Quick Takes: Nokia's culture, RIM's interface, and living in the paradigm of engineers

This post is an experiment.  I sometimes run across information that I think is worth sharing, but that doesn't fit into my usual publishing tools.  Generally it'll be something too complicated to tweet, but too simple for one of my usual long blog posts.  I've decided to try compiling those tidbits into an occasional post, which I call "Quick Takes."

Please let me know if you find this useful.

This time I want to talk about the aftermath of the Nokia-Microsoft deal, Android on BlackBerry, wireless insecurity, and WikiLeaks as a model for the future of human society.


More aftershocks from the Nokia-Microsoft deal

In the flood of commentary about Nokia's deal with Microsoft, I ran across three items with interesting perspectives on the deal.  They helped me understand how much work Nokia still needs to do.  If you're interested in the deal, or just in organizational change, I think they're worth checking out...

The engineering-driven culture.  Adam Greenfield, a former Nokia employee, discussed Nokia's culture and explained how it produces wonderful mobile phone devices but poor user experiences (link).  The key sentence:

The value-engineering mindset that’s so crucial to profitability as a commodity trader is fatal as a purveyor of experiences.

When I've written in the past that Nokia needs to learn how to do real product management, this is what I was trying to say.

This is how it feels to have an alliance dumped on you.  Meanwhile, if you want to get a sense of how corporate alliances get built, check out Engadget's interview with Aaron Woodman of Microsoft (link).  Aaron is a Microsoft spokesman and a key player in the Windows Phone team, so you might expect him to know chapter and verse about the plans for the alliance with Nokia.  But he doesn't, and you can feel his discomfort as Engadget tries to pin him down on some details:

Q:  There will be no preferential treatment given to Nokia in terms of the level of customization that they can apply to their devices. Is that correct, or no?
A: So it's an interesting question -- you say, like, preferential treatment, so say more about that. Is that like oh, they can modify...

The reality is that a big corporate alliance is created from the top down.  Senior management negotiates the broad outlines, and then announces the deal (because it's material to both companies and has to be announced to prevent insider trading).  Then the mid-level employees have to painstakingly work out what the agreement actually means.  I believe that's happening as you read this, and that process will probably continue for some months.  Meanwhile, Aaron can't answer most of Engadget's questions because the answers don't yet exist.  I give him a lot of credit for not trying to make up something to make himself sound better.

Anyway, if you see some vagueness from Microsoft and Nokia in the next few months, don't be alarmed.  It's how these things are done.

When is an installed base not an installed base?  I've been delighted to watch the rise of Horace Dediu, a former Nokia employee who has built himself a huge online following through very cogent analysis of Apple, and now the overall mobile market.  Although I usually find myself agreeing with everything he says, I thought he was a bit off base in some recent commentary about Nokia (link).

Dediu plotted the installed base of every mobile platform, and pointed out that Symbian has a far larger installed base than any other mobile platform.  He said Nokia has decided to throw away that installed base:

The disposal of such a large installed base must count among the largest divestitures in technology history and, when coupled with the adoption of the least-tested alternative as a replacement, elevates platform risk-taking to a new level. It may seem bold, but there is a fine line between courage and recklessness.

If all of those Symbian users understood that Symbian was their OS, had purchased applications for it, and felt that Symbian added value to their devices, then Nokia would indeed be taking a huge risk.  But virtually the only people who were even aware of Symbian were the people reading and writing blogs about the mobile industry.

Try this -- go look at a typical Nokia Symbian phone.  What is the brand you see on it?  Start the software, launch some apps.  Do you see the word "Symbian" displayed prominently?

Have you ever seen an ad for Symbian?  A billboard perhaps, or a big glossy ad on the back cover of the Economist?

Maybe a teensy little text ad inside the Economist?  Anything?

Indeed not.  Because Nokia didn't want the name Symbian to be prominent.  Heck, it didn't even let Symbian create its own user interface, let alone advertise its brand.  Nokia made Symbian into anonymous plumbing, because Nokia wanted Nokia to be the brand that users bought.  And considering how things worked out, that was something the company did right.

When I was at Palm and we surveyed mobile phone users, we asked Symbian users what OS was on their phones.  Most of them had no idea.  Among the minority who said they knew what their OS was, more of them thought it was Windows than knew it was Symbian.

Let me say that again, more Symbian users thought they were using Windows than knew they were using Symbian.  I guarantee that hasn't changed in the years since we did our surveys.

So, if Nokia executes its marketing properly, it should be able to flip most Symbian users to Windows Phone easily.  Just grin, tell them it's the cool new Nokia smartphone, and move on.  In that vein, the riskiest thing Nokia has done in the past couple of weeks is play up its deal with Microsoft.  It would have been better to play it down, so Nokia customers wouldn't get a message of disruption.

