rumours are 100 percent baseless," Nokia spokesman Doug Dawson told Reuters.

The shares were 0.8 percent lower at 4.714 euros, having dropped as much as 10.2 percent earlier in an extension of Tuesday's 18-percent slump. Volume in the stock reached six times the 90-day daily average. ###

- Eric -

Analyst Downgrades and Lowered Price Targets...

... are expected and routine after an earnings warning and particularly one of the severity of yesterday's by Nokia.. Here's a few of the current crop:

• Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) retained its sell rating and cut its target price to 4.50 euros from 5.25 euros.

• Goldman Sachs cut its target price to 5.20 euros from 8.80 euros and downgraded Nokia to neutral from buy.

• Canaccord Genuity cut Nokia to hold from buy
.
• WestLB cut Nokia to reduce.

• Credit Suisse cut its Nokia target price to 4 euros from 5.50 euros.

• Bernstein downgraded Nokia to underperform.

• Deutsche Bank cut its target price for Nokia to 4.20 euros from 5.50 euros.

• Nomura cut its Nokia target price to 4 euros from 5.60 euros.

• S&P cut its target price to 5.40 euros from 6 euros.

http://blogs.wsj.com/marketbeat/2011/06/01/nokia-analysts-slash-ratings-price-targets-stock-slumps/

###

- Eric -

Yesterday's Post Warning Close: New Lows Today ...

<< NOK is $6.85 cause of outlook! >>

NOK1V closed yesterday in Helsinki at €4.75, but is currently down another 8% from yesterday's free fall this morning at €4.37 up slightly from an earlier low today of €4.27.

NOK closed yesterday on NYSE at $7.02 off a $6.79 low. In today's premarket at 7:15 am NOK is down another 10% from yesterday's close at $6.36,

I personally vacated my remaining NOK position late yesterday at $7.01 when it bounced back above $7 I have no reentry plans prior to Q2 earnings but NOK is on my close watch list, and I'll remain somewhat active on this board, on TMF Nokia board, and another Nokia board I host elsewhere. .

New Nokia Commercial Releases

Nokia Conversations (the official Nokia blog) reported yesterday that the 2 most recently announced S^3 devices with Symbian Anna -- the E6 and X7 -- are now shipping ...

http://conversations.nokia.com/2011/05/31/nokia-e6-and-nokia-x7-first-symbian-anna-phones-now-shipping/

... but I suspect it will be a limited ramp on the front end and most likely won't have a significant impact on Q2 earnings. According to the blog post ...

"The X7 will be available in Europe, Eurasia, China, India and other Asia/Pacific countries, while the E6 will be available in Europe, Eurasia, Asia/Pacific, as well as the Middle East and Africa."

The dual-SIM Series 40 Nokia C2-00 started shipping last week (finally as it was announced almost 1 year ago) ..

http://press.nokia.com/wp-content/uploads/mediaplugin/doc/nokia-c2-00-data-sheet.pdf.

... and the dual-SIM Series 30 X1-01 will shortly follow:

http://press.nokia.com/wp-content/uploads/mediaplugin/doc/nokia-x1-01-data-sheet.pdf ###

Best to all.

- Eric -

Stephen Elop Videocasted Interview ...

... (in English) on YLE Television once again he demonstrates that Stephen is a very effective and confident communicator. A fair amount of ground is covered in the 20 minute interview starting with the loss of Nokia jobs in Finland but that Finland would house the primary R&D centers for Nokia. Earlier in an Espoo based press conference [which was not webcasted] he evidently stated that Windows-based phones will be developed at four sites: Beijing, Salo, San Diego and Tampere.and phone software will also be developed in Helsinki and Espoo. He adresses: internal communications, the choice of Microsoft as a strategic partner; and the subject of a Nokia Tablet (in due time) ...

"There are now over 200 different tablets on the marketplace, only one of them is doing really well. And, my challenge to the team is I don't wanna be the 201st tablet on the market that you can't tell from all of the others. We have to take a uniquely Nokia prospective and so the teams are working very hard on something that would be differentiating relative to everything else that's going on in the market. We could take advantage of Microsoft technology and software, and build a Windows-oriented tablet, or we could do things with some of the other software assets that we have. Our team right now is assessing what's the right tablet strategy for Nokia."

The San Diego reference in the first paragraph was rather interesting in light of Nokia's consolidation of R&D resources and sites. Nokia has already consolidated its Silicon Valley R&D sites (or is in the process of doing so) into their new downtown Sunnyvale, CA complex ...

http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=61633453

I would have expected that given its proximity to Redmond that Sunnyvale would be a primary development site for WinPhone. This would seem to be very positive for Qualcomm (and Broadcom). Almost certainly initial Nokia WinPhones will sport Qualcomm MSMs even though ST-Ericsson and Broadcom will likely eventually play in Nokia's WinPhone silicon strategy. It is an exceptional opportunity for Qualcomm, IMO.

>> Elop: Finnish R&D Remains 'Heart and Soul' of Nokia

YLE.fi
April 27, 2011

http://ew.xq.sl.pt

Nokia CEO Stephen Elop, interviewed on YLE television on Wednesday evening, stressed that Nokia's software development in Finland will continue to drive the company despite a partnership with Microsoft. ... <snip rest>. ###

Worth a listen.

- Eric -

Nokia Trimming and Consolidation: Who is Affected and Where ...

The majority of planned cuts will take place in Finland, Denmark, and the UK. While the talent loss is significant the number of job losses is considerably lower than expected at (5-6% of Nokia Devices and Services' 65,000 employees, rather than 12%) because of the transfer of Symbian activities to Accenture. Certain Sites will experience a change of focus and others will close while others will expand.

--> 3,000 Symbian software developers will transfer to Accenture

--> Finland will experience ~1,400 job losses, (~12% of Nokia's current Finnish workforce of 12,000 people).

--> Denmark and the UK will see between around 700 job losses each, with the rest (~1,900) spread out in other global locations.

The job losses are expected to take place in phases and will be completed by the end of 2012.

Several offices will change their focus:

--> In Finland Tampere and Salo (previously Symbian and MeeGo) will focus on Windows Phone product development, Oulu will focus on basic phone product development (previously MeeGo) and Helsinki and Espoo will focus on head office activities, future technologies and basic product development.

R&D sites will be consolidated with each site having a clear role and mission with some closures and some expansion:

--> Offices in Copenhagen (Denmark), White Plains (New York, USA), Southwood (Farnborough, UK) and Southwark (London, UK) are expected to close while a number of functions and staff in the UK and USA offices will move to existing or new offices in the same geographies.

"At Nokia, we have new clarity around our path forward, which is focused on our leadership across smart devices, mobile phones and future disruptions. However, with this new focus, we also will face reductions in our workforce. This is a difficult reality, and we are working closely with our employees and partners to identify long-term re-employment programs for the talented people of Nokia. ... We are offering those who are losing their jobs a range of options, from individual re-employment support and re-training to making investments to promote innovation and working with a variety of partners to create new opportunities." - Stephen Elop -

http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/news/item/12828_Nokia_to_cut_4000_jobs_as_impa.php

>> Nokia Launches Comprehensive Social Responsibility Program For Employees and Communities

Nokia Conversations
The Official Nokia Blog
April 2011

http://eq.e0.sl.pt

<snip>

"The new situation is of course challenging for the individuals, but also full of possibilities,The employees who are at risk of losing their jobs have a good education and excellent skills, which have a high demand in the job market. Nokia’s role is to use its expertise, financial support and brand to support people’s quick re-employment. For this purpose we are starting a new program that helps people to find new job opportunities or even start their own businesses." - Esko Aho, former prime minster of Finland and current EVP of Nokia Corporate Relations -

There are four support paths for those employees affected by the transformation:

• A new job within the company – Nokia will seek to retain talent to the extent possible, by providing career counseling and helping employees identify job opportunities in Nokia.

• A new job outside the company – Nokia will offer career counseling, help identify job opportunities and work with our extensive network to create a dedicated job portal, linking employees directly with local companies and their resourcing needs. All employees can remain with the company throughout 2011, while employees affected in 2012 will be given a two-month grace period. In addition, employees will receive a financial package in accordance with local practices should they leave Nokia.

• Entrepreneurship – Nokia will offer training, funding, and help identify business opportunities and partnerships for those interested in starting a new business or a company on their own, which can fuel new growth for impacted communities.

• Career renewal – Nokia will work with local partners to create new opportunities through co-funded research programs, scholarships, supported employment in local not-for-profit organizations and other growth companies. ... <snip>. ###

- Eric -

Trimming the Nokia Workforce: Symbian to Accenture ...

>> Nokia Announces Plans To Transfer Symbian Software Activities To Accenture; Accenture To Provide Future Smartphone Ecosystem Services To Nokia

Nokia Corporation
Espoo, Finland and New York, US
Stock Exchange Release
April 27, 2011

http://eq.0u.sl.pt

Nokia (NYSE: NOK) and Accenture (NYSE: ACN) today announced plans for a strategic collaboration in which Nokia would outsource its Symbian software activities and transition about 3,000 employees to Accenture. At the same time, Accenture would provide mobility software services to Nokia for future smartphones.

The collaboration, which is subject to final agreement, calls for Accenture to provide Symbian-based software development and support services, with the expected transition of about 3,000 Nokia employees to Accenture. The companies expect completion of the final agreement during summer 2011, and expect the transition of employees by the end of the calendar year 2011. Transitioning employees, located in China, Finland, India, United Kingdom and the United States, will initially work on Symbian software activities for Nokia. Over time, Accenture and Nokia will seek opportunities to retrain and redeploy transitioned employees.

This collaboration also includes plans for Accenture to provide mobility software, business and operational services around the Windows Phone platform to Nokia and other ecosystem participants. Under the proposed agreement, Accenture would become a preferred partner for Nokia's smartphone development activities, as well as a preferred provider of services.

"Mobility is a key area for Accenture," said Marty Cole, chief executive, Accenture Communications and High Tech group. "This collaboration with Nokia will enhance our ability to help clients across multiple industries leverage mobility to advance their business agendas. It is a real win-win for Accenture and Nokia".

"This collaboration demonstrates our ongoing commitment to enhance our Symbian offering and serve our smartphone customers," said Jo Harlow, executive vice president for Smart Devices, Nokia. "As we move our primary smartphone platform to Windows Phone, this transition of skilled talent to Accenture shows our commitment to provide our Symbian employees with potential new career opportunities."

Accenture and Nokia have been working together since 1994. In October 2009, Accenture acquired Nokia's professional services unit that provides engineering and support of the Symbian operating system to mobile device manufacturers and service providers, and which then served as a key building block in Accenture's Mobility services portfolio.

About Accenture:

Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with more than 215,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Combining unparalleled experience, comprehensive capabilities across all industries and business functions, and extensive research on the world's most successful companies, Accenture collaborates with clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. The company generated net revenues of USD21.6 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2010. Its home page is http://www.accenture.com .

Accenture is focused on enabling its clients to achieve breakthrough growth throughout the rapidly changing mobile ecosystem. The Accenture Mobility Services group offers five mobility services including consulting, software services--applications, software services--devices and platforms, managed services, and business integration services. These are designed to help organizations embrace business to employee (B2E), business to consumer (B2C), business to business (B2B) and machine to machine (M2M) business opportunities. Accenture offers mobility and embedded software services across a wide range of industries and platforms, including Symbian, WinMo (Microsoft Windows® Mobile), Windows Phone, Android(TM), Blackberry®, iPhone®, Java(TM), Linux, Meego(TM). ###

>> Nokia Starts Measures To Align Workforce and Site Operations With New Strategy

Nokia Corporation (Espoo, Finland)
Stock Exchange Release
April 27, 2011

http://press.nokia.com/2011/04/27/nokia-starts-measures-to-align-workforce-and-site-operations-with-new-strategy/

To deliver on its new strategy, Nokia today announced plans to align its global workforce and consolidate site operations. These measures are part of Nokia's target to reduce its Devices & Services non-IFRS operating expenses by 1 billion euros for the full year 2013 in comparison to the full year 2010, as announced last week.

Earlier today, Nokia announced plans to form a strategic collaboration with Accenture that would result in the transfer of Nokia's Symbian software activites, including about 3,000 employees to Accenture. In addition, Nokia also plans to reduce its global workforce by about 4,000 employees by the end of 2012, with the majority of reductions in Denmark, Finland and the UK. In accordance with country-by-country legal requirements, discussions with employee representatives started today.

Nokia also plans to consolidate the company's research and product development sites so that each site has a clear role and mission. Nokia expects the expansion of some sites and the contraction or closure of others.

All employees affected by the reduction plans can stay on the Nokia payroll through the end of 2011. Nokia expects personnel reductions to occur in phases until the end of 2012, linked to the roll-out of Nokia's planned product and services portfolio. During this period, Nokia intends to ramp up its capacity for the development of Nokia smartphones based on the Windows Phone platform, the company's broad range of mobile phones and its services portfolio.

"At Nokia, we have new clarity around our path forward, which is focused on our leadership across smart devices, mobile phones and future disruptions," said Stephen Elop, Nokia president and CEO. "However, with this new focus, we also will face reductions in our workforce. This is a difficult reality, and we are working closely with our employees and partners to identify long-term re-employment programs for the talented people of Nokia."

Nokia is launching a comprehensive social responsibility program for employees and the communities likely to be affected by the personnel reductions. The program will be led locally, with local partners and stakeholders, and senior management support.

"We are offering those who are losing their jobs a range of options, from individual re-employment support and re-training to making investments to promote innovation and working with a variety of partners to create new opportunities," Elop continued. ###

- Eric -

Nokia will be Reorganizing Navteq ...

... and creating a new business unit focused on:

• New social-location applications, services, and developer experiences that engage a large user-base to build a winning brand and ecosystem together with Microsoft

• High-value location content enabling differentiated experiences

• High-value advertising network monetizing the ecosystem by providing local commerce services for brands and merchants.

Effective May 1, Nokia's Tero Ojanpera and Navteq CEO Larry Kaplan will work on the creation of a new business unit that consolidates all Nokia location assets, including Navteq and Nokia social-location services, into a single organization to accomplish these goals. Many of the companies' sub-units are to be transferred and/or shifted to new teams, with many of them falling under the new Mobile Phones Business Unit.

