From DailyTech: Nokia Oyj.'s (HEL:NOK1V) new CEO Rajeev Suri has big plans for his company's future in the smartphone space, as many suspected.
At "Nokia Capital Markets Day 2014" he spoke to analysts and investors vowing a return to the smartphone "consumer world". But the veteran phonemaker's gameplan this time around will be decidely different from its previous run, which wrapped up in April with the completion of $7.2B USD sale of Nokia Devices to Microsoft Corp. (MSFT).
The Finnish phonemaker was one of just a handful of firms that created that the smartphone phase a decade ago, taking global markets by sorm with its "multimedia" phones and "internet tablets" (which pioneered the large smartphone niche). It designed hardware and software, and even manufactured its own devices, and was known for pushing the envelope of what a phone could do. By the time the term "smartphone" entered the global awareness, Nokia Devices was already the market's largest player.
But the momentum for Nokia's Symbian platform stuttered amidst the emergence of Apple, Inc. (AAPL) and Google Inc.'s (GOOG) Android OS. Fearing it was on a "burning platform", Nokia Devices signed an exclusivity deal with Microsoft's new Windows Phone platform, but that only hastened Nokia's tailspin. What ensued was a painful and protracted decline. Apple and Samsung Electronics Comp., Ltd. (KRX:005930) (KRX:005935) had both passed Nokia in smartphone sales by mid 2011.
In the wake of Nokia Devices' downsizing and sale, a reinvigorated Nokia is looking impressive again, sporting a strong telecommunications business. Of course much of what Nokia's CEO chose to focus on was the present -- smartphone patent licensing and developing strong mobile services.
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