But I doubt most of them are listening anyway.

If there's anything reckless in the Nokia-Microsoft deal, it's the huge number of things that both companies need to execute very well in order to make it work.  But I think there's nothing reckless about the basic idea of ditching Symbian.


Android apps on BlackBerry?

There have been persistent rumors that RIM is trying to get software that will let its PlayBook tablet run Android apps (link).  Now there's some evidence that they may be looking to do the same on BlackBerry phones as well (link).  This seems like a reasonable thing to do, but I'm astounded that they're only working on it now.  The time to plan the app platform for your tablet is when you're creating the software for it, about a year before it ships.  It's not the sort of thing you dink around with a couple of months before shipment.  And you especially don't tell the public about it right before the hardware launches -- all that does is undercut any chance you had of getting native app development on your platform.


Wireless isn't secure (duh)

This isn't news if you've been paying attention.  For years the security companies have been telling us that wireless networks (especially wifi) can easily be snooped.  I'm not sure why the wireless insecurity story has never gotten much traction outside the beltway.  Maybe we weren't using enough web apps to care, or maybe no one listens to the security companies because they're presumed to be alarmists who just want to charge you $49.95 a year for something that'll make your computer run slow.

Anyway, it seems to me that the story is now popping up all over the place.  In December the Wall Street Journal ran a series on the information collected by mobile apps (link), this week The New York Times ran a story on the third party tools available to hack wifi hotspots (link), and a professor at Rice University posted on the types of data his class could sniff from his Android phone (link).  A surprising find -- two apps unrelated to location services were broadcasting his GPS location.

Why is this significant?  The mobile operators plan to offload traffic to wifi to reduce network congestion.  If those networks turn out to be insecure, the operators might be blamed for security breaches that result.  Or if more wifi networks are restricted due to security fears, the operators might find it harder to do that offloading in the first place.  Bottom line -- it is risky to depend on someone else's infrastructure as part of your core product.


WikiLeaks: Human society as designed by an open source engineer

O'Reilly ran a fascinating review of Inside WikiLeaks, a new book describing how WikiLeaks operates (link).  It reminded me of some thoughts I had after I heard a talk by Ward Cunningham, one of the creators of the wiki (link).

Most of the social structures in the world today were designed by two groups of people, religious leaders and lawyers.  The religious leaders gave us governments based on moral codes and hierarchies; the lawyers gave us governments based on laws, property, and checks and balances.  In both cases, the people creating the system built into it their own worldviews, their own assumptions about human nature.  The assumptions were so fundamental that I think they didn't even realize they were using them; they just baked them into the system.

Wikipedia, WikiLeaks, and movements like them are profoundly new because they attempt to structure society around the social assumptions of a third group of people: engineers.  And not just any engineers, but open source engineers.  That culture believes in the rationality of human beings and the existence of absolute truth.  It assumes that if the same information were available to everyone we'd be able to settle all disputes through logical discourse.  And it is intensely hostile to authority structures, because by definition they're assumed to get in the way of free discussion.

WikiLeaks is an attempt by that culture to restructure society.  I know that sounds crazy, but here's a quote from the book:

In the world we dreamed of, there would be no more bosses or hierarchies, and no one could achieve power by withholding from the others the knowledge needed to act as an equal player.

If you want to see this idea taken to its logical extreme, check out the short story "The Ungoverned" by science fiction author Vernor Vinge (it's online here).  I'm not saying that's the world we're headed for, but I think we'd all be foolish to assume that WikiLeaks will be the last attempt at open source social engineering.

I think it's actually just the beginning.

Mobile Phone Chip Off

Mobile Phone Chip Off
If you have produced or know of a mobile phone chip off video showing methods and techniques for removing ICs/memory from various makes/models of mobile handsets then email (trewmte@gmail.com) your youtube link and then it can be added to the thread 'Mobile Phone Chip Off'.



UPDATED:

Thank you Paul for this N70 video


Nathan, thanks for the SonyEricsson W850 video

Impact of the Nokia-Microsoft Alliance: Welcome to the Five-Platform World

Like a big collective cow, the blogosphere is continuing to chew on the Nokia-Microsoft announcement.  It seems to be one of those rare events that forces people to stop, step back, and reconsider their assumptions.

I think it's impossible to say today what impact the Nokia-Microsoft alliance will have, because we don't know how well Nokia will execute.  If Nokia executes poorly, there won't be any change at all -- both Microsoft and Nokia will continue to gradually decline in mobile.  If Nokia executes well, I think the impact could be pretty big.  Not asteroid-killing-dinosaurs big, but a very large meteorite, with effects felt worldwide.

For the purposes of this note, I'm going to assume that both Nokia and Microsoft will execute well.  That's a risky assumption -- they would not have formed this alliance if they had been executing well in the past.  But for today we'll give them both the benefit of the doubt.