>> Navteq Re-Org to Focus On Social-Location Service

Eric M. Zeman
Phone Scoop
April 26, 2011

http://www.phonescoop.com/news/item.php?n=8021

According to an internal memo supplied to Phone Scoop, Nokia and Navteq are undertaking a massive reorganizational approach to their mapping and social networking services. The three foundational elements behind this change are being made to support the following: new social-location applications, services, and developer experiences that engage a large user-base to build a winning brand and ecosystem together with Microsoft; high-value location content enabling differentiated experiences; and high-value advertising network monetizing the ecosystem by providing local commerce services for brands and merchants. Effective May 1, Nokia's Tero Ojanpera and Navteq CEO Larry Kaplan will work on the creation of a new business unit that consolidates all Nokia location assets, including Navteq and Nokia social-location services, into a single organization to accomplish these goals. Many of the companies' sub-units are to be transferred and/or shifted to new teams, with many of them falling under the new Mobile Phones Business Unit. Further, Nokia and Navteq will not only be targeting Nokia devices and the Windows Phone platform, but will also "focus on horizontal services that target Nokia devices, and beyond Nokia devices, including the ongoing availability of Navteq data to all its B2B partners." They believe these organization changes "will drive the next generation of location and commerce capabilities for the entire industry." This plans have not yet been made officially public.

>> Nokia Revamping Navteq as Social Location Platform

Jason Ankeny
FierceWireless
April 26, 2011

http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com/story/nokia-revamping-navteq-social-location-platform/2011-04-26

Nokia (NYSE:NOK) is at work on a massive overhaul of its Navteq navigation and location-based solutions unit that will reposition the platform to target social location-enabled applications, services and developer tools. An internal memo obtained by Phone Scoop indicates that effective May 1, Nokia EVP Tero Ojanpera and Navteq CEO Larry Kaplan will commence work on a new business unit that consolidates all of Nokia's location assets designed to deliver differentiated geo-specific social services as well as hyper-local mobile advertising services for brands and merchants.

Nokia and Navteq will target Nokia devices (including future smartphones running Microsoft's [NASDAQ:MSFT]'s Windows Phone 7 operating system) and also will "focus on horizontal services that target Nokia devices, and beyond Nokia devices, including the ongoing availability of Navteq data to all its B2B partners."

The report adds that many of Nokia and Navteq's respective sub-units are to be transferred and/or shifted to new teams in conjunction with the platform revamp, with most falling under Nokia's new Mobile Phones Business Unit.

Nokia acquired Navteq for $8.1 billion in late 2007, building out the platform's navigation services with subsequent purchases like 3D urban modeling software developer PixelActive and crowdsourced traffic alert solutions provider Trapster. Earlier this year, Nokia announced it will embrace Windows Phone 7 mobile operating system as its primary smartphone platform, teaming with Microsoft to forge a worldwide mobile ecosystem integrating their respective assets--for example, Microsoft's Bing engine will power search across Nokia devices and services, and Microsoft assets like Bing and AdCenter will incorporate the Nokia Maps solution. The companies are slated to begin shipping Windows Phone-powered Nokia devices in 2012. ###

- Eric -

Tomi T. Drills Down and Accentuates the Negatives ...

... in the Q1 Nokia Earnings. Vocal and verbose industry consultant and blogalyst Tomi T Ahonen expounds in merciless fashion, pretty much ignoring the positives that were contained therein. Better he than me, but none of us ignore the fact that the trough is ahead not behind, and the next 18 months will be painful. Such is the nature of this breed of corporate renewal.

>> Smartphones Bloodbath Year 2, Q1: Now Nokia. Ouch, this is painful

Tomi T Ahonen
Communities Dominate Brands
April 25, 2011

http://ei.zv.sl.pt

Where Apple was perfection in its Q1 results, Nokia is the total opposite. Nokia results were aweful in almost every way. While the industry grew smartphone sales from Q4 of 2010 to Q1 of 2011, Nokia lost unit sales in smartphones, saw declining average sales prices, lost revenues, declined profits. However, we knew this would happen. My blog was not the first one, nor the only one to explain why the February 11 announcement of a two-year shift from Symbian (and MeeGo) to Microsoft as the operating system for Nokia's smartphones, would damage short-term Nokia smartphone sales. This whole year we will be seeing a decline in Nokia smartphone market shares, at least up to the quarter when the Microsoft powered smartphones arrive (possibly Q4 of 2011, more likely early 2012). We knew Nokia was going to have a rough time. ... <Snip Big Rest>.

- Eric -

The Nokia Branded Apps Store for Nokia Windows Phones ...

"A contract is just a contract. The real thing is about creating something jointly together."
- Andrew Lees, President, Miceosoft Mobile Communications Business -

[Microsoft's Mobile Communication Business includes mobile software and services for business and consumer customers. As President, Lees oversees the strategy, development, marketing and sales of Microsoft software and services for Windows Phones worldwide. Lees joined Microsoft in 1990 and spent 10 years in the Microsoft United Kingdom subsidiary. Steve Ballmer appointed Lees as President to replace Robbie Bach in October of 2010, Before joining Microsoft, Lees worked in the U.K. subsidiary of Hewlett-Packard Co. for three years in technical consulting and marketing roles.]

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/exec/lees/

Jointly creating this Apps Store and building on "Nokia's expertise in operator billing to ensure participants in the Windows Phone ecosystem can take advantage of Nokia's billing agreements with 112 operators in 36 markets" is a real positive for the alliance. ...

>> Nokia, Microsoft to Fire Up Windows App Store

Kat Asharya
Mobiledia Network
April 25, 2011

http://www.mobiledia.com/news/88000.html

Nokia-branded app stores will be coming soon to all of its phones running the Windows Phone platform, with the company beginning to put its strategy into action after formalizing its partnership with Microsoft last week. The two companies will soon feature a new Nokia-branded application store on future Windows Phones handsets, which will also port some of Nokia's more lauded Symbian apps, such as its Ovi Maps feature, to the new phones. Ovi Maps will supply mapping and GPS services for the entire Windows Phone ecosystem as well. The app store combining Nokia and Windows infrastructure will enable developers to "publish and distribute applications through a single developer portal to hundreds of millions of consumers that use Windows Phone, Symbian and Series 40 devices," according to a joint statement released by both companies. The app store, and porting of Symbian apps to Microsoft's mobile OS, are some of the first concrete steps that Nokia has taken towards its shift to the platform since it announced its strategic alliance with Microsoft in February. ... <Snip Rest> ... ###

One thing that neither Nokia have yet commented is music delivery. Both companies have very strong offerings in this regard while Nokia's component of Ovi is considerably more regionalized and localized. From a competetive perspective Android Market holds the short straw in this regard.

- Eric -

Nokia Q1 Earnings: US SEC Form 6-K Filing

http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/924613/000110465911021549/a11-10703_16k.htm

- Eric -

Recommended 'New Nokia' Reading from The Financial Times (FT) ...

... by a top tier journalist.

[While the articles linked below may not be available to FR non-subscribers, registration for a free limited monthly view of FT articles is a simple and painless process and Hill's series is worth a read since they are arguably the most insightful articles written since Elop made the announcement of the alliance and Nokia's change in strategic direction.]

Andrew Hill, a 13 year veteran of London's The Financial Times (FT) and their former NYC Bureau Chief who is now their management editor has written a series of very informative articles on Nokia's Microsoft Alliance and the transitional corporate culture challenges Nokia faces. In doing so he interviewed several Nokia execs including Jorma Ollila, Stephen Elop, Jo Harlow, Mary McDowell, and former employees about the decision. Nothing is sugar coated and the necessity for change is highlighted.

On April 14 Hill spent 6½ minutes discussing his look 'inside Nokia' at their new strategic direction with FT's Richard Edga in this video titled "Can Nokia push the right buttons?" ...

http://video.ft.com/v/904318692001/Can-Nokia-push-the-right-buttons-

These are the articles I found most interesting and the 'Inside Nokia' 2 are based on very candis interviews with Nokia management ... ...

• "Nokia’s Textbook Case Study Under Revision" (February 11 2011)

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4b3a9094-35de-11e0-b67c-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1JhZZf4tr

• Nokia’s Big Bet (February 13 2011)

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b98d8a98-379a-11e0-b91a-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1JhZZf4tr

• "Nokia Prepares For Drop in Market Share: (April 11 2011) with Andrew Parker (FT telecoms editor)

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/dd014174-6466-11e0-a69a-00144feab49a.html#axzz1JVAY3ab2

• "Inside Nokia Part 1: Trying To Revive a Giant" (April 11, 2011)

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/20137ef0-6480-11e0-a69a-00144feab49a.html#axzz1JRVKEPPs

• "Inside Nokia Part 2: Rebuilt from Within" ( April 13 2011)

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9ec857b6-65f7-11e0-9d40-00144feab49a.html#axzz1JVAY3ab2

• Nokia: Crisis, What Crisis? (April 13, 2011)

http://blogs.ft.com/businessblog/2011/04/nokia-crisis-what-crisis/

Also:

Andrew Parker, FT telecoms editor, in this 9 minute video interviews Franco Bernabe, CEO of Telecom Italia and chairman of the GSMA, the mobile operators' representative body who says the Nokia-Microsoft alliance will strengthen the mobile industry by providing choice for operators and consumers beyond the Apple and Google duopoly in the smartphone market.

• Nokia Deal Is Good News For Sector (February 15 2011)

http://video.ft.com/v/791119454001/Nokia-deal-is-good-news-for-sector

Some background on operators sentiment towards an Apple/Google duopoly by Andrew Parker here ..

• European Telecoms Groups Set Up Smartphone Panel (January 18 2011)

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b1c092fe-2338-11e0-b6a3-00144feab49a.html#axzz1BTNmD1Sx

###

- Eric -

Windowa Phome OS 7.5 (FKA 'Mango')

It seems to be a new law of technology: modern mobile operating systems take about a year to find their feet. Apple, of course, set the precedent. In 2007, iOS on the first iPhone wasn't even a smartphone OS; you couldn't write an app for it. A year later, it blossomed into the powerful platform we see today. Android 1.0, released in September 2008, was missing several pieces, but a year later the platform really took off with Android 2.0 and the Motorola Droid in October 2009. With Windows Phone 7, we're seeing a platform in the middle of its year's worth of evolution. There are some Windows Phones on the market, and they're pretty good, but they're not dominating. That's okay. The first year, it seems, is a time to work out bugs, attract developers, and convince hardware makers to join up.
- Sascha Segan, PC Magazine -

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2383574,00.asp

>> Windows Phone OS 7.5 Update Is Mango

Desire Athow
ITProPortal
24 April, 2011

http://www.itproportal.com/2011/04/24/windows-phone-os-75-update-mango/

The next version of Windows Phone will be called Mango or Windows Phone 7.5 according to the official Windows Phone website that has been updated recently by Microsoft. The site which can be found here ...

https://partner.microsoft.com/global/40014671

... is an essential resource centre for developers working with Microsoft and the latter would only confirm Mango's expected release date as happening "later in 2011". Microsoft also announced that the company will drop the "7" version reference in the product's title which means that it will now be referred to, simply, as Windows Phone. ... <Big Snip> ... There are less than a dozen Windows Phone 7 on the market; the HTC 7 Mozart, the HTC 7 Pro, HTC 7 Trophy, HTC HD7, LG Optimus 7, Samsung Omnia 7, Dell Venue Pro. ###

From the referenced site:

>> New Developer Tools and Resources Extend the Windows Phone 7 Platform

Microsoft sets developers’ sights on next-generation mobile opportunities and capabilities at MIX11.

Microsoft News Release
MIX11 (Las Vegas)
April 13, 2011

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2011/apr11/04-13MIXphone.mspx

On the heels of its recently announced Nokia partnership, and a range of improvements to its Windows Phone platform and developer toolkit, Microsoft rode into Las Vegas for MIX11 this week on a wave of Windows Phone momentum. ... <snip> ... Microsoft said it remains on track to start delivering the next version of Windows Phone to new and existing devices by the end of this year. Windows Phone Developer Tools will be available in May, and Microsoft announced that new features will enable the following:

• Live Agents create superior customer engagement with real-time interactions via Live Tiles, Push Notifications, Deep Linking and Background Agents. Multitasking is also enhanced to allow for fast applications switching, as well as background audio and file transfer.

• Phone integration has been greatly improved for developers wanting to do more with their apps. The Live Tiles functionality has been expanded to give developers more flexibility and engage with their customers better.

• Developers will have access to the Motion Sensor library and the camera, enabling augmented reality experiences. The integration extends deeper into the operating system via sockets and database access now available to apps and games.

Getting Apps to Market: ... <snip> ... Expanded opportunities through Windows Phone Marketplace include:

• More countries – 35 countries with creation and commerce, up from 16 with the first version of Windows Phone

• Expanded reach – dedicated games Marketplace, parental controls and new beta distribution service

• Improved discoverability – exposure through Bing Search “extras,” expanded search functionality and new merchandising opportunities

• Additional monetization opportunities – more mobile operator billing, expanded country support for advertising SDK

• Streamlined processes – App Hub application submission, update, management and reporting capabilities

<Big Snip> ...

Momentum, by the Numbers: Since the release of the first Windows Phone 7 Developer Tools last year, more than 38,000 developers have registered with the Windows Phone Marketplace. In addition, there have been more than 1.5 million downloads of the Windows Phone Developer Tools, which have resulted in more than 13,000 apps and games that are now available. ... <snip> ... Although only 21.8 percent of mobile phones shipped in 2010 were smartphones, IDC forecasts that the market for smartphones will nearly double by 2013.** In other words, the majority of mobile phone users have yet to embrace smartphones, and the partnership with global giant Nokia will only help people discover Windows Phone. “It’s a pretty strong alliance of core competencies,” Matt Bencke [general manager of developer and marketplace for Windows Phone] said. “We like to think we’re very good at software and services, and Nokia is great with hardware and services as well. The combination is potent.” ###

Nokia EVP Kai Oistamo has told Mobilized that some prototypes are now running an early build of Windows Phone 7.5 - also known as the Mango upgrade. "The products are not done yet, but you can already see the signs," said Oistamo.

http://www.infosyncworld.com/reviews/cell-phones/nokia-prototypes-now-running-windows-phone-7.5/11961.html

- Eric -

Microsoft Windows Phone 101 (Basic Links) ...

• Microsoft Windows Phone (Discover ¦ Buy (Devices) ¦ How To ¦ Apps)

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsphone/en-us/default.aspx

• Microsoft Windows Mobile Devices

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsphone/en-us/buy/7/phones.aspx

• Microsoft Windows Phone Blog

http://windowsteamblog.com/windows_phone/b/windowsphone/

• Microsoft Windows Phone Developers Blog

http://windowsteamblog.com/windows_phone/b/wpdev/

• MIX11 Wrap-up Report (Keynote and 25 sessions focused on Windows Phone available for viewing on demand)

http://create.msdn.com/en-US/news/mix_wrap_report

• WP Central Community

http://www.wpcentral.com/

• App Hub (Developing for Windows Phone & XBOX 360)

http://create.msdn.com/en-US/

• Wikipedia: Windows Phone 7

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Phone_7

• CNET: Windows Phone 7 (reviews, news, photos, and video)

http://www.cnet.com/windows-phone-7/

• Slash Gear: Windows Phone 7

http://www.slashgear.com/tags/windows-phone-7/

###

- Eric -

The Need for Nokian's Requisite 'Challenger Mindset' ...

