Recent speculation about Microsoft purchasing Nokia’s smartphone unit has been quashed by the Chief Executive Officer of the Finnish mobile phone giant, Stephen Elop. This was at the CES trade show in Las Vegas where Mr. Elop had announced that Nokia was looking to expand its footprint in the US, quite possibly to Sprint and Verizon.
During the event, after making it clear that Nokia had no intention of selling its smartphone division, Mr. Elop went on to describe the intimate relationship between smartphones and feature phones. He said that decisions regarding both segments are sometimes made collectively and each unit functions with the help of the other. In addition, he hinted at a new OS for feature phones and mentioned development work underway within Nokia, as well as recent acquisitions, the most prominent among which was Smarterfone, which develops operating systems for feature phones. However, he didn’t seem to think that Nokia would replace the popular S40 OS with any other operating system because the S40 continues to evolve and offers new and exciting features each time it is updated. In terms of offering phones on different bands, Mr. Elop said that LTE networks and CDMA bands will see a number of additions from the Lumia line in 2012.
Despite being excited about developments on the technical front, Mr. Elop was clearly more interested in telling the world about current and upcoming Lumia phones based on Windows Phone. He said that the focus in their marketing would be the Windows Phone OS and the features and experience that it offers. Outlining their strategy, he said that all potential customers will be targeted and sales representatives will be ready to offer a hands-on experience of all available phones in stores offering Nokia devices. When questioned about competitors offering better specifications in their phones running the Windows Phone OS, he said that Nokia has put in a lot of effort into its phones and that rather than offering sheer numbers, Nokia devices offer the most optimized performance, which is why he believes that Nokia will emerge as a better choice as compared to other WP choices.
Nokia seems to be solidifying its strategy for both the lower end market as well as the smart phone segment by aggressively pushing its Lumia line of phones. On the other hand, the company is also keeping its options open (as evidenced by the recent acquisition of Smarterfone; which is a regional OS developer) for providing varied options in different regions of the world in the lower end feature phone market.