How many platforms can we stand?

Ignore the hype from Nokia about the "third platform."  The reality is that we're on track to end up with four or five significant smartphone platforms in the US and Europe: Apple, Android, RIM, Windows Phone, and HP/Palm if their new products are excellent.  Japan as usual will be very different, and I don't think all five players will be equally active worldwide.

You might ask if the market can accommodate five platforms.  There's a school of thought that says the smartphone market is destined to go the way of the PC market -- eventually almost everyone will coalesce on a single platform that has the most applications and licensees.  If that's how smartphones are destined to work, nobody seems to have told the customers.  Platforms with small numbers of apps (RIM in particular) have continued to sell well.  Also, back when I was at Palm and we had far more apps than any other mobile device, it didn't let us destroy Pocket PC, or RIM, or Symbian.

I think apps do matter in smartphones, but so far they appear to matter less than they do in PCs.  Without any apps, a PC is useless, whereas most smartphones ship with a lot of functions built in: voice telephony, texting, e-mail, browser, camera, etc.  Third party apps are more gravy than steak, at least for now.

So maybe the magic number is two platforms.  In marketing, many experts believe customers can hold only two major brands in their heads for any market: a leader and a challenger.  Think Coke and Pepsi, Hertz and Avis, Airbus and Boeing.  On the other hand, there are plenty of markets which have dozens of competitors.  Automobiles, for instance.  You can have huge numbers of successful brands there because the market is heavily segmented -- Rolls Royce doesn't compete with Mini Cooper.

I believe the number of smartphone vendors and platforms is going to depend on the actions of the smartphone companies themselves.  If they treat smartphones like a single consolidated market, a shakeout is probably inevitable.  If they segment the market, creating brands and devices that serve different groups of customers differently, I think there's room for all the platforms to survive.

Unfortunately, at this point most of the smartphone companies are focusing only on slavishly copying Apple.  Even RIM, a company with differentiated communicator products, is trying desperately to turn them into iPhone clones.  That's a great strategy to ensure commoditization and market dominance by Apple.

Since we're giving Nokia the benefit of the doubt today, let's assume they create differentiated products that help to segment the market.  I think that would stimulate other handset companies to do the same thing, leading to a relatively stable multiplatform world.

Here's what that means to the rest of the industry...


For the Android licensees, there will be intense competition for shelf space

In a five platform world, I think it'll be hard for all of the Android licensees to survive.  Picture your typical Verisprint store a couple of years from now (Vodorange if you're in Europe).  It probably carries three iPhone devices, because Apple has diversified its line.  There are a couple of RIM devices with keyboards.  We're assuming Nokia and Microsoft are successful, so there are a couple of Nokia smartphones on display.  Since we're giving the benefit of the doubt, we'll also assume HP has paid big comarketing dollars to get two of its devices shelved.  That's nine smartphones.  How much space is left for Android models?  I figure maybe two or three devices, split between Samsung, HTC, Motorola, SonyEricsson, LG, etc.  Life gets very uncomfortable for a couple of those companies.

Or maybe they get lucky and a RIM or HP gets knocked out of the picture.  That would leave space for more Android vendors.  But the Android licensees can't control that -- they're counting on Google to drive one or two of the other handset platforms out of business.  Is Google prepared to fight that sort of alley knife-fight against an HP or RIM, companies that might otherwise be Google partners? 

Android was a fun product for Google when all it meant was bleeding Microsoft.  But it eventually made Apple into an enemy, and now Nokia.  HP is next, and RIM will come after unless it licenses Android.  Is that the lifestyle Google wants?  I doubt it.

By the way, I think the Android shelf space problem is one of the reasons why Nokia went with Microsoft rather than Google.  Nokia has more control over its fate as a Windows Phone vendor, and it knows Microsoft is willing to do anything to win.


What happens to the other Windows Phone licensees? 

It's really hard for me to picture them sticking with the platform in more than a token fashion.  They avoided Symbian because it was a stacked deck in Nokia's favor; I think Windows Phone now looks the same.  The only way they'd invest more is if Nokia's WinPhone products started to take off strongly in a couple of years, and they were afraid of being left out.  I presume that's what Microsoft is counting on (it's how they dealt with IBM in PCs).


Can HP really be the fifth platform? 

HP is by far the weakest of the five mobile platforms.  Although it has a great legacy, it has neglected its developers tragically and its products are late.  The recent HP event shows it still has a legacy of goodwill in Silicon Valley, and you can't count out the world's largest PC company.  But HP's success depends on great execution.  If its products are timely and deliver on their promises, I think it has a good shot.  I am especially impressed by the things HP wants to do to link its products together (another on the long list of things Microsoft fumbled years ago).