... that Stephen Elop refered to in Thursday's Q1 2011 earnings conference call as his internal call to action.

While Nokia is still comfortably the leader in unit sales of both total global mobile phones and smartphones they are seriously challenged by their two principal competitors - Apple (high end smartphones only) and broad range supplier Samsung who in 2010 developed a very successful smartphone strategy baaed on Android OS and their own proprietary Bada OS) while also launching initial WinPhones. Apple became the smartphone revenue leader in 2010 as well as the overall mobile phone profit leader and Samsung is challenging Nokia in total handst revenue and profit as well ...

CY 2010 Sell-In Revenue, ASP, and Operating Profit for the Top Branded OEMs (b = Billions in USD)

Smartphones Only Net Sales (USD) ¦¦    Total Handsets Net Sales (USD)  
 ================================ ¦¦ ==================================== 
    CY2010: Strategy Analytics    ¦¦       Vendor Reported Revenue  
 ===============================  ¦¦ ==================================== 
 #   OEM   Net Sales  Share  ASP  ¦¦ #   OEM    Net Sales  ASP  Op Profit 
 =  ====== =========  ===== ===== ¦¦ = =======  ========= ===== ========= 
 1. Apple    $28,7b    29%  $604  ¦¦ 1. Nokia      $38.6b   $85   $4,371b 
 2. Nokia    $15,8b    16%  $202  ¦¦ 2. Samsung    $33.6b  $120   $3.790b 
 3. RIM      $14,9b    15%  $305  ¦¦ 3. Apple²     $28,7b  $604   ?  High 
 4. Samsung   $9,0b     9%    ?   ¦¦ 4. RIM³       $19,9b  $305   $3,411b 
    Others   $26,7b    27%    ?   ¦¦ 5. LG         $11.3b   $97  -$0.580b 
          ---------   ----  ----  ¦¦ 6. HTC         $9.5b  $360   $1.340b 
 Total       $99,0b   100%  $338  ¦¦ 7. S Ericsson  $8,3b  $193   $0.211b 
                                  ¦¦ 8. Motorola    $7.8b  $209  -$0.198b 
 ·                               
 ¹ Strategy Analytics' (See URL below) reported % of net sales only. Revenue is calculated 
 ² Apple provides insufficient data to calculate handset profit but ranks #1 in profitability. 
 ³ RIM reported results are for their Fiscal Year 2011 ending February 26, 20111, not CY 2011.

http://www.strategyanalytics.com/default.aspx?mod=pressreleaseviewer&a0=5025

In Q1 2011 Apple became the revenue leader in total handset salea as well as martphone sales, outselling Nokia by a whopping $2.5 Billion USD in total handsets ...

Global Handset Units Sold & Wholesale Revenues in Q1 2011 (Strategy Analytics)

                                                         Apple        ¦¦        Nokia 
 Metric                                             Q1 '10     Q1 '11  ¦¦  Q1 '10     Q1 '11 
 ================================================  ========   ======== ¦¦ ========   ======== 
 Global Handset Shipments (Millions of Units)         8.8m       18.6m ¦¦  107.8m     108.5m 
 Global Handset Wholesale ASP (USD)                   $606        $638 ¦¦    $83        $87 
 Global Handset Wholesale Revenues (USD Billions)    $5.3b      $11.9b ¦¦   $8.9b      $9.4b 
 ============================================================================================

>> STRATEGY ANALYTICS: Apple Becomes World's Largest Handset Vendor by Revenue in Q1 2011

Strategy Analytics Press Release
April 21, 2011

http://www.sys-con.com/node/1802442

According to the latest research from Strategy Analytics, Apple overtook Nokia to become the world’s largest handset vendor in revenue terms during Q1 2011. In revenue terms, Apple is now the world’s largest handset vendor, smartphone vendor and tablet vendor. ... <snip rest> ###

Samsung, LG, HTC, and Motorola report later this week. Samsung could overtake Nokia in handset revenue and/or profit in Q1, but if they don't probability is high that they could do so in Q2.

Global Handset Units Sold & Wholesale Revenues in Q1 2011 (Strategy Analytics)

    Smartphones Only Net Sales (USD)    ¦¦      Total Handsets Net Sales (USD)  
 ======================================= ¦¦ ============================================ 
       Q1 2011: Strategy Analytics       ¦¦   Q1 2010 Vendor Reported Revenue  
 ======================================= ¦¦ ============================================ 
 #   OEM   Units Net Sales   Share  ASP  ¦¦ #   OEM     Units  Net Sales  ASP  Op Profit 
 =  ======  ===== =========  ===== ===== ¦¦ =  ======  ======= ========= ===== ========= 
 1. Apple   18.6m   $11.9b     -    $640 ¦¦ 1. Apple²    18.6m   $11.9b   $640     High 
 2. Nokia   24.2m    $5,0b     -    $207 ¦¦    Nokia²   108.5m    $9,9b    $91    $978m 
 3. RIM¹    14.9m    $4.5b     -    $304 ¦¦    Samsung     -        -       -       -   
 4. Samsung   ?        ?       -      ?  ¦¦    RIM¹      14.9m    $4.5b   $304    $934m 
    Others             ?       -      ?  ¦¦    LG          -        -       -       -   
                  ---------   ----  ---- ¦¦    HTC         -        -       -       - 
 Total                                   ¦¦    S Ericsson 8.1m   $1.614b  $199     $21m 
                                         ¦¦    Motorola    -        -       -       -  
 · 
 ¹ RIM: $4.5b is devices revenue only (81% of $5.5b total sales). Services was 16%,and  
   Software/Other was 3%. Operating profit of $934 billion is based on total rrevenue sales  
   of $5.5 billion.  
 ² Apple provides insufficient data to calculate handset profit but ranks #1 in profitability. 
 ² Nokia: $9.991 billion includes $297 million Services Revenue (9.694 billion w/o).

Elop on Nokia's Transition in Progress:

To say that it will be a challenging two years for Nokia as they transition is an understatemnt. Stephen Elop adressed the challenge and the requisite new mindset in the Q1 earnings CC:

>> "Q1 of 2011 has been a remarkable quarter for Nokia. It was during this quarter that we articulated the serious nature of Nokia's challenges in a manner that served as a quality arms for our employees. We also constructed and announced Nokia's new strategy for the years ahead. And now, we have shifted our purpose from defining our new strategy to taking the first important steps to realization.

During this time the fiercely competitive environment continue to increase and affect our business. Yet with our new strategy, we have more clarity around future direction and a stronger recognition for the work we must accomplish in order to improve our financial results.

In Q1, we took immediate steps to mobilize the company around three new business objectives, which are, regaining our leadership in smart devices with Microsoft as a partner; growing our leadership in mobile phones, as we bring the internet to the next billion; and also investing in future disruptions.

To accomplish these objectives, we are focusing on key differentiators, including signature user experiences, iconic hardware, differentiated software, and supporting an eco-system of services that consumers' demand. We are also taking advantage of our global reach, powerful supply networks and the strength of our brand. With all of this transformation, we also recognized that we must change the way we work in order to achieve our new objectives.

First, we are focused on improving the product competitiveness of our smart devices. This begins with being laser-focused on our Symbian results, ... During the quarter, we took deliberate action in an effort to support Symbian sales during the transition to the Windows Phone platform, including work, to enhance the ongoing competitiveness of the Symbian range of products. ... Additionally, we started shifting our smartphone business from Symbian to the Windows Phone platform, through our work with Microsoft and various industry partners. ... Hundreds of people already are engaging on joint engineering efforts, collaborating on a portfolio of new Nokia devices, porting key applications and services to operate on the Windows Phone platform and reaching out to third-party application developers.

We are making progress with our objective of investing in future disruptions. This is not an area on which we will provide regular operational updates. However, we have begun the process of pursuing the next generation of platforms, devices and user experiences that we believe will define some of the future disruptions in our market.

We need unquestionably accelerate our pace, which means changing how we operate. While we are still in the early days, we are undergoing changes to adjust our workforce to a challenger mindset. Over the last few weeks we have implemented new organizational efforts including being very deliberate in defining the behaviors, the attitudes and the environment that we believe must be present to drive great results.

Additionally, we are shifting to more localized empowerment, so the teams in the field, who are closest to our partners and customers, can respond to local market conditions more quickly. And we are increasing accountability across the organization by clarifying senior leadership roles, being unambiguous about decision-making rights and designing measures to tie compensation incentives more closely to performance metrics." ###

- Eric -

The Nokia Microsoft Agreement Has Been Finalized ...

... ahead of schedule, and development is progressing. That was really the best news out of last week's earnings call. Nokia is now "shifting from developing strategy to executing strategy."

>> Nokia And Microsoft Sign Definitive Agreement Ahead Of Schedule

Key contributions to new global mobile ecosystem agreed and significant progress made on engineering of new products

Nokia Corporation
Stock Exchange Eelease
Espoo, Finland and Redmond, US
April 21, 2011

http://press.nokia.com/2011/04/21/nokia-and-microsoft-sign-definitive-agreement-ahead-of-schedule/

Nokia (NYSE: NOK) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) today announced the signing of a definitive agreement on a partnership that will result in a new global mobile ecosystem, utilizing the very complementary assets of both companies. Completed ahead of schedule, the definitive agreement is consistent with the joint announcement made on February 11.

In addition to agreeing to the terms of their partnership, including joint contributions to the development of the new ecosystem, Nokia and Microsoft also announced significant progress on the development of the first Nokia products incorporating Windows Phone. With hundreds of personnel already engaged on joint engineering efforts, the companies are collaborating on a portfolio of new Nokia devices. Nokia has also started porting key applications and services to operate on Windows Phone and joint outreach has begun to third party application developers.

"At the highest level, we have entered into a win-win partnership," said Stephen Elop, President and CEO of Nokia Corporation. "It is the complementary nature of our assets, and the overall competitiveness of that combined offering, that is the foundation of our relationship."

"Our agreement is good for the industry," said Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft. "Together, Nokia and Microsoft will innovate with greater speed, and provide enhanced opportunities for consumers and our partners to share in the success of our ecosystem."

The relationship is structured around four broad areas:

1. A combination of complementary assets, which make the partnership truly unique, including:

• Nokia to deliver mapping, navigation, and certain location-based services to the Windows Phone ecosystem. Nokia will build innovation on top of the Windows Phone platform in areas such as imaging, while contributing expertise on hardware design and language support, and helping to drive the development of the Windows Phone platform. Microsoft will provide Bing search services across the Nokia device portfolio as well as contributing strength in productivity, advertising, gaming, social media and a variety of other services. The combination of navigation with advertising and search will enable better monetization of Nokia's navigation assets and completely new forms of advertising revenue.

• Joint developer outreach and application sourcing, to support the creation of new local and global applications,
including making Windows Phone developer registration free for all Nokia developers.

• Opening a new Nokia-branded global application store that leverages the Windows Marketplace infrastructure. Developers will be able to publish and distribute applications through a single developer portal to hundreds of millions of consumers that use Windows Phone, Symbian and Series 40 devices.

• Contribution of Nokia's expertise in operator billing to ensure participants in the Windows Phone ecosystem can take advantage of Nokia's billing agreements with 112 operators in 36 markets.

2. Microsoft will receive a running royalty from Nokia for the Windows Phone platform, starting when the first Nokia products incorporating Windows Phone ship. The royalty payments are competitive and reflect the large volumes that Nokia expects to ship, as well as a variety of other considerations related to engineering work to which both companies are committed. Microsoft delivering the Windows Phone platform to Nokia will enable Nokia to significantly reduce operating expenses.

3. In recognition of the unique nature of Nokia's agreement with Microsoft and the contributions that Nokia is providing, Nokia will receive payments measured in the billions of dollars.

4. An agreement that recognizes the value of intellectual property and puts in place mechanisms for exchanging rights to intellectual property. Nokia will receive substantial payments under the agreement.

With the definitive agreement now signed, both companies will begin engaging with operators, developers and other partners to help the industry understand the benefits of joining the new ecosystem. At the same time, work will continue on developing Nokia products on the Windows Phone platform, with the aim of securing volume device shipments in 2012. The scale of both companies' mutual commitment is significant and is in keeping with the intention to build a new ecosystem based on this long-term, strategic partnership. ###

>> One Step Closer to First Nokia Device built on Windows Phone

Dr. Kai Öistämö (Nokia) and Andy Lees (Microsoft)
Nokia Convversations (The official Nokia Blog)
21st of April 2011

http://conversations.nokia.com/2011/04/21/one-step-closer-to-first-nokia-device-built-on-windows-phone/

After 10 weeks of intense collaboration, we are pleased to report that Nokia and Microsoft have signed the definitive agreement for our strategic partnership to build a new global mobile ecosystem that is unlike any other. It’s a bold claim. But collectively we’ve moved from intent to agreement in such a short period. Actually, it’s even faster than we expected which makes this a perfect example of our commitment to our partnership and the speed at which we plan to move together. ... <Snip Rest> ... ###

>> Video at link above

Microsoft's Tim McDowd chats with Nokia's VP of Microsoft Alliance, Waldemar Sakalus, and Microsoft's General Manager of Developer & Marketplace Experience, Matt Bencke, about Nokia and Microsoft signing a strategic alliance. ###

Mango (WinPhone OS 7.5) WIP:

Nokia EVP Kai Oistamo told Mobilized that some prototypes are now running an early build of Windows Phone 7.5 - also known as the Mango upgrade. "The products are not done yet, but you can already see the signs," said Oistamo.

http://www.infosyncworld.com/reviews/cell-phones/nokia-prototypes-now-running-windows-phone-7.5/11961.html

- Eric -

Nokia Q1 2011 Earnings Call Transcript (Seeking Alpha) ...

... with Stephen Elop (CEO) and Timo Ihamuotila (CFO). Analysts Participating: Gareth Jenkins - UBS; Tim Boddy - Goldman Sachs; Tim Long - Bank of Montreal; Andrew Griffin - BofA Merrill Lynch; Mike Walkley - Canaccord Genuity; Kulbinder Garcha - Credit Suisse; Mark Sue - RBC Capital Markets; Ittai Kidron - Oppenheimer; Jeff Kvaal - Barclays; Pierre Ferragu - Bernstein; Stuart Jeffrey - Nomura; Zahid Hussein - Citigroup; Alexandre Peterc - Exane BNP.

