Nokia's new CEO Rajeev Suri took the
stage on November 14, and mapped out
the future of the Finnish
telecommunications giant after its phone
business got acquired by Microsoft.
First off, as sad as this sounds, and
despite some unsubstantiated rumors,
Nokia doesn't plan on making phones
anymore. "We are not looking to a direct
consumer return to handsets per se,"
were his actual words. Still, there is a
silver lining, and it is that there is an
extremely high interest in licensing the
brand, he added, so at some point in the
longer term the Nokia name "will return to
the consumer world." Now, whether this
will be with phones, or other devices and
maybe services, remains to be seen, but
the hopes that Nokia will quickly start
churning out Android handsets seems
dead and buried now.
As for the other aspects of the company,
the CEO mentioned that it won't have its
HERE brand of navigation software
compete directly with Google Maps, but
instead rely on third-party licensees like
Amazon, Microsoft or Yahoo, in business-
to-business partnerships. We'd say that
with the release of the beta app for
Android and iOSthis ship had sailed, as
the app offers options lacking in Google
Maps, like offline navigation, but whatever
rocks the boat. Nokia's CEO expects that
all three business units - Networks,
Technologies and the mapping business -
will be returning to growth and
profitability very soon, but it's the end of
the line for Nokia phones piece that
strikes us the most in the end.