But can HP execute?  It's been steering a zigzag course in PCs.  For several years it invested heavily in differentiation, and hired a lot of former Apple staffers.  But in the last year it laid off many of those people, killed its advertising campaign, and focused on Acer-style price competition.  Now suddenly HP is talking like it wants to go back to being a differentiated premium vendor.  That sort of inconsistency will be deadly when competing directly with the other smartphone platforms.

I can't figure out if the HP guys are Jedi knights or middle-aged paunchy men playing with plastic swords.  Based on history, I'm about 60-40 in favor of the plastic swords.


For the mobile operators, all of this produces immense happiness

Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good, and the Nokia-Microsoft deal is a huge stroke of luck for the operators.  They have always wanted the handset vendors to be barefoot and pregnant, too weak and divided to fight with them for control over phone customers.  A five-platform world is immensely attractive to them because the platforms can be played off against one another.  If RIM gets too uppity, you can just tip the product mix toward HP, or vice-versa.

The downside of this for the operators is that five platforms are a lot more work to support.  So they'll have conflicting temptations -- carrying more platforms gives them more leverage, but adds to their costs.  I think the biggest operators will choose the leverage; Verizon proved that it's not healthy to be cut off from a successful platform, and you can never tell which one is going to be successful next. 


For app developers, there will be more pain

The prospect of a five platform market is a nightmare for developers.  It's already hard to support two platforms (Apple and Android); the idea of supporting five is a logistical nightmare.  Most developers will focus on one or two, but that limits their potential revenue because the available market is smaller.

This situation favors large established developers that can afford to do ports to all the platforms.  Unfortunately, large software companies are usually the slowest to innovate, so I fear the net result of a five-platform world is likely to be less innovation in mobile apps.

There will probably be intense interest in cross-platform development environments that let a developer write once and deploy anywhere.  The platform companies will resist, and probably governments will eventually get dragged into the debate as they are asked to define what constitutes restraint of trade in an online app marketplace.

The one silver lining might be if the platform vendors start to compete for developers by giving them benefits -- for example, by loosening restrictions in their app stores, and taking a smaller cut of revenue.  I hope that will happen, but it's not enough to make up for the fractured development platform.


What it means to Nokia: A chance to survive

Although Europe is really a collection of nations rather than a single place, there are a few things that seem to tug on heartstrings across many European countries.  The Eurovision song contest is one, Airbus is another, and Nokia is a third.  It represents European style and marketing prowess, and it proves that people in Europe can lead a high-tech industry.  So the deal with Microsoft represents far more than a business deal; it feels like a betrayal of a European jewel at the hands of a rapacious American company.

It's important to understand what the alternative was for Nokia.  If the company had continued at current course and speed, the decline in gross margins would have put it close to breakeven this year, and it would have started losing money in 2012.  Things were already so bad that restoring 10% operating profit this year would require laying off about a third of the company.  Obviously the cuts won't be that severe because Elop is aiming at a multiyear recovery, but the numbers show how close Nokia was to a death spiral in which spending cuts and revenue declines start reinforcing each other.

Nokia was like a plane rapidly losing altitude.  If you don't pull back on the yoke in time, there's nothing you can do to avoid hitting the ground.  The company was very close to that point.

I believe Nokia's directors knew this when they hired Stephen Elop, and his charter was to restructure the company radically before the problems became unsolvable.  In that sort of situation, you don't ask what products you ought to save.  You figure out how much money you can spend, you make a prioritized list of everything you do, and you start cutting from the bottom of the list until your activities fit into the budget.

I think when Elop and the board did that exercise, all of Nokia's OS business was below the line.  They just couldn't afford it.

Although stepping back from OS is emotionally devastating to many Nokia employees and fans, I don't think it's necessarily bad for the company.  Operating systems are like plumbing; they don't actually add much value to the building, but if they're built wrong they can destroy it.  Symbian advocates talked persuasively about its superior power management and ability to run on low-cost hardware, but as far as I can tell that was never reflected in higher margins for Nokia smartphones.  Most Symbian users didn't even know the OS was there, and if they had they would not have paid extra for it.  Symbian was enormously complex and difficult to work with, and it cost Nokia a fortune.  According to Nokia's annual reports, it paid about $800 million when it bought Symbian, and it reportedly employed at least 2,500 Symbian engineers (link).  Those engineers probably cost about $500m a year, or about $5 per Symbian phone sold.

Nokia went into the OS business because it was afraid of depending on someone else's plumbing.  Now it's betting that Microsoft is weakened enough that it'll actually cooperate with Nokia.  Microsoft will reportedly end up paying Nokia more than a billion dollars to adopt Windows Phone (link), and Nokia can reassign the Symbian engineers to tasks that will actually differentiate Nokia's products.  The deal with Microsoft could end up being not a surrender for Nokia, but a liberation.

