Nokia says no return to handsets

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So, none of those Nokia Androids people were rumoring about, but they leave open the possibility of licensing deals in the consumer space.

 

 

At its analyst meeting today in London, Nokia CEO Rajeev Suri detailed where the company's focus will be for the next few years for its Networks unit, the Here mapping subsidiary, and its Technologies business.

 

Referring to the last few years as a period of "difficult change", Suri noted that Nokia has "gone from a long period of decline to our first period of year on year growth since 2011".

The company is now predicting growth for all three business units. The charge will be led by Networks, which Suri said will grow "slightly faster than the market", currently dominated by Nokia, Huawei, and Ericsson. Despite a declining number of players in the networking space, Suri predicts no easing of competition, with smaller players becoming more aggressive and IT companies increasing looking to enter the market.

 

Spending on younger network technologies such as 4G is offsetting the declines in older equivalents for Networks, according to Suri. 4G is likely to make up the backbone of infrastructure spend for the foreseeable future, despite predictions that pre-standard 5G networks will be rolled out in as little as four years.

 

 

 

For Technologies, licensing will remain a priority, with Nokia working on upping royalty payments as existing licensing deals expire. And, having struck patent licensing deals with many of the big handset manufacturers, Suri revealed that it would be moving on to opening discussions with mid and low-tier device companies, as well as non-phone related hardware businesses, including those making set-top boxes and digital cameras. It will also be looking to milk the parts of its patent portfolio it has not historically thought to monetise.

 

Suri also used the capital markets day to put an end to rumours that, having sold its devices and services business to Microsoft earlier this year, Nokia was looking to return to handset manufacturing. "We are not looking to a direct consumer return to handsets per se," he said, but added that the Nokia "brand will return to the consumer world" through licensing deals in the longer term.

 

"The Nokia brand is still extremely powerful and we see considerable interest in licensing. We will pursue it... in a thoughtful and considered way," he said.

 

 

http://www.zdnet.com/nokia-says-no-return-to-handsets-as-ceo-lays-out-its-plans-for-the-future-7000035809/