• Presentation Transcript;

http://seekingalpha.com/article/264805-nokia-ceo-discusses-q1-2011-results-earnings-call-transcript

• Q&A Transcript:

http://seekingalpha.com/article/264805-nokia-ceo-discusses-q1-2011-results-earnings-call-transcript?part=qanda

• Slides:

http://phx.corporate-ir.net/External.File?item=UGFyZW50SUQ9OTAyOTB8Q2hpbGRJRD0tMXxUeXBlPTM=&t=1

• Excerpts (that I found particularly interesting) ...

--> Improved Rreporting Transparency:

Timo Ihamuotila: Beginning Q2, we will no longer disclose services net sales, billings and active users. Rather we will begin disclosing additional P&L information by business unit down to the operating contribution line. This means that within Devices & Services, we will provide disclosure for net sales down through the operating profit contribution line for our two newly created business units as of April 1, 2011, Smart Devices and Mobile Phones. We believe that providing this new incremental disclosure is the best way to provide investors with transparency to key factors and trends impacting our Devices & Services business

--> Dual SIM Devices (Slow to Market):

Stephen Elop: In Q1, one of the leading sources of pressure on our mobile phones business has been the lack of dual-SIM products. We expect this pressure to further increase in Q2. However, we plan to ship the Nokia C2 dual-SIM device by the end of Q2 2011, to begin to address the gap in our portfolio. The C2 will be the first of a range of dual-SIM devices, designed to significantly increase the competitiveness of our mobile phones offering through the balance of the year. ... [Q&A] As it relates to the mobile phones area, again, anticipating, as I said in my remarks, a range of devices, particularly taking advantage of the dual sim technology, and thus you should see, within those price bands served by those devices a range of different price points anticipated.

Timo Ihamuotila: As Stephen mentioned, we target to shape the Nokia C2 Dual Sim device by the end of Q2. This would be the first range of Dual Sim devices designed to increase our competitiveness in number of markets through the balance of the year.

--> Guidance: [note "planned tactical pricing action" in Devices & Services]

Timo Ihamuotila: We target Devices & Services net sales to be between €6.1 billion and €6.6 billion, [v. €7 088 in Q1] and we target Nokia Siemens Networks net sales to be between €3.2 billion and €3.5 billion [€3 171 in Q1]. We target Devices & Services non-IFRS operating margin to be between 6% and 9% [v. 9.8% in Q1], and we target NSN non-IFRS operating margin to be between 1% and 4% [v. 0.1% in Q1]. The outlook for Devices & Services net sales and non-IFRS operating margin for the second quarter 2011 is based on our expectations regarding factors, including a receipt of approximately €150 million of royalty income related to earlier periods, competitive industry dynamics and our planned tactical pricing actions, greater impact in Q2 than in Q1 related to the tragic events in Japan, particularly relating to component supply visibility for particular devices, our portfolio gap in dual-SIM devices which we expect to have a bigger impact in Q2 relative to Q1, and lower contribution from new products in Q2 compared to Q1 as the majority of our new products are planned to start shipping in the second half of the year. We target Devices & Services net sales in Q3 to be at approximately the same level as in Q2, and we expect Devices & Services net sales in Q4 to be seasonally higher compared to Q3. ... This is a tough time for the company, but we have a clear new direction and we are moving swiftly to improve our execution. As we said at the investor event in February, after the transition period with target devices and services to grow faster than the market and to deliver non-IFRS operating margin of 10% or more. Our NSN guidance does not include any amounts related to the planned NSNs acquisition of certain network infrastructure assets from Motorola Solutions. For your models, the Euro to dollar exchange rate we are using at the start of Q2 is €

Stephen Elop: With respect to the guidance as it relates to the operating margin, I think the way I would respond to that is by commenting specifically on what our guidance is. We say 10% or more; seems the number of people, because of the transition and various ambiguity and so forth are focused on the 10%. Obviously, we're (incented) here to drive the more part of that. And so, without characterizing it as conservative or not conservative, we wanted to give a clear indication, at a minimum where we expect it to perform. But certainly the encouragement that we are all receiving from our shareholders, our Board and everybody else is to do better than that.1.418.

--> New Products (back end loaded in 2011):

Timo Ihamuotila: As Stephen mentioned, we target to shape the Nokia C2 Dual Sim device by the end of Q2. This would be the first range of Dual Sim devices designed to increase our competitiveness in number of markets through the balance of the year. In addition, we plan to start shipping a renewed family of Symbian smartphones during the second half of 2011, building on the UI software enhancements from the Symbian Anna release. On a full year basis, 2011, we expect devices and services non-IFRS operating margin to be between 6% and 9%.

--> OpEx Cost Savings:

Stephen Elop: The changes I have described are designed to bring a corresponding substantial reduction in our operating expenses. We target to reduce our Devices & Services' non-IFRS operating expenses by €1 billion for the full year 2013, compared to the full year 2010 Devices & Services' non-IFRS operating expenses of €5.65 billion. Next week, we will be ready to commence the detailed consultation processes with their employees. We will provide more details about the impact on employment, the transition process for employees, new opportunities for employment and unique programs that we will put in place to reflect the importance that we attribute to our social responsibility. It is important to note that because new programs will be ramped-up as other efforts are transitioned, generally all employees can stay on the payroll through the end of the year. Additionally, it is important to highlight that the targeted reduction in operating expenses comes from a variety of different sources, not only from a reduction and the number of employees. These other areas include normal attrition, a reduction in the use of outsource professionals, reductions in facility costs, improvements in efficiencies and a variety of other topics. Speculation on the exact numbers and timing of reductions is therefore best postponed until we have discussed and developed the initial plans with employee representatives through the official consultation process.

Timo Ihamuotila: We clearly have a situation where we are in a transition period. There is also a lot of work to do during the transition period. So we think this is the right way to manage this for the company. We have also given a very clear target, i.e. it is a comparison from the actual OpEx 2010 to actual OpEx what we expect to see in 2013. So those are really the dynamics. But from that it is clear that the majority of the reduction we are currently expecting to happen during 2012.

--> The Challenger Mindset:

Stephen Elop: While we are still in the early days, we are undergoing changes to adjust our workforce to a challenger mindset. Over the last few weeks we have implemented new organizational efforts including being very deliberate in defining the behaviors, the attitudes and the environment that we believe must be present to drive great results. Additionally, we are shifting to more localized empowerment, so the teams in the field, who are closest to our partners and customers, can respond to local market conditions more quickly. And we are increasing accountability across the organization by clarifying senior leadership roles, being unambiguous about decision-making rights and designing measures to tie compensation incentives more closely to performance metrics. ... all of us at Nokia have shifted from a mode of developing our strategy to want to putting our strategy into action. With every day that passes, we gain new clarity, so we can deliver results. And let me be clear, at Nokia, results matter. Results means building inspired teams that deliver great products to consumers, which ultimately drives superior financial results.

--> The Next Gen (MeeGo, Qt, Other)

Stephen Elop: We are making progress with our objective of investing in future disruptions. This is not an area on which we will provide regular operational updates. However, we have begun the process of pursuing the next generation of platforms, devices and user experiences that we believe will define some of the future disruptions in our market.

###

- Eric -

Nokia's Q1 2011 Earnings Report

Nokia's first quarter earnings were solid with net sales beating expectations to rise to €10.4 billion from €9.52 billion a year earlier. Net profit was also ahead of forecasts, although it fell to €344 million from €349 million a year earlier. Nokia said its operating margin for Devices & Services fell to 9.8% in the first quarter, from 12.1% a year earlier, and 11.3% in the previous quarter. The company warned the operating margin would fall further to between 6% and 9% in the second quarter, and that net sales in the division would also drop in the second quarter to between €6.1 and €6.6 billion, from €7.1 billion in the first quarter. - Arild Moen, WSJ -

--> Nokia's Earnings Release:

http://phx.corporate-ir.net/External.File?item=UGFyZW50SUQ9OTAyNjl8Q2hpbGRJRD0tMXxUeXBlPTM=&t=1

--> Earnings Presentation Slides

http://phx.corporate-ir.net/External.File?item=UGFyZW50SUQ9OTAyOTB8Q2hpbGRJRD0tMXxUeXBlPTM=&t=1

--> Earnings Excel Tables

http://phx.corporate-ir.net/External.File?item=UGFyZW50SUQ9OTAyNzB8Q2hpbGRJRD0tMXxUeXBlPTM=&t=1

- Eric -

Nokia's Extended Symbian^3 Lineup ...

I. Two New S^3 Hedge-Fi Devices Launched: The X7 and E6



Filling out the S^3 lineup, yesterday Nokia announced the Nokia E6 with a tochscreen pixel density of 326ppi (same as iPhone;s retina display) and the Nokia X7, two new smartphones aimed at business people and entertainment enthusiasts respectively. The two devices are the first Nokia smartphones to contain the updated Symbian software, with new icons and usability enhancements such as improved text input, a faster browser and refreshed Ovi Maps.

II. The Symbian^3 (S^3) Expanded Smartphone Range

          Original     Amazon                  Capacitive  Physical                       Weight 
 Model  SIM-Free MSRP  SIM-Free Availability Touch  Display Keyboard   Camera: Flash       Ounces   
 =====  =============  ======== ============ ============== ======== ===================== ======                     
 C6-01  €260  US $376    $349       Now      3.2" CB AMOLED    No    8mp EDoF: dual LCD    4.6 oz                
 C7-00¹ €335  US $484    $379       Now      3.5" CB AMOLED    No    8mp EDoF: dual LCD    4.6 oz 
 E6-00  €340  US $491     NA    Q2, Q3 in US 2.5" LCD        QWERTY  8mp EDoF: dual LCD    4.7 oz 
 N8-00  €370  US $535    $399       Now      3.5" AMOLED       No    12mp autofocus: Xenon 4.8 oz 
 X7-00  €380  US $547     NA        Q2       4.0" LCD          No    8mp EDoF: dual LCD    5.2 oz                           
 E7-00  €495  US $670    $599       Now      4.0" CB AMOLED F.QWERTY 8mp EDoF: dual LCD    6.2 oz  

¹ The subsidized C7 is available now at T-Mobile USA as the 'Astound" at $80 (after $50 rebate). It already has many of the new features of 'Anna' which will be available as an upgrade for all S^3 phones in the range by mid-summer.

III. GSM Arena and Forum Nokia S^3 Smartphone Models Specification Pages and Nokia Data Sheets:

• Nokia C6-01

http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_c6_01-3524.php

http://www.forum.nokia.com/Devices/Device_specifications/C6-01/

http://press.nokia.com/wp-content/uploads/mediaplugin/doc/2-1-nokia_c6-01_data_sheet.pdf

• Nokia C7-00

http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_c7-3394.php

http://www.forum.nokia.com/Devices/Device_specifications/C7-00/

http://press.nokia.com/wp-content/uploads/mediaplugin/doc/nokia_c7_data_sheet.pdf

• Nokia CY7 Astound (T-Mobile Exclusive)

http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_astound-3885.php

http://www.forum.nokia.com/Devices/Device_specifications/C7_Astound/

http://press.nokia.com/wp-content/uploads/mediaplugin/doc/nokia-astound-data-sheet.pdf

• Nokia E6-00 Business Phone

http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_e6-3717.php

http://www.forum.nokia.com/Devices/Device_specifications/E6-00/

http://press.nokia.com/wp-content/uploads/mediaplugin/doc/1-nokia-e6-data-sheet.pdf

• Nokia N8-00 Imaging Flagship

http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_n8-3252.php

http://www.forum.nokia.com/Devices/Device_specifications/N8-00/

http://www.nokia.com/NOKIA_COM_1/Press/Materials/White_Papers/pdf_files/data_sheets_2010/Nokia_N8_data_sheet.pdf

• Nokia X7-00 Entertainment Flagship

http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_x7_00-3664.php

http://www.forum.nokia.com/Devices/Device_specifications/X7-00/

http://press.nokia.com/wp-content/uploads/mediaplugin/doc/2-1-nokia-x7-data-sheet.pdf

• Nokia E7 S^3 " Communicator" Business Class Flagship

http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_e7-3545.php

http://www.forum.nokia.com/Devices/Device_specifications/E7-00/

http://press.nokia.com/wp-content/uploads/mediaplugin/doc/2-1-nokia-x7-data-sheet.pdf

IV. Symbian^3's Current Common Engine and Feature Set

The Symbian^3 (S^3) Smartphone Range was launched in April 2010 and 1st deliveries for the N8 imaging flagship were made in late September 2010 with the C7 and C6 following in Q4, and the E7 shipping in March 2011. All models utilizes a common engine and chipset although the N8 features a larger high end camera sensor than the other 5 models and it features an autofocus camera with Xenon flash while the others use anextended depth of field (EDoF) 8mp fixed 'full focus' camera with dual LED flash but lack a macro mode for close-ups.

http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/features/item/12136_Nokia_its_new_device_trio_and_.php

Each model provides quadband (850/900/1800/1900 MHz) GSM/GPRS/EDGE and pentaband (850/900/1700-2100/1900/2100 MHz) WCDMA/HSPA, WLAN IEEE 802.11 b/g/n, and Bluetoorh 3.0 connectivity with a wide range of profiles. 3.5G HSDPA downlink packet acces is up to 10.2 Mbps,HSUPA uplink ro to 2.0 Mbps The common chipset includes an integrated TI ARM11 680MHz Processor single CPU baseband and apps processor, a Broadcom BCM2727 GPU coprocessor with dedicated accelerated 2G/3D Graphics, RF Transceiver from STMicro, and 256 MB SDRAM Memory. NAND Memory, Mass Storage Memory, and Maximum User Storage vary from model to model. Most (excepting the E7-00 support up to 32GB expanded memory on swappable MicroSD cards.

V. Updated Symbian^3 Software (Symbian Anna) Rollout ...

See AWS article below for complete overview of Symbian Anna. This paragraph from it describes the Anna rollout.