But as I've said before, it all depends on execution.  For the folks inside Nokia, things will feel worse before they feel better.  The layoffs are still to come, and until then it will be hard for employees to focus on their jobs.  Even after the layoffs are done, it will be a lot of months before Nokia can ship new devices designed to take advantage of Windows Phone.  Until then, Nokia is unlikely to reverse its gradual loss of share in smartphones. 

When I first held a Nokia n97, I was lost in admiration at how beautifully the hardware was put together.  Everything from the shape of the case to the motion of the sliding hinge screamed elegance.  Then I tried the software and I wanted to toss it out a window.  Nokia's smartphone task is now very simple: produce some great devices like the n97, marry them cleanly with Windows Phone, and partner with Microsoft to get them distributed as broadly as possible.

If Nokia targets those products at real customer needs, and differentiates them from the iPhone rather than just trying to top it, it has a good chance of creating the multi-platform future it's talking about.

It's not as much fun as conquering the entire tech industry, but it's a lot better than going broke.  And it's probably the only choice Nokia had.

Nokia: An Excess of Cleverness

I'm looking forward eagerly to Nokia's strategy announcement this week.  Although Nokia is not highly esteemed in the US, most of the rest of the world recognizes it as an enormously important company: a brilliant manufacturer, a symbol of status and affluence in the developing world, and a source of great pride to its many fans in Europe and elsewhere.  If Nokia could combine its strengths with better execution in software and smartphones, it could be a formidable force in the computing industry as a whole, not just in mobile.

In anticipation of the new strategy, I wanted to share a few thoughts on why Nokia has struggled with the intersection of phones and computing, and what it might do to fix the problems. 

A couple of disclosures first:
--Several years ago I did a consulting project for Nokia.  I've also met with them, I have had a lot of briefings from them, and I know several people who work there.  No inside information from any of those sources has gone into this note.
--Before someone posts a comment saying so, yes my views are colored by the place I live, Silicon Valley.  Your paradigm may vary.

As is often the case for big successful companies, I think Nokia's strengths are also its weaknesses:


Strength 1: Nokia focuses very well...which can lead to denial of reality 

Nokia has a very intense, delivery-focused culture that has enabled it to pursue strategies with awesome focus and determination.  Over the years, the company has transformed itself from a paper mill to a rubber boots company to a video monitor company, etc, etc.  I can think of very few modern firms that are capable of that sort of huge transformation.

But I think that same determination has also sometimes enabled Nokia to live in denial of reality.  As an outsider who has dealt with Nokia a lot over the years, the company often comes across to me as the opposite of a learning organization.  Rather than getting inquiry and questions, when you discuss an issue with Nokia you tend to find that there is already an official Nokia answer to it: self-assured, hermetically sealed, and often sounding slightly condescending.

When Nokia was on a roll and executing beautifully, that self-assurance was entirely justified.  As somebody once said, "it's not arrogance if you can do it."  But as the company faltered, I think its belief in its own specialness and power led it to resist making changes that would have happened at most other companies several years ago.  This deepened Nokia's problems.

A quick look at the company's financials tells the story.  In 2006, Nokia was on a roll.  Its revenue was growing nicely, and it had operating profits of about 12% before taxes.  But starting in 2007, Nokia hit a wall.  Its revenue flattened and then fell.  Despite the revenue problem, Nokia held its R&D, marketing, and administrative spending almost steady in Euro terms, increasing them as a percent of revenue.  It's as if Nokia believed four years of revenue stagnation were just a temporary glitch to be endured rather than a fundamental problem that had to be fixed.

(Note: Fiscal years, all figures in $millions.  The numbers above and below were restated from euros to dollars.  I also excluded miscellaneous revenue and expenses, and one-time charges, because they distort the trends.)

To give you an idea of the impact of Nokia's slowdown, here are a couple of comparisons to Apple.


First, revenue...


Yes, Apple is now a bigger company than Nokia in terms of revenue.  That alone is pretty astonishing to me, and I'm sure it irritates the folks at Nokia, since they routinely bristle at this sort of comparison (link).


Here are expenses (R&D, marketing, and administration) as a percent of revenue.  Lower is better.


Apple has done a nice job of holding its expense growth below its revenue growth.


And here's the payoff:  Operating income


Financially, Apple has just plain run away from Nokia.


When Stephen Elop was announced as CEO of Nokia, people made a lot of hay about his background as a Canadian.  I think that was the wrong bit to focus on.  To me, the most important element of Elop's background was the ten years he spent in Silicon Valley.  I wondered what a Silicon Valley guy would think when coming into a company and seeing financials like these.  I believe the reaction would be horror: "Why didn't you people panic back in 2008?"  The accepted wisdom here is that you just don't let expenses stay high through four years of declining revenue.  That lets the problems fester.  Nokia is now a bit like a patient who has delayed routine medical treatment for so long that he ends up in the emergency room needing surgery.

Elop's now-famous memo on Nokia's problems speaks volumes about the company's culture (link).  Assuming the memo is real (I am taking the word of the press on this), Elop likens Nokia's situation to jumping from a burning oil derrick into the North Sea -- where, as anyone in the Nordic countries would know, you can die of hypothermia in minutes. 

What does it say about the employees' resistance to change that the CEO feels he has to be this alarming? 


Strength 2: Nokia manufactures wonderfully...which produces sterile, inartistic smartphones

Nokia is one of the most efficient manufacturing companies on the planet.  Very few western companies have ever withstood an all-out assault by China Inc, but Nokia, a company from high-cost Finland, has also been for years the world's lowest-cost major producer of phones.  Elop's memo says that cost leadership is now under threat, but still it's an unbelievable accomplishment that ought to be studied in every business school worldwide. 

But the same manufacturing-driven culture that turns out great, cheap feature phones by the dozen breaks down when asked to craft an intricate smartphone in which overall system integration is the most important feature.  Nokia designs phones using a manufacturing-like process in which different groups create features in parallel.  So (to make up an example) one group might do the user interface, another the mail app, and another the browser.  That's very efficient for creating lots of phones quickly, but it means it's very difficult to integrate all of the pieces together closely so they produce a great user experience.  The best smartphones, like the iPhone, are designed holistically, with all of the pieces coordinated together.  A product manager controls the process and can enforce compliance with the product vision.  This process is much slower and less efficient than Nokia's, but when you're creating a product with a lot of software, it ensures that everything works together well.

Apple can get away with this less efficient process because it produces one phone at a time.  Nokia has 89 different phone models available currently in Europe (link).


Strength 3: Nokia makes fantastic plans...over and over and over again

Nokia has for decades been able to hire the brightest people from a very bright country, Finland.  After meeting a lot of Nokia employees, I can tell you that it probably has one of the smartest workforces anywhere.  But all that intelligence has produced an analytical culture that breeds complicated plans elaborately fleshed out by committees.  Its history in the last decade is a series of wickedly clever, logical strategies that were so complex and took so long to develop and implement that they were often obsolete before they came to fruition.  It sometimes seems as if Nokia has been crippled by an excess of cleverness.

I'm reminded of a short story by science fiction legend Arthur C. Clarke, Superiority.  In it he described a society that lost a war by continually focusing on the new weapons that were about to come out of the labs, rather than mass-producing the ones that it already knew how to build.

To make matters more difficult, Nokia defined almost every major company in computing and telecommunications as its enemy.  At one time or another it has decided that it needed to dominate or defeat Microsoft, Apple, RIM, Google, the entire handset industry, the network equipment suppliers, and of course the mobile operators.  Even the US government tries to fight only two wars at once; Nokia has been fighting at least five.

There are so many examples of Nokia's busted plans that I don't know where to start.  The Symbian adventure, in all of its permutations, is an obvious one.  Nokia has gone through a number of different organizational structures, each of which was supposed to optimize it to compete in the new world of computing and internet.  But the one that sticks out at the moment is Nokia's venture in tablet computing.

Don't get me wrong, I do know the differences between an iPad and an n900.  They are dramatically different devices that reflect profoundly different design philosophies.  But both were designed for a similar high-level goal -- to make computing and web access mobile.  Nokia shipped its product first, more than three years ago.  Apple shipped last year.  Apple is selling seven million units a quarter, while n900 sales are what, a few hundred thousand?  Nice, but not a new industry.  I know Nokia has learned a lot, and has built a lot of infrastructure, but at some point you have to generate revenue rather than just having a great learning experience.


What do you do, Mr. Elop?

I think the biggest challenge facing Stephen Elop is that he needs to preserve the strengths of Nokia even as he undoes their effects.  Expenses have to come down, but at the same time he needs to invest in innovation.  The company must keep its manufacturing strength, even as it adopts a design philosophy that undercuts manufacturing efficiency.  People at Nokia have to be free to innovate independently, but when left to itself the Nokia culture tends to seek consensus and compromise.

I suspect that given all these changes, even motivating the Nokia workforce may become a challenge.  The Nokia people I've talked to love the company and desperately want it to get better.  But nobody could live through the last few years without getting a bit burned out.  Now the CEO says your home is on fire and you need to jump into freezing water.  Would that memo motivate you to work harder, or would it motivate you to work on your resume?  I was discussing the memo with several of my old friends from Apple today, and one of them joked that the message to employees was, "Everybody come to the communication meeting Friday!  Oh, and you might want to pack up your personal belongings and bring them, just in case."  On Friday, Nokia's people will need to see a carrot -- an attractive, plausible vision for the future of the company -- rather than just a stick.