>> The Nokia E6 and X7 will ship with the Symbian Anna update out of the box later this quarter. The Nokia Astound, the US version of the Nokia C7-00, has the majority of the software updates from Symbian Anna, with the exception of the new icon set. It will receive the remaining updates in due course. New shipments of the Nokia N8, C7, C6-01 and E7 devices will come with Symbian Anna as standard in firmware later this quarter or next quarter. Depending on lead times and levels of retail inventory, the exact timing of this switchover will vary significantly from market to market. Existing Symbian^3 devices (N8, C7, C6-01, E7) will receive the Symbian Anna update through a software update in Q2. Nokia would not give an exact timing for the update, but we would suggest a starting point some time in May for commencement of the update delivery process. The timing for the update will again vary from device to device and market to market. The roll out of the update will be done in stages, with different devices and different markets receiving the update in a staggered fashion. [Tafe Blanford] ###

>> Symbian Anna - Usability-Focussed Software Update

Rafe Blanford
All About Symbian
April 12th 2011

http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/news/item/12782_Symbian_Anna-usability_focused.php

Nokia [yesterday] announced the forthcoming availability of Symbian Anna, a software upgrade for all Symbian^3 devices. The update is focused around three key objectives: delivering improved usability, enhancing enterprise functionality and improving developer productivity. The update underlines the importance of, and Nokia's ongoing commitment to, Symbian. Symbian Anna will ship with new devices later this quarter and be available to all existing Symbian^3 devices in a similar time frame. Symbian Anna is effectively equivalent to PR 2.0, but does contain some elements (e.g. icon set) which were not originally envisioned for this. Nokia has already indicated that there will be future updates for Symbian. While no additional information was given, it is safe to assume more information on Symbian Bertie, Beatrice or Blondie will arrive later in the year. This would be equivalent to a PR 3.0 release.

What's in Symbian Anna? ... <Snip rest: see full article at link above for Anna's new features review> ... ###

More Anna ScreenShots and feature set overview here ...

http://conversations.nokia.com/2011/04/12/announcing-symbian-anna-aka-pr2/

IV. Symbian^3: What's Coming Next in 2011? ...

In H2 we can expect more launches of S^3 devices with several using a new engine based on a dual core ARM A9 SMP processor with additional RAM and user storage, most likely supporting penta-band HSPA+ running whatever Nokia chooses to call S^3 PR 3.0 with a significantly refined UI/UX and additional optimization and stability enhancements.

- Eric -

New Symbian Launches: Anna (PR2); X7 & E6 ...

... yesterday, with availability in Q2. Symbian 'Anna' will ship on the new entertainment focused X7 with 4" AMOLED display and business focused E6 with physical QWERTY keyboard as well as 2.5: capacitive touch input display, both of which utilize the same engine as the four currently available Symbian^3 models, and it will be available as an upgrade for the N8, E7, C7, and C6-01.

Symbian 'Anna' (PR2) features ...

• New fresh icon set delivered as part of a new theme. The icons are derived from the existing icongraphy, but with rounded edges, giving a more contemporary look and feel.

• Improved text input with portrait QWERTY input and a split screen for entering text into web pages and apps.

• New enhanced WebKit browser ((v7.3) with faster performance and increased ease of use.

• Improved Photo Gallery usability.

• Instant messaging with Microsoft Communicator Mobile, email including full meeting request support and hardware-accelerated device encryption..

• Enhanced Ovi Maps (v3.06) with smarter search; Check-in to Facebook, Twitter, and Foursquare or local social networks; with ability to share places via email and SMS, and friends using non-Nokia phones as well as public transport network lines view and the capability to update and download full country maps via WLAN.

• Enhanced Ovi Store (v2.06.xx) with improved search, auto-complete, spell-checking and Internet search engine as well as increased file size limits for downloading over WLAN

• Enhanced Social (v1.3) with status updates in contact card, ability to retweet and view follower list in Twitter, higher resolution image uploads, and ability to add caption to images.

• Enhanced Ovi Suite (v3.x) which works seamlessly with the latest version of Ovi Suite to update the device software, download free street maps, download new music and discover the latest mobile apps, as well as improved device back up to keep content safe and sync content with Ovi.

>> Nokia Strengthens Smartphone Portfolio with Two New Products and a Renewed User Experience

Nokia Press Release
Espoo, Finland
April 12, 2011

http://bd.7z.sl.pt

Nokia E6 extends business mobility range and Nokia X7 introduces a new entertainment device for mobile gamers, both using the latest update of Symbian software

Nokia today announced the Nokia E6 and the Nokia X7, two new smartphones aimed at business people and entertainment enthusiasts respectively. The two devices are the first Nokia smartphones to contain the updated Symbian software, with new icons and usability enhancements such as improved text input, a faster browser and refreshed Ovi Maps.

"We are further strengthening Nokia's smartphone portfolio with these two new devices, both of which offer a more beautiful and intuitive user experience that will soon also be available for the Nokia N8, Nokia E7, Nokia C7 and Nokia C6-01," said Jo Harlow, head of Nokia's Smart Devices business. "With these new products and more Symbian devices and user enhancements coming in the near future, we are confident we can keep existing Nokia smartphone customers engaged, as well as attract new first-time and competitor smartphone users."

Following on from Nokia's highly successful Nokia E71 and Nokia E72 devices, the Nokia E6 is a sleek business smartphone with a full QWERTY keypad and a high resolution touch display. Designed using premium materials such as glass and stainless steel, the device comes in a compact size that makes it easy to use with either one hand or two. The Nokia E6 offers exceptional battery life and the best out-of-the-box Microsoft messaging experience on a business smartphone, including access to Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft Communicator Mobile and Microsoft SharePoint.

The Nokia X7 is an entertainment-focused smartphone with a large 4" display ideal for gaming, and an 8 Megapixel camera for capturing pictures and HD-quality video. A distinctively designed device, the Nokia X7 is made from a combination of seamless stainless steel and glass - delivering a solid and durable feel in the hand. The Nokia X7 comes preloaded with the popular Galaxy on Fire HD and Asphalt 5 HD games.

The Nokia E6 and Nokia X7 are also the first smartphones to contain the complete update of the Symbian software user experience. This update offers a host of usability enhancements, including fresh, new icons, improved text input, a faster internet browsing experience and a refreshed Ovi Maps application with improved search and new public transport routes. The renewed software also offers a strong set of new features aimed at business users in particular, including true enterprise grade security with hardware accelerated encryption, and new e-mail features such as full meeting request support.

In coming months the software update, which is nick-named Symbian Anna, will also be available as standard on newly shipping Nokia N8, Nokia E7, Nokia C7 and Nokia C6-01 devices, as well as available to download on previously purchased models of those same smartphones.

For developers, Symbian Anna greatly enhances the user experience on Nokia smartphones and makes the Qt business opportunity with Nokia even greater. Read more at: http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/nokia-developer-news/ ###

More to follow.

- Eric -

NSN/Moto Deal to Close This Month ...

>> NSN/Motorola Deal Nears Completion, Price Dropped

GSM Mobile Business Brief
13 April 2011

http://www.mobilebusinessbriefing.com/article/nsn-motorola-deal-nears-completion-price-dropped

Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) expects to close its acquisition of Motorola Solutions’ networks assets business by April 29, 2011, following the resolution of litigation issues. In a separate development, the value of the deal has been reduced to US$975 million. Until today the sale process had been hampered by a lawsuit from Huawei concerning the potential transfer of its intellectual property to NSN as a result of the transaction, due to a relationship it formed with Motorola in 2000 which saw certain Huawei products re-sold by Motorola under its own name (to the value of US$880 million). A joint statement today from Huawei and Motorola notes that both parties will drop lawsuits against one another as part of the settlement. The settlement also allows Motorola to transfer its commercial agreements to NSN, while paying an undisclosed fee to Huawei. However, anti-trust approval on the deal is still pending from Chinese regulatory authorities.

In a separate statement today, Motorola Solutions and NSN announced they had changed the terms of their deal. NSN will now pay Motorola US$975 million, rather than the original US$1.2 billion. ###

- Eric -NSN/Motorola Deal Nears Completion, Price Dropped

GSM Mobile Business Brief
13 April 2011

http://www.mobilebusinessbriefing.com/article/nsn-motorola-deal-nears-completion-price-dropped

Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) expects to close its acquisition of Motorola Solutions’ networks assets business by April 29, 2011, following the resolution of litigation issues. In a separate development, the value of the deal has been reduced to US$975 million. Until today the sale process had been hampered by a lawsuit from Huawei concerning the potential transfer of its intellectual property to NSN as a result of the transaction, due to a relationship it formed with Motorola in 2000 which saw certain Huawei products re-sold by Motorola under its own name (to the value of US$880 million). A joint statement today from Huawei and Motorola notes that both parties will drop lawsuits against one another as part of the settlement. The settlement also allows Motorola to transfer its commercial agreements to NSN, while paying an undisclosed fee to Huawei. However, anti-trust approval on the deal is still pending from Chinese regulatory authorities.

In a separate statement today, Motorola Solutions and NSN announced they had changed the terms of their deal. NSN will now pay Motorola US$975 million, rather than the original US$1.2 billion. ###

- Eric -

NSN/Motorola Deal Nears Completion, Price Dropped

GSM Mobile Business Brief
13 April 2011

http://www.mobilebusinessbriefing.com/article/nsn-motorola-deal-nears-completion-price-dropped

Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) expects to close its acquisition of Motorola Solutions’ networks assets business by April 29, 2011, following the resolution of litigation issues. In a separate development, the value of the deal has been reduced to US$975 million. Until today the sale process had been hampered by a lawsuit from Huawei concerning the potential transfer of its intellectual property to NSN as a result of the transaction, due to a relationship it formed with Motorola in 2000 which saw certain Huawei products re-sold by Motorola under its own name (to the value of US$880 million). A joint statement today from Huawei and Motorola notes that both parties will drop lawsuits against one another as part of the settlement. The settlement also allows Motorola to transfer its commercial agreements to NSN, while paying an undisclosed fee to Huawei. However, anti-trust approval on the deal is still pending from Chinese regulatory authorities.

In a separate statement today, Motorola Solutions and NSN announced they had changed the terms of their deal. NSN will now pay Motorola US$975 million, rather than the original US$1.2 billion. ###

- Eric -NSN/Motorola Deal Nears Completion, Price Dropped

GSM Mobile Business Brief
13 April 2011

http://www.mobilebusinessbriefing.com/article/nsn-motorola-deal-nears-completion-price-dropped

Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) expects to close its acquisition of Motorola Solutions’ networks assets business by April 29, 2011, following the resolution of litigation issues. In a separate development, the value of the deal has been reduced to US$975 million. Until today the sale process had been hampered by a lawsuit from Huawei concerning the potential transfer of its intellectual property to NSN as a result of the transaction, due to a relationship it formed with Motorola in 2000 which saw certain Huawei products re-sold by Motorola under its own name (to the value of US$880 million). A joint statement today from Huawei and Motorola notes that both parties will drop lawsuits against one another as part of the settlement. The settlement also allows Motorola to transfer its commercial agreements to NSN, while paying an undisclosed fee to Huawei. However, anti-trust approval on the deal is still pending from Chinese regulatory authorities.

In a separate statement today, Motorola Solutions and NSN announced they had changed the terms of their deal. NSN will now pay Motorola US$975 million, rather than the original US$1.2 billion. ###

- Eric -

Nokia's New Silicon Valley Digs ...

... are located in a 156,000-square-feet five-story building in Sunnyvale California in the Sunnyvale Town Center located at 200 Mathilda Avenue at the intersection of Mathilda and Washington avenues. Nokia is the complexes sole tenant. The new Silicon Valley headquarters for Nokia is part of a redevelopment project in Sunnyvale, that was stalled for years. City officials expect that Nokia’s new building that was transformed in just six months to a gleaming corporate headquarters from a structural skeleton, will be the catalyst to revive a troubled 36-acre downtown redevelopment project and it benefits downtown merchants, particularly those on historic Murphy Avenue, a row of mostly vintage buildings that stands between the Caltrain commuter rail station and the new office building.

Site selection for the new Nokia regional complex was unusual, at least among the high-tech businesses of Silicon Valley. To complete the Nokia transaction, which was signed last May, the buildings owners had to overcome several obstacles. Many prospective tenants were wary of leasing a vacant property that was only half completed in a region that already had a surplus of vacant finished buildings and the fact that the building was in receivership did not fill prospective tenants with confidence in the owners. On looking for a location in which to consolidate its offices in Santa Clara County, however, Nokia decided against creating a stand-alone, enclosed campus, with features like its own commissary and gym. "There were many vacant buildings, but they tended to be isolated places," said Karen Lachtanski, a spokeswoman for Nokia. "We wanted to be in an area with amenities, such as being able to go out at lunchtime and have a choice of different places to eat.

Named the most creative deal of the year in 2010 by a local business paper, the move is consolidating the company's existing Mountain View, Redwood City, San Francisco and Menlo Park operations into the $76 million building, which comfortably houses some 500 employees and has room for about 250 more. The company’s two research centers in Palo Alto and Berkeley, where Nokia conducts its long term research operations, will remain in those cities to maintain their close relationships with Stanford University and University of California, Berkeley.

The new complex was inaugurated on February 3, 2011 although initial occupancy began in mid-December 2010. More than 100 Nokia staff and guests including Sunnyvale city officials and downtown merchants toured the facility on the 3rd, exploring the second floor lounge that includes a deck. On the tour the group inspected private huts, or quiet work areas, which were modeled after Finnish saunas--a common thing to find in Finland's office buildings. The first floor is home to conference rooms and a lodging area for visiting business travelers. The lodge is open 24/7 and features beds and showers for the weary business traveler. Teleconference rooms can instantly link employees to partners in Singapore, the United Kingdom, Montreal, Beijing or Helsinki .Other meeting rooms are named after places in California, from landmarks to vineyards, and feature Finnish- designed furniture and carpets. Bright green peapod-shaped couches and elaborate lighting features brighten multiple seating areas.

Sunnyvale, a city of some 140,000 people located about 50 miles south of San Francisco, is less well known than other Silicon Valley cities like Palo Alto or Cupertino, but is a major job center. The city has a daytime population of 230,000 and is the headquarters for AMD, Maxim, Juniper Networks, Yahoo! and other high tech firms. ###

Quotes

"The best and the brightest are in the Silicon Valley, which is extremely helpful in terms of advancing our research and development, The opportunities are unlimited." - Silicon Valley and Espoo based Rich Green, Nokia CTO -

"The economic impact reaches beyond this structure, as Nokia employees visit Sunnyvale's shops and restaurants .But more than that, it brings a renewed sense of vitality to our downtown and serves as a highly visible reminder that for this area, the best days are yet to come." - Sunnyvale Mayor Melinda Hamilton -

"The innovation of the valley can be made available to the rest of the world through Nokia. For the first time, our program writers, recruiting services, the people writing the programs for maps, music and messaging, are all here in one place. One of the primary reasons for coming together in one building was to foster collaboration among departments that in the past 20 years were located all over the Bay Area" - Tom Furlong, SVP & GM of Nokia Messaging -

Sunnyvale Town Center Photos: The 1st during development and the 2nd before move-in..