I'll be watching carefully for that vision.  We're hearing rumors that Nokia is planning to shift away from its current operating systems and build on top of Windows Phone 7.  I doubt that's the full story.  For one thing, Nokia can't completely cut off its current software and switch to something else; there would have to be a long transition.  Besides, in the Nokia earnings call last month, Elop dropped some hints about his plans.  He talked about maintaining two platforms, one aimed at the mass market and another at the high end.  He said Nokia's biggest challenge is at the high end, so that's where I would expect a change is most likely.  Elop also went out of his way to praise the QT software layer, so I would be very surprised if it's killed.  If Windows Phone is in Nokia's future, I think we'd see it at the high end, paired with QT.  So we'd get a hybrid OS with Microsoft's plumbing and Nokia APIs. 
   
That would be a bold move, but it's also extremely complicated.  I remember when Palm tried to build its future on Windows Mobile, and gave up in disgust a couple of years later when Microsoft licensed Palm's innovations to other phone companies.  How would Nokia restrain Microsoft from doing the same thing again?  Elop worked at Microsoft, so I'm sure he has some ideas. 
   
Overall, it sounds like a high risk strategy, almost wickedly clever.  Exciting stuff.  And yet I keep remembering how Nokia's other wickedly clever strategies have worked out.

Note:  I've added more commentary on the Nokia announcement here.

Nokia E7 finally arrives in stores

The highly anticipated Nokia E7 will begin arriving in stores in select markets this week, with broader availability building up quickly in several markets.With its tilting 4 inch ClearBlack display, full qwerty keyboard and a fast access to a wide variety of apps directly on the homescreen, the Nokia E7 is the key to having a successful day in or out of the office. Importantly, the device

Keeping organised with your Nokia

GLOBAL – Being disorganised is SO last year. This year is about getting things in order and being as efficient as possible. For us anyway. That’s why we’ve put together a little guide to how you can make this year a productive one, right from your own mobile phone. Find out how you can get organised with your Nokia, right here. Read on.

We’re hoping last year was a great year for you and we’re here to help you make this year an even better one. With some useful advice and tips on how to make the most of your phones native software, plus some help from the apps that await your attention from Ovi Store.

1. Ovi
Setting up an Ovi account is the best way to get the most of your Nokia phone. Once you’re set up with your free account at Ovi.com, you’re phone is only a few clicks away from any service Nokia have to offer.

2. Email
Pre-installed on all Nokia devices, it goes under the name of Nokia Messaging and it’s the first thing we do when setting up a new phone. With support for Ovi Mail, Yahoo! Mail, Google Mail, Windows Live Hotmail and many other POP/IMAP accounts, as well as corporate accounts using Microsoft Exchange, you’ve got access to ten personal email accounts. Instantly connecting your phone to any/all of your inboxes.

3. Ovi Store
For those apps that aren’t already installed on your phone, it’s the best and quickest way to get apps. Shopping at Ovi Store is as simple as clicking the icon and browsing through through thousands of apps and games.

4. Sticky Notes Touch
No organised person would be complete without Stickynotes. You write little things down and stick them on your wall to remind you to-do something later. Sticky Notes Touch lets you jot down tasks quickly, onto a virtual cork noticeboard.

5. Ovi Maps
Ditch the A-Z or the other route planners you browse on the net before you leave the house. Switch on Ovi Maps on your phone and you’ve got instant navigation – with turn-by-turn directions – to anywhere in the world. For free, forever.

6. Multiple alarms
If you wake up at 5am every morning, bringing yourself to reset that alarm every night is the last thing you want to do. Set up a repeating alarm so that you only need to set it once, leaving the phone to do the boring repetitive bit by itself. Navigate to the Alarm section of your phone, add your new alarm time and choose which days you want the alarm to sound. Job done.

7. Ovi Contacts
Personal data is the number one thing people care about most when something goes wrong with their technology. A phone can be replaced, but the phone numbers held within can be lost forever. Ovi Contacts can grab all the phone contacts from your phone and store them online, forever. Syncing your phone over-the-air with the server from time to time will keep this list up-to-date and keep your contacts safe and sound.

8. Social
Being organised doesn’t just mean being on top of things at work, your social life also needs organising too. You don’t want to forget someones birthday do you? Social keeps you up-to-date with your friends’ activity – through their status updates or tweets – and lets you download events they’ve organised on Facebook right into your phone calendar and comes built-in with new Symbian devices.

9. Quickoffice Pro 6
Do some of your work on the hour-long train journey home, so you can spend some more time playing with the kids or shooting zombies in that new game you’ve got. Whatever you prefer. Quickoffice Pro 6 turns your phone into a portable work desk, enabling you to go through those accounts and finish that presentation for the next morning.