Sources: Various including The New York Times, Sunnyvale Sun, San Jose Mercury, and Silicon Valley Business.

- Eric -

The Nokis Symbian^3.1 C7 'Astound' on T-Mobile USA ...

.. was announced this evening at a Nokia dinner event in Orlando.

• The Astound on April 6th for $79.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate on contract.card with a two-year contract and qualifying voice and data plan. Preorders start tomorrow.

Hands on video here ...

http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/21/nokia-astound-for-t-mobile-coming-april-6th-for-80-hands-on-wi/

...and here:

http://www.mobileburn.com/youtube_video2.jsp?Id=13603

>> Nokia Delivers Astounding Smartphone for T-Mobile USA Customers

Nokia CTIA Wireless Show Press Release
White Plains, NY, And Orlando, Fla.
March 22, 2011

Inspired by U.S. consumers who want an affordable smartphone that offers a simplified user experience and on-the-go entertainment, Nokia today continues to broaden its Symbian smartphone portfolio with the introduction of the Nokia Astound. Offering value without compromise, the Nokia Astound will be available exclusively from T-Mobile USA beginning April 6.

The Nokia Astound's sleek stainless-steel design features an 8-megapixel camera with dual-LED flash and 720p HD video capture, a brilliant 3.5-inch capacitive touch AMOLED display, free turn-by-turn navigation from Nokia and access to thousands of free and paid apps via Nokia's Ovi Store. The Nokia Astound makes it easy for consumers to stay connected. The Astound has three fully customizable homescreens, giving quick access to email, and the ability to check the latest from Facebook and Twitter, or just surf the web. Consumers can kick back and enjoy the Astound's entertainment features by playing pre-loaded games like Fruit Ninja, listening to the lastest music with the Slacker Radio app, or browsing their own music and video collection, right at their fingertips.

"As millions more consumers make the switch to smartphones, Nokia is proud to offer an alternative that is not only easy and fun to use, but is also very sexy and sleek, unlike anything in its price point," said Mark Slater, vice president of sales, Nokia. "With a user experience rounded out by Nokia's Ovi services, including Maps and Store, consumers will be delighted to discover Nokia's premium design quality with no compromises on services and apps, made affordable with T-Mobile."

"As T-Mobile continues to make owning a smartphone easy and affordable, we are thrilled to introduce the high-quality design and entertainment experience of the Nokia Astound," said Andrew Morrison, vice president, product management, T-Mobile USA. "Offering the features of a high-end smartphone at a great price, the Nokia Astound is sure to appeal to a broad array of consumers."

Uniquely crafted, the Nokia Astound is an example of the quality and impressive hardware that consumers associate with Nokia. Its AMOLED touchscreen is protected by ultrathin, damage-resistant glass and surrounded by stainless steel, which completes the attractive yet durable design.

Equipped with the latest commercial version of Ovi Maps, ¹ the Nokia Astound provides free voice-guided, turn-by-turn navigation in almost 100 countries in 46 languages.² The Nokia Astound comes pre-loaded with automotive grade maps for the entire U.S., Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean. With more than 8,000 3D landmarks and free premium content like Lonely Planet guides and TripAdvisor, consumers can explore new places and experiences along the way. New features include improved search engines and WiFi positioning, a drive assistance mode for real-time traffic updates, maps of public transit lines, and the ability to check in to places and share great moments with friends on Facebook, Twitter and many local social networks.

¹ Ovi Maps uses automotive grade maps from NAVTEQ, the leading global provider of maps, traffic and location data.
² Additional contries and languages are available to download free from Nokia. Data charges may apply.

With the Nokia Astound, consumers can visit Ovi Store to discover new apps, games and themes to customize their device. Each week, Ovi Store continues to grow and add more great content that supports 32 languages in more than 190 countries. Currently, Ovi Store sees more than 4 million downloads worldwide per day, including popular apps and games like Angry Birds, OpenTable, Shazam and Galaxy on Fire. As an added convenience, apps and services can be billed directly to a consumer's monthly T-Mobile bill or credit card.

Visitors at CTIA Wireless in Orlando, Fla., can visit the Nokia Lounge, booth #1626, to experience the Astound along with other Nokia solutions and meet developers who are creating compelling apps and content for consumers to enjoy on Nokia devices.

Availability: The Nokia Astound will be available nationwide starting April 6 through T-Mobile retail stores and online at http://www.t-mobile.com for $79.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate card with a two-year service agreement and qualifying voice and data plan.

The Nokia Astound will also be offered at select third-party dealers, and at leading national retailers including Costco, RadioShack, Sam's Club, Target Mobile locations and Walmart. For more information, visit http://www.nokiausa.com/astound . ###

- Eric -

Nokia 2010 SEC Form 20-F Annual Report ....

Nokia Corporation
United States Securities and Exchange Commission
Form 20-F
Annual Report for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2010

http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/924613/000095012311024458/u10545e20vf.htm

or

http://www.nokia.com/NOKIA_COM_1/About_Nokia/Financials/form20-f_10.pdf

In USD 2010 Nokia Net Sales were $56.322 Billion; Operating profit was $2.747 Bil; Profit before ta was $2.370 Bil; Profit attributable to equity holders of the parent was $2.455 Bil; Earnings per share were $0.66; Cash dividend per share was $0.53. Cash and other liquid assets at year end were $16 288 Bil. Total Assets were $51.912 Bil.

In 2010 the average exchange rate was 1.3216 expressed in US dollars per euro. At filing on March 4, 2011, the noon buying rate was USD 1.3983 per EUR 1.00..

- Eric -

Trading QCOM: Resistance, Support, and Clear Entry Points ...

Wednesday's close $55.

>> QUALCOMM Close to Resistance

Danny Miller (New York)
TradersHuddle.com
Monday, 07 March 2011

http://www.tradershuddle.com/Trading-Ideas/17967103072011-qualcomm-close-to-resistance.html

Shares of Qualcomm Incorporated (NASDAQ:QCOM) are trading very close to calculated resistance at $59.84 with the current price action closing at just $58.15 placing the stock near levels that make it difficult to buy.

Qualcomm Incorporated (NASDAQ:QCOM) develops and delivers digital wireless communications products and services based on ots CDMA digital technology. It provides integrated CDMA chipsets and systems software, technology licensing, Eudora email software, and satellite based systems.

Qualcomm's current stock range is defined by current calculated support defined at $46.08 and by the resistance level at $59.84, the stock is clearly over-extended from support, making it difficult to establishing new long positions at this level.

Traders don't have a clear entry point for Qualcomm, as the stock is well above support, however, as the stock pulls back towards $46.08 it will definitely provide a reference point to establish a trade. On the other hand if the stock decides to break above resistance level at $59.84 then traders will get an opportunity to enter QUALCOMM stock by establishing a position as the stock moves to a higher range. ###

All things considered (including the price of oil, and ) QCOM has held up reasonably well since bouncing off its week ago 1o year high and esatablishing that new $59.84 resistance point but this mornings downgrade (and its rationale. ###

- Eric

Integrated Baseband + Application Processors v. S/A Standalone Application processors)

... in mobile wireless. Qualcomm and its competitors.

>> Standalone Application processors Are Wining In Mobility Markets, Says Petrov Group

DIGITIMES Research
Contributed by the Petrov Group
Tuesday 8 March 2011

http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20110308VL204.html

Several years ago there was a widely accepted expectation that application mobile processors would be fully integrated with baseband processors on a single chip. However, today we are witnessing a proliferation of standalone (S/A) application processors, and the integration of the baseband and the application processor is sporadic at best according to Ljubisa Ristic, managing director for mobile/wireless section at the Petrov Group.

We expect the strategy of S/A application processors will dominate the market for some time despite recent announcements by several companies of the integration of baseband and application processors on a single chip, said Ristic.

There are three processing blocks that are absolutely critical to the performance of products such as smartphones and tablets - baseband processor, application processor, and graphics processor. Each one of these has its distinct role, and there is often confusion when describing mobile processors whereby the term baseband is used to describe an application processor and vice versa.

The role of the baseband processor is to manage tasks related to a particular communication standard such as WCDMA, EDGE, CDMA, or LTE. The baseband processor manages radio communications and control functions (signal modulation, radio frequency shifting, encoding, etc.), and it runs the communication protocol stack. Baseband processors have been around basically from the inception of cellular phone technology, and its architecture has gone through several evolutions, following in lock-step the evolution of the cell phone industry, from analog to digital to 3G, and the latest development to LTE.

The application processor is a relatively new development driven by the proliferation of smart consumer products and smartphones that offer an enhanced user experience. The role of the application processor is to run the operating system and manage many applications such as multitasking, Internet browsing, e-mail, interfacing with peripheral devices, etc.

The underlining technology for both baseband and most application processor cores is ARM architecture. Almost everyone in the industry who is making baseband and application processors has a license from ARM Holdings, the company that designs and licenses low-power architectures. The only exception is Intel, which makes its Atom line of application processors based on x86 architecture, but Intel yet has to establish itself as a smartphone player.

The graphics processor (GPU) tailored for mobile applications is also a newer addition to the world of mobile processors, and it coincides with the rise of multimedia applications. The role of the GPU is to manage 2D and 3D graphics, video capture, playback, deliver mobile gaming, and provide a rich user interface. Here, as opposed to baseband and application processor cores where ARM architecture dominates the market, there is no single company holding the monopoly on technology. There are several competitors offering their graphic cores to others in the industry and a few that use internal solutions. The list of providers includes Imagination Technologies, Vivante Corporation, and ARM, while Nvidia, Qualcomm, and Broadcom use their own graphics. Nvidia, Imagination Technologies, and Vivante have developed their own graphics technology while ARM, Qualcomm, and Broadcom have gained technologies by acquisition. It should be pointed out that Imagination Technology, one of the leaders, although independent, has both Apple and Intel holding significant equity positions in the company, commented Ristic. One should take note that mobile graphics is becoming an integral part of the application processor today, which means that graphics (one or multiple cores) are integrated on the same chip with the core of application processor.

To avoid any confusion in terminology we want to clarify the meaning of terms related to processors. When we say standalone (S/A) application processor it means an application processor together with a mobile graphics processor on the same chip. When we say baseband processor it means just a baseband processor. If a baseband processor and an application processor are integrated on a single chip we call it an integrated mobile processor (it contains a baseband core, application core, and mobile graphics core on a single chip). We use the expression mobile processor for all three, baseband, standalone application processor, and integrated mobile processor said Ristic.

It is important to point out that the mobile processor industry has gone through significant consolidation in the last couple of years and the dynamics of rapid change will most likely continue. Some of the dominant players a few years ago have decided to exit the baseband market: TI has focused on application processors and basically has exited the baseband segment, Freescale has divested the baseband business and has also focused only on application processors, while Analog Devices has exited (sold) the business completely; Intel has exited the baseband business by selling it to Marvell, only to turn around in 2010 and acquire it together with the RF business from Infineon.

Some of the established baseband businesses do not exist anymore as entities such as Agere and LSI (both now part of Intel). Others have stayed in it and have strengthened their teams with acquisitions. For example, Broadcom acquired Alphamosaic, Zyray, and Beceem, among others, and Qualcomm acquired Flarion, TeleCIS, and handheld graphics from AMD. ST Microelectronics and Ericsson have joined forces and operate as ST-Ericsson, as did Renesas and NEC in the new Renesas company. MediaTek became a player by acquiring technology from ADI, while newcomers Nvidia and Spreadtrum developed technology internally.

Today the list of key players in the mobile processor market includes Apple, Samsung, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, ST-Ericsson, Broadcom, Renesas, Nvidia, Intel, Marvell, Freescale, Spreadtrum, MediaTek, Icera, and VIA Telecom. All of these companies are focusing on application processors or their integration with baseband with the exception of Icera and Via Telcom (both offer only basebands for the time being) summarized Ristic.

Domination of Standalone Application Processors

The wide acceptance of smartphones and our desire for instant information and connection with the world around us is constantly driving new applications and innovations. The development of new mobile application processors has become a part of that cycle whereby companies compete to deliver products with new features and better performance. The race is on and time is of essence. According to the Petrov Group, this is one of the major reasons why we see the proliferation of S/A application processors.

The S/A application processor provides independence from communication protocol software and baseband, reduces time to market, and allows for rapid development of multimedia applications. Operating systems that run on application processors are built as open source; thus they are inclusive and enable the independent development of hundreds of thousands of applications. The S/A application processor also gives smartphone manufacturers flexibility in choosing hardware from different vendors whereby they can plan for cost optimization. In addition, when one enters tablets into the picture, the S/A application processor is the preferred solution for tablet designers. They would rather have the option of creating a line of products with and without 3G connection - the S/A application processor allows just that. For many people the basic Wi-Fi connectivity on a tablet would be more than enough since one can always connect the tablet to a smartphone, thereby establishing a 3G connection. If you already have a smartphone plan, why would you pay for a second plan on your tablet? For all of these reasons S/A application processors make a lot of sense, and it should not come as surprise that they currently dominate the smartphone and tablet market. We believe this trend will continue in the near future, said Ristic.

Look at individual players.

Apple is one of the biggest proponents of S/A application processor strategy. It designs internally, and optimizes the way it wants, and is in control. Currently Apple uses an A4 processor that includes a single core based on Cortex A-8 architecture and an integrated graphics core SGX 500 from Imagination Technologies. The next generation A5 application processor will be dual-core based on Cortex A-9 running at 1GHz and integrated with the PowerVR SGX 543 graphics core.

Samsung has an very similar strategy to Apple when it comes to S/A application processors, and we believe their partnership is much more than a simple supplier-customer relationship. Samsung's Hummingbird S5PC110 S/A application processor is almost identical to A4, and their next generation Exynos 4210 (S5PV310) is also based on the dual-core Cortex A-9 and ARM MALI-400 graphics core although one should not be surprised if it turns out to be PowerVR SGX 543 graphics core. Both Apple and Samsung are using their S/A application processors in smartphones and tablets.

Qualcomm, which is the leader in integrated mobile processors, has just announced two new S/A application processors, APQ8060 based on a dual-core Cortex A-9 and Adreno 220 graphics core, and APQ8064 that will have a quad-core based on a Cortex A-15 and Adreno 320 graphics core. The fact that Qualcomm has announced S/A application processors next to its powerful line of Snapdragon processors speaks for itself about the importance of offering S/A application processors.

Texas Instrument is one of the key suppliers of S/A application processors. For all practical purposes TI has abandoned baseband processors and has focused on application processors. The result is series of OMAP products. OMAP3 and OMAP4 have been very successful with customers, and now TI has announced its next generation of S/A application processors, OMAP5. The OMAP5430 is based on the dual-core Cortex A-15. It will have an integrated Power VR SGX544 graphics core. This will be a very powerful product running at 2GHz and manufactured in 28nm node.

ST-Ericsson is another key player formed by the joined forces of Ericsson and ST Microelectronics. Ericsson has a long tradition of designing baseband processors and is one of the most recognized names. ST-Ericsson has announced the next generation of S/A application processors, including Nova A9540, which is based on the dual-core Cortex A-9 and integrated graphics core SGX 600 Rogue, which is the newest generation of GPU from Imagination Technologies; the second product is Nova A9600, which will use dual-core Cortex A-15 running at 2.5GHz and the same integrated graphics core SGX 6000. These two S/A application processors will be manufactured in the 32nm and in 28nm node respectively.

Broadcom has also announced the next generation S/A application processor BCM 11311. This one also goes with dual-core Cortex A-9 and its own integrated graphics VideoCore IV. It will run at 1.1GHz and will use a 40nm CMOS process.

Renesas Mobile Corporation (now allied with NEC, which was a respectful processor player itself), has also announced the next generation of S/A application processor, dual-core, SH-Mobile APE5R, which is based on Cortex A-9 and an integrated graphics core based on PowerVR SGX MP. It runs at 1.2GHz and is in 45nm node.

Nvidia has been in the spotlight for several months now thanks to its Tegra 2 S/A application processor which gained wide acceptance in tablets and new smartphones. It is a dual-core processor based on Cortex A-8 and Nvidia's own GeForce integrated ultra low power GPU with eight cores. Tegra 2 runs at 1GHz. The dust has not yet settled around Tegra 2, and Nvidia has already announced a quad-core Tegra 3 that is based on Cortex A-9 and integrated 12 graphics cores. It runs at 1.5GHz and will most likely be made in 40nm although Nvidia would like to do it in 28nm node. With this line of products Nvidia has became the leader in the S/A application processor field.

Marvell has announced the triple-core S/A processor Armada 628 based on Cortex A-9 that runs at 1.5GHz and has an integrated graphics core based on Vivante GC2000. This one is made in 40nm node and has a unique architecture where the third core runs at lower frequency.

Freescale has announced an iMAX6 S/A application processor with four cores based on Cortex A-9 and integrated Mali graphics from ARM. The processor is scalable (there is a single, dual, and quad-core version) and it runs at 1.2GHz.

Intel is currently offering Atom Z670 as an application processor for the mobility market. The architecture of this processor is based on x86 as opposed to the rest of the vendors that use ARM's architecture. This processor runs at 1.5GHz and is made in 32nm node - the most advanced node among current S/A application processors on the market. Intel has a chance to become a player in the smartphone market if it manages to reduce power, which is one of the most critical features of the S/A application processor. Intel has two possible paths.

The first one is further optimization of the Atom architecture and features that are already part of the Atom such as thermal power envelope, clock frequency scaling, and hyper-threading. The Petrov Group predicts that Atom's performance will eventually become "good enough" for its targeted segments - OEMs will accept and use it when weighing all other numerous benefits.

But if all of this does not work, there is a second option for Intel according to Ristic - to adopt ARM architecture and pursue it in parallel. After all, Intel already has a line of baseband processors based on ARM architecture (which came with the Infineon acquisition), and nothing is preventing it from extending the license to mobile application processors. The situation is interesting, and it remains to be seen how Intel will execute. Certainly Intel will continue to be a significant player with its line of baseband processors and customers such as Apple's iPhone and iPad.

There are several things to be drawn from this overview, according to Ristic. One can see a clear transitional trend from single-core to multiple-core processors. The performance of S/A application processors improves by a minimum of one order of magnitude and at the same time power is reduced. The S/A application processors are among the most advanced products in semiconductor industry and at this point their manufacturing is clustered at the 45/40 nm node with the exception of Intel that is already at 32nm node. Furthermore, there is a clear indication that the next generation application processors will migrate to the 28nm node. The pace of change is very dramatic and development cycles are shorter. ###

- Eric -

A Nostalgic Stroll Down Our Various Qualcomm Message Boards' Memory Lane ...

Come, let's stroll
Stroll across the floor
Come, let's stro-oh-oh-oll
Stroll across the floor
Now turn around, [warrior] baby
Let's stroll once more<

Nostalgia: QCOM Eleven Year Price History from 1998 (Split Adjusted)

Calendar Year    1998    1999    2000    2001    2002    2003    2004    2005    2006    2007    2008  
 =============   =====  ======  ======  ======  ======  ======  ======  ======  ======  ======  ====== 
 High Price       4.21   92.52  100.00   44.69   26.67   27.43   44.99   46.60   53.01   47.72   56.88 
 Low Price        2.36    3.27   25.75   19.16   11.61   14.79   26.67   32.08   32.76   35.23   28.16 
 Year End Price   3.24   88.06   41.09   25.25   18.20   26.97   42.40   43.08   37.79   39.35   35.83

QCOM Stock Splits

==================== 
 08/04: 2-for-1 split 
 12/99: 4-for-1 split 
 05/99: 2-for-1 split 
 02/94: 2-for-1 split

Jeffrey,

<< Such nostalgia, sigh. Ramsey has been gone for longer than he was present, >>

Perhaps we should nostalgacize for a moment and do a sanity check on the statement you made (above) about Ramsey to see whether your math is in error or your facts are. Rather than do it here lets do it over here on what I believe to be the 1st Qualcomm (QCOM) board established on the Internet ...

http://siliconinvestor.advfn.com/readmsg.aspx?msgid=27220431

... although if someone knows of one (on AOL, Raging Bull, or Yahoo, e,g.) established earlier than April 1996 I'd appreciate being so advised.

<< Nokia has squandered, through hubris and miscalculation, that which it once dominated. >>

Spoken like a true cyberwarrior. I think you'll find that upon a legitimate examination of fact that hubris (which exists in any large corporation to some degree) played a relatively small role in Nokia's decline off its outstanding 2007 year when the 1st signs of global recession became evident. Miscalculation certainly and in several regards, but several other factors -- the impact of recession itself which was felt across the industry, the rapid regrowth of the gray market and legitimate market whitebox growth fueled by the MediaTek ecosystem and the Shanzai bandits, its sheer size and share, rapidly changing forex across regions and its impact on intelligent hedging, new entrants and new (and different) ecosystems, underestimation of tasks involved in evolving from a hardware company to a software and services company, etc., etc., etc, -- far outweigh any tinge of hubris.

Expansion of the above is really a subject for a Nokia board rather than this one. I'd be delighted to drill down further on that statement with you on the Nokia board here or on SI should you care to restate on one of those boards.

You'll notice that several of those global recession related factors fueled Qualcomm's retreat to $28.16 in 2008, and its dip again to $31.63 in 2010.

The world's gone a little smartphone whacky, but the two dominant players in tha broad range of mobile wireless devices (Nokia and Samsung) excluding a few who do smartphones only, and the 3 in mobile infra (Ericsson, Nokia and Huawei) were dramatically affected by the recession and on the mobile device side the MediaTek ecosystem -- with MediaTek becoming the largest manufacturer of mobile wireless ICs, albeit and because of very inexpensive ones, in unit terms -- and the Shanzai bandits, impacted not just Nokia and Samsung but also Qualcomm. Inexpensive kit from Huawei (an impressive comer) and ZTE hit Ericsson, Nokia, and Alcatel-Lucent on the infra side.

Nokia is significantly lagging several other players in recovery, and it looks like they could decline further as a result of a dramatic strategic change, before recovery. One could of course bet that they won't recover and those suffering from Nokiaphobia or Europhobia are likely to be inclined to, but when I post about Nokia here, or on other Qualcomm boards. I'm betting that over time they will, and it is with an eye towards what I believe is a very real opportunity for Qualcomm to find their way into Nokia sockets putting the Qualcomm win into the win-win PJ talked about in 2007, and I would bet that PJ feels the same way.

Cheers,

- Eric -

Nokia's Qt Commercial Licensing and Professional Services Acquired by Digia ...

Some sources have read this news as Nokia's abandonment of Qt. It is not, by any stretch. Qt is both the incorporated runtime and development framework for both current and evolved Symbian^3 and the Nokia's MeegO project which has temporarily been moved back burner. All core development and LGPL licensing of Qt remains with Nokia.

>> Digia To Acquire Commercial Licensing and Professional Services Arm of Qt

Rafe Blandford
All About Symbian
March 7th 2011

http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/news/item/12651_Digia_to_acquire_commercial_li.php

Digia, a Finnish software company, has signed an agreement with Nokia to acquire the commercial licensing and professional services arm of Nokia's Qt. The major portion of Qt, including all core development and LGPL licensing remains with Nokia. Nokia plans to continue to invest in the future development of Qt, which remains core to its Symbian (150 million additional devices) and MeeGo (future disruptions) activities. The acquisition is expected to close by the end of the month; neither company are disclosing cost details.

The move will provide reassurance to Qt Commercial Licensees who understandably felt that mobile was a more important focus for Nokia than desktop and embedded based solutions (the areas in which the majority of these licensees operate). It also makes it very clear that Nokia is committed to the future development of Qt. By signing this agreement with Digia, together with existing activities around Qt open contribution and governance, Nokia is signalling its intention to continue to develop Qt, while also providing a feasible and sustainable way for other companies to build products and solutions around the Qt framework.

Qt licensing and Professional Services

For commercial development Qt is currently available under two licenses: the Qt Commercial Developer License ('paid') and the Qt GNU LGP 2.1 License ('free'). The LGPL option was added two years ago, following on from Nokia's acquisition of Trolltech and reflected Nokia's desire to encourage uptake of Qt.

The Qt Commercial Developer License, which originated as a revenue generator prior to Nokia's acquisition of Trolltech, is used by more than 3,500 companies worldwide and estimated to be around 5% of commercial Qt development (percentage of licensees). This is because it is not feasible or acceptable to use an open source license (LGPL) in some industries (e.g. aerospace and defence) for business reasons or because of the need to provide product warranties (e.g. pharmaceutical and medical). Complimentary to the commercial licensing is the professional services business, which provides technical support to Qt licensees.

It is worth noting that commercial development based on the LGPL license, which is estimated to be around 95% of commercial Qt developer activity, is unaffected by this announcement. This includes almost all of the developers working on Symbian and MeeGo applications. Nokia remains the driving force behind Qt and it's core development and will continue to provide Qt through the LGPL license. However both commercial licensing and professional services are not considered a core business for Nokia. Qt is an enabling technology for Nokia, rather than a revenue generator. Nokia made a similar move when it acquired Symbian in 2009; it sold the Symbian Professional Services unit to Accenture.

As a result of this announcement nineteen Nokia employees from the Oslo and Silicon Valley offices will be transferring to Digia to provide a continuity of services with existing customers. They are drawn from the current Qt sales and marketing team and Nokia technical services team and represent less than 10% of the Qt workforce.

Digia will takeover responsibility for commercial licensing and professional services for both new and existing customers. Furthermore it will provide continuity of development for desktop and embedded Qt functionality and will look to create new service models. This is likely to include support for porting Qt to platforms that were not on Nokia's Qt roadmap. This will compliment Nokia's on-going Qt development, which has a mobile focus. It is very likely that Digia will contribute elements back into Qt as part of Qt's open contribution and governance model.

Nokia remains committed to on-going development of Qt. It plays a vital role for the Symbian platform where it is the primary development environment and will be the enabling technology for a number of software and user interface updates that are expected to arrives in the next 12 months. Similarly Qt is the underlying technology for user experience and developers in Nokia's first MeeGo device, which is expected to ship later this year. MeeGo and Qt will be the key technologies in the third pillar of Nokia's overall software strategy, which is designed to address future disruptions.

Sebastian Nyström, Vice President, Head of MeeGo, Qt and Webkit at Nokia:

"Qt continues to be an important technology for Nokia and it is critical that Qt's growth and success can continue. While Nokia will continue to invest in developing Qt as a cross-platform framework for mobile, desktop and embedded segments, focusing on open source development and expansion, we wanted a partner who can drive the commercial licensing and services business around Qt. Digia has proven, in-depth Qt expertise, operational excellence and a keen interest in growing and improving the overall Qt community and so well positioned to expand the Qt Commercial licensing and services business."

Harri Paani, Senior Vice President from Digia:

"We are excited to extend our Qt business to serve our new customers. Building on our in-depth Qt expertise and experience from demanding mission critical solutions, we will offer world-class commercial licensing and support services to Qt Commercial customers. We also look forward to driving further the evolution of Qt by bringing in new features and services."

Further information is available on the Qt Labs Blog and on Digia's website. ###.

>> Nokia and Digia Working Together To Grow the Qt Community

Sebastian Nyström
VP, Head of MeeGo, Qt & WebKit: Nokia
March 7, 2011

http://blog.qt.nokia.com/2011/03/07/nokia-and-digia-working-together/

Following last week’s releases of Qt Quick, the new Qt SDK 1.1 beta and Qt 4.7.2, the Qt community will continue to benefit for years to come from further Nokia investment in Qt, primarily focused on areas such as Qt Quick, Qt WebKit and HTLM5 in addition to the ongoing work of improving performance and stability.

The success of Qt has in part been due to a successful dual-license model, providing open LGPL and commercial license alternatives which have enabled a dynamic community of developers in 70 industries to drive a rapid evolution of the Qt cross-platform application and UI framework. The Qt Commercial licensing business is growing and has around 3500 companies, whose development and use of Qt benefits the whole community.

Many organizations which want to use Qt for their business applications choose commercial licenses, for a variety of reasons. These include restrictions in using open source licensed software in industries such as defense & aerospace, or the need to provide product warranties & indemnities such as in the medical device industry. Others choose a commercial relationship for access to Qt professional support and services to ensure successful development of their projects.

However, these professional services are not core business activities for Nokia, so since the introduction of the LGPL license for Qt in 2009 we have been actively working to grow the number of companies providing Qt services. In 2010 we began the search for a company we could work with to serve the commercial licensees in the Qt community. We have now concluded that search and chosen to work with Digia. As a consequence, Digia will acquire the Qt Commercial software licensing and professional services business from Nokia, with the transaction expected to close by the end of March 2011.

Employing hundreds of Qt experts, Digia has 7 years experience in providing top-class Qt competence, and is dedicated to continue and grow Qt Commercial relationships as well as to contribute innovation to the overall Qt LGPL and commercial community.

We expect Digia providing Qt Commercial customers with the support, professional services, and product enhancements that commercial customers require because:

• The business is aligned with Digia’s strategy and business model.

• Digia has the incentives, expertise and commitment to serve and grow the commercial license and services business.

• Nokia and the Digia already have a close relationship and will cooperate in improving Qt as well as in creating developer events, new demos etc.

You can learn more about Digia and their Qt related services at qt.partner-directory/digia.

Although Digia will now be responsible for issuing all Qt Commercial software licenses and for providing dedicated services and support to licensees, Nokia’s Qt technical support team will support and work closely with Digia for the next year. We will now begin work with Digia to ensure a smooth transition of all licenses and commercial relationships.

As part of the agreement, some members of Nokia’s technical consulting services team, as well as members of the Nokia Qt Commercial sales and marketing team will transition to Digia, ensuring continuity of contacts for customers. Those teams will continue to be based in Norway and in the US and we will work with Digia to minimize disruption to customers throughout the transition period.

Digia will invest significant resources in the ongoing development of Qt as a commercial framework. In particular, their plans include emphasizing Qt in the desktop and embedded environments and exploring new support models and feature requests. Commercial customers can also expect improvements in support and functionality for older platforms that were not on the Nokia development roadmap. If you are a holder of a Qt commercial license you can expect to hear more about this soon.

We want to emphasize our long-term commitment to Qt. Nokia will drive Qt developments in support of our business needs and our investments in community building, marketing and R&D will continue to benefit all members of the Qt community. By introducing the up-coming open governance model we will also enable other companies, such as Digia, to more easily contribute to Qt, which will enrich Nokia investments in Qt and benefit and grow the Qt community as a whole.

Overall I expect that Qt Commercial software licensees and the entire Qt community including all of our Qt Partners will benefit from this change. We will continue to actively support the Qt community – including MeeGo – as we are today in activities such as active developer engagement through our online community site, events, community sponsorship and code sprints. We will also continue to provide training materials and eLearning, Qt certification exams and enhance our Qt Partner, Qt in Education and marketing programs and much more. ###

- Eric -.

Nokia/Reliance Ovi Store Launch in India ...

... announced a few weeks back.

>> Nokia Launches Ovi Store with Reliance Communications in India

Nokia and Reliance Communications Company Brief
Mumbai, India
February 22, 2011

http://aa9g.sl.pt

Nokia and Reliance Communications, in a first of its kind partnership in the country, today announced the launch of the India chapter of Ovi Store, Nokia's immensely popular mobile application store. Reliance Communications will be the first service provider to offer integrated operator billing for their consumers in India enabling access to a host of paid for content on the Ovi Store. The amount will be either included in their monthly mobile phone bills or deducted from the pre-paid balance, per their data plans.

The Ovi Store is a one-stop-shop for mobile content to help consumers personalize their Nokia devices. It supports the widest range of content and file types including applications, games, videos, podcasts, productivity tools, web and location-based services and much more. Launched in 2009, the Ovi Store has 4 million downloads per day globally, a milestone spurred by overall global demand and a recent update that gives users a friendlier look and feel as well as more popular apps and games. India currently sees more than 4.5 million downloads a week.

Commenting on this alliance, Prashant Gokarn - 3G Head, Reliance Communications, said, "Nokia and RCOM have had a longstanding and an extremely fruitful association, and this new venture will only strengthen our joint mission to offer enriched services to our loyal consumers. This relationship brings exclusive apps through Ovi Store coupled with a convenient purchase process. This service will usher in significant growth in adoption and usage of apps in India. This service is a big step in a series of innovation led products from RCOM."

V Ramnath, Director - Operator Channels, Nokia India, said, "Our partnership with Reliance Communications is a big step towards providing Indian consumers easy and simplified access to Ovi Store content through operator billing. The response from consumers in India has already exceeded our expectations, with the number of weekly downloads crossing 4.5 million. We believe our partnership will help accelerate this further.

"Ovi Store is focused on providing relevant and useful content to our consumers to help them get the most out of their mobile lifestyle. For Reliance consumers, we have especially made available over 17,000 pieces of locally relevant paid for content," he added.

About Reliance Communications

Reliance Communications Limited founded by the late Shri Dhirubhai H Ambani (1932-2002) is the flagship company of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group. The Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group currently has a net worth in excess of Rs. 64,000 crore (US$ 13.6 billion), cash flows of Rs. 13,000 crore (US$ 2.8 billion), net profit of Rs. 8,400 crore (US$ 1.8 billion).

Reliance Communications is India's foremost and truly integrated telecommunications service provider. The Company, with a customer base of 120 million with over 2.5 million individual overseas retail customers and nearly 3 million DTH customers, ranks among the Top 5 Telecom companies in the world by number of customers in a single country. Reliance Communications corporate clientele includes 2,100 Indian and multinational corporations, and over 800 global, regional and domestic operators.

Reliance Communications has established a pan-India, next generation, integrated (wireless and wireline), convergent (voice, data and video) digital network that is capable of supporting best-of-class services spanning the entire communications value chain, covering over 24,000 towns and 600,000 villages. Reliance Communications owns and operates the world's largest next generation IP enabled connectivity infrastructure, comprising over 190,000 route kilometers of fibre optic cable systems in India, USA, Europe, Middle East and the Asia Pacific region. ###

- Eric -

QCOM Double Top Breakout ...

gdollasign,

<< Ok, well I am not a diehard chartist but it appears that we have a double top to the chart and today may be the start for a break through opportunity to a new 52 week high. Any thoughts? >>

I don't claim to be much of a visusl investor (and that's probably an understaement) and as a consequence I rely on others who are (David Gordon aka trenchrat on TMF, e.g.or a golf mate who is a very diligent and experienced day trader, which I am not) If we have a double top that could lead to a new breakout I really don't see it, although I do see what you see on a daily view of a QCOM chart for the just concluded week, Stockcharts.com trapped the last QCOM double top breakout on December 29, 2010 with a bullish price objective sert then revised at $64.

http://stockcharts.com/freecharts/gallery.html?QCOM

Could QCOM hit yet another 52 week (and 10 year) high? Sure, seevral, if it can get through resistance and continies the breakout started a few months back, if techs hold, if there is positive QCOM, industry or Macro-economic news, and the major tech index (Nasdaq CI) holds its own and nudges on up towards its 52 week high of 2,841 and through it. .

The single remaining upcoming industry trade show (CTIA Wireless 2011) will be held in Orlando March 22 to 24. If Qualcomm held back any major announcemenrs from last months GSMA Mobile World Congress and plans to make them at CTIA that could propel QCOM, but news of import from other chipmakers, network operators, or device makers could offset that news.

JMHO & FWLIW

- Eric -

Nokia Mobile Device Manufacture in Vietnam ...

... will bring its global devive manufacturing facilities to 11. The initial manufacturing focus will be on S30 & S40 entry level and S40 feature phones. Samsung opened its manufacturing facility in Vientam (its 7th) 3 years ago and it is expected to produce 15% of its volumes in 2011.

Currently Nokia manufactures mobile devices in Brazil, Mexico, Finland, Hungary, Romania, the UK, China (2 plants), India, and Korea.

>> Nokia to Establish a New Manufacturing Site in Vietnam

Increasing capacity to connect the next billion to the Internet

Nokia Press Release
Espoo, Finland
March 2, 2011

http://press.nokia.com/2011/03/02/nokia-to-establish-a-new-manufacturing-site-in-vietnam/

Nokia's ambition is to connect the next billion people to the Internet. As a major step towards achieving this goal, Nokia today announced plans to establish a new manufacturing site near Hanoi in northern Vietnam. Nokia plans an initial investment of approximately EUR 200 million, with further sizeable investments thereafter. In a ceremony that took place in Hanoi, Vietnam, the representatives of the Vietnamese government and Nokia signed a Memorandum of Understanding marking the beginning of a phase of preparations ahead of the targeted opening of the new plant in 2012. The site would further expand Nokia's manufacturing network, which currently consists of ten major facilities in nine countries.

Nokia's position in growth economies is strong, largely thanks to its powerful range of feature phones. The new manufacturing site is being established to meet the growth in demand for these phones, as well as help Nokia to deliver a contemporary mobile experience to the next billion consumers all over the world. The opportunity is huge: Almost 90% of the world's population lives within range of a mobile signal, yet there are 3.2 billion people who do not own a mobile device. And of the estimated 3.7 billion people who do own a mobile device, fewer than half use it to access the Internet. Said Esko Aho, Executive Vice President, Nokia: "Only about 30 percent of the world's population is currently online, and we believe we can play a major role in connecting the next billion not just to their first phone but to their first internet and application experience."

"I am extremely excited about this opportunity and about the support and commitment that Vietnam has offered to Nokia, " said Juha Putkiranta, Senior Vice President, Nokia. "This new manufacturing site will play a key role in our effort to connect the next billion to the web."

Vietnam emerged as a country that has both the location and developing infrastructure that made it a good choice for Nokia. Nokia first started selling products in Vietnam in 1996. Since then, Nokia has helped millions in Vietnam become connected through its mobile phone technology and network infrastructure.

Nokia has a global manufacturing network stretching from Latin America (Brazil and Mexico) to Europe (Finland, Hungary, Romania, the UK) and Asia (China, India, Korea). ###

- Eric -

3GSM LTE (FauxGSM) --> 4GSM LTE Evolution to 'True 4G -- LTE Advanced'

The following article was written by the SVP of Product Management at QCT and it's well done. Qualcomm is of course a major player (one of several) in that standardization effort.

>> LTE: The Road Ahead

Cristiano Amon, Qualcomm¹
EERimes
March 4, 20111

¹ Cristiano Amon is SVP of Product Management at Qualcomm CDMA Technologies, Inc. (QCT)

2010 was an exciting year for broadband wireless technologies, particularly LTE. Over 64 operators have committed to supporting LTE in 31 countries and there are 17 LTE networks in operation today. Significant progress has been made in deploying LTE, but there are still enhancements and innovations needed to help network carriers give their customers a ubiquitous, high quality experience on their LTE-enabled devices no matter where they use them. These enhancements and innovations will not only be beneficial to today’s LTE networks, they are also necessary for LTE to reach the next step in its evolution, such as LTE Advanced.

There are a variety of issues that need to be addressed so network operators and handset OEMs can take full advantage of the performance benefits of LTE both now and in the future. Three issues of particular concern are multi-mode/multi-frequency support, implementing voice over LTE and how networks will handle interference.

First, let’s consider the different ways LTE is being implemented globally and how this will effect device OEMs looking to support the LTE standard. The radio frequencies used on LTE networks vary from region to region; there are currently over 20 different frequencies ranging from 700 MHz to 2.6 GHz that can be used by LTE networks around the world.



In order to ensure that LTE supports global roaming and realizes the scale of a global technology, LTE smart phone and data card OEMs will need access to chipsets with multi-band, multi-mode radios. These same chipsets must also be backward compatible with existing 3G technologies to provide a comparable experience in areas without LTE coverage or ubiquitous 3G. Supporting multiple technologies and frequency bands in a single chipset is hard enough, but making the chipset small enough and making sure the chipset has the right power management capabilities to provide all day operation is a challenge that few mobile chipset providers are prepared to meet.

Another issue to be addressed is LTE support for voice. Today’s LTE networks support data traffic only; smartphones can use LTE for data traffic, but must fall back on 3G technologies to provide simultaneous voice-and-data or voice-only connections. LTE Release 9 contains enhancements that will minimize the transition time from an LTE data session to a 3G voice call. Native voice support in future LTE networks will be provided using VoIP. To handle the stringent quality and coverage expectations of voice, LTE VoIP networks can seamlessly handover to 3G using the single radio voice call continuity feature (SRVCC). One key advantage of the 3G fallback and voice continuity features of LTE is that they enable the support of tight voice interworking between LTE and 3G in a fully integrated “single radio” chipset. These single radio approaches to voice interworking will maximize the LTE user experience, reduce smart phone cost and extend battery life.

Existing WAN cell coverage can be augmented to handle LTE data traffic growth. Picocells (small base stations with a range of up to 1 km that integrate with the existing macro network) and femtocells (indoor cellular access points with a 10 meter range similar in size, price and range to WiFi access points that are connected to the carrier’s network via the user’s IP network) help augment the existing cell network by using spatial diversity to enhance network capacity and coverage. From a network topology standpoint, future versions of LTE (Release 9) and LTE Advanced have been designed to integrate support for these carrier-deployed picocells and/or user-deployed femtocells. LTE will also support signal relays and repeaters to further improve LTE network coverage and capacity. This mix of existing macrocells with lower power nodes, like picocells and femtocells, create heterogeneous networks (HetNets) that bring the network closer to the user.



However, the addition of more cells to the network creates new cell edges, and users at those edges may experience reduced performance due to radio interference between cells. This situation has been accounted for in the LTE Advanced standard which incorporates several advanced interference management features to maintain network performance on the cell edge. For example, LTE Advanced’s support for intelligent node and adaptive resource allocation will extend network range and improve network capacity by ensuring fairness of service to users by providing data rates that are proportional to their respective signal qualities and mitigating signal interference between cells.

LTE Advanced can utilize a wider frequency spectrum (20 MHz to 100 MHz) through the use of carrier aggregation. Also known as multicarrier, carrier aggregation allows carriers to send and receive data over an aggregated date pipeline to increase data rates and to lower latency. This means that carriers will be able to support high-speed data traffic even in times of peak network usage.



When used in conjunction with the advanced network topology technologies mentioned above, carrier aggregation will efficiently handle any interference and capacity issues presented by the use of HetNets.

All of this would seem to make the evolution from LTE to LTE Advanced networks a daunting task; one that requires the tightly-knit cooperation of network carriers, device OEMs and mobile chipset vendors around the world. But much work has already been done on the development of LTE Advanced, and the standard is set to be ratified in the first quarter of this year. LTE Advanced will require some infrastructure development in order to build HetNets, but the picocells and femtocells used to do this are low-cost solutions that will help minimize capital expenditures. In fact, outside of deploying picocells and femtocells, much of the work needed to upgrade LTE networks to LTE Advanced will happen at the software level.

Technology trials of LTE Advanced have already delivered compelling results. LTE Advanced, like LTE, will enable mobility with 3G network technologies to ensure a seamless user experience for consumers as they move between 3G and 4G networks. LTE Advanced is well on its way to becoming a fully commercial standard², and the high-speed data rates it provides will play an instrumental role in the ongoing evolution of mobile communications and computing. ###

² I'm not sure whether or not the 3GPP LTE Advanced (3GPP R'10) stndard is 'complete' but at the recent 3GPP quarterly plenarty (last week) completion was scheduled for vote.

- Eric -