10. Memory Status Touch
After a while and a good few months down-the-line, you might notice you’ve filled all that storage space on your phone with apps, games, music, videos and photos. Memory Status Touch, helps you keep an eye on the memory of your phone so you know when it’s time to do some house-keeping, to remove some of that old content.

Nokia most trusted brand in India

MUMBAI, India – Nokia has been voted the most trusted brand in India according to a survey conducted and published by research firm Trust Research Advisory (TRA). The “Brand Trust Report, India Study 2011″ was launched in Mumbai on Tuesday by Dr A P J Abdul Kalam, Former President of India. The survey covered 16,000 brands, based on 61 questions to 2310 respondents in nine major cities.

The number two and three spots were taken by Tata and Sony, respectively, while LG and Samsung were positioned at number four and five.

Describing the methodology of the survey, TRA’s CEO N Chandramouli said, “As trust is a veiy subjective term, we developed a trust matrix which included 61 components defining trust which include empathy, non-threatening ambience, perceived competence, corporate altruism, commanding respect, shared interest, displaying sincerity, enthusiasm, outward appearance and accepting responsibility.”

Other interesting results from the survey were that Pepsi came in at number 36, while Coca-Cola was at 60th place.

The survey also ranked personalities, with cricketer Sachin Tendulkar coming in at 59, ahead of Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi, (ranked 232nd) and Bollywood actor Aamir Khan (242nd).

Nokia Lottery scammers: still out there. Beware.

GLOBAL – It’s that time of the year again when we at Nokia Conversations want to remind you all that the so-called Nokia Lottery is a dishonest scam. We’ve warned against this for the past two years but still we hear news – through our comments – that the scammers are still trying get you to part with your hard-earned cash. Don’t let them get it. It’s yours; keep it. Join us as we give you some tips on how to stay safe this year.

Back in 2009 we let you know that the Nokia Lottery doesn’t exist and never will. Then in early 2010 we did the same thing again, as it’s clearly needed. Racking up more than 700 comments combined, you’ve copied and pasted the scamming emails you’ve received in your droves. This is a great way of helping fellow readers determine what’s real and what’s not. But it always ends the same way: the Nokia Lottery isn’t real.
How the Nokia Lottery scam works

There are a couple of methods these scammers use, in the hope of stealing your money.

You receive an email claiming you have been chosen at random, to receive a prize, usually a large figure of money. In this case, £350,000 is the prize. However, to receive your winnings you must send them some money as an admin charge. £650 in this same case. They hope you’ll be so dazzled by the large sum of money they claim you’ve won, that you’ll send the admin fee. It’s at this point you’ll never hear from them again and your money will be lost.

A second method commonly used is contacting you by SMS. These text messages will tell you you’ve won a heap of money, like in this case, but you must first phone a telephone number or email back to hand over your bank details. Do not do this. Never give your bank details to a stranger, especially if all you know about them is their mobile phone number.

Whatever method they use, they will be asking for the same thing. Either your bank account details, or some money in another form and the messages they send always look official, but they’re not. They’re fake.
What to do if you receive a Nokia Lottery scam SMS or email

Don’t respond to the messages, doing so will only encourage them to keep contacting you.

There are several agencies and sites out there to help you, where you can report the fraud in the hope to get these stopped:

Action Fraud
Snopes
The Anti-Phishing Working Group

If you haven’t entered any competition, or if the prize looks too good to be true, then it almost certainly will be. Let’s have a safe 2011.

Get to know Mobile Documents

GLOBAL – Email delivery to your mobile phone is becoming very popular. Emailing from your phone has plenty of benefits, but what do you do with those emails that are 20MB in size, with some high-res images or 30 page PDFs? Mobile Documents by VISIARC, offers email retrieval, via The Cloud. Read on to find out more.

Emailing on-the-move, via a phone, is a great way of keeping in contact with anybody in the world. Especially if you’re waiting for that important email from work telling you you’ve won that new contract, or something. However – up until now – opening large emails on your Nokia phone has not only been time-consuming, but also costly. Downloading a file of 65 MB, just to find out that the information inside isn’t really relevant, can end up costing you lots of money. So you could log onto a PC and download the files that way, but that’s not always possible when you’re on a train, plain or anywhere else. Mobile Documents opens up your email as a normal email client would, but within the email it’ll show you the attachments all laid out with details of how large the file is, how many pages, the type of document and a thumbnail of the document itself.
Setting up Mobile Documents

First on the agenda is to download the app. This app’s currently in Beta phase, which means it’s still in development but is nearly ready. Beta apps give you the opportunity to play with an app before it goes live, so some changes will be made when it finally graduates. Download from Nokia Beta Labs, or the Ovi Store. We noticed that you have to install the app to the C drive, as installing to E meant the homescreen widget didn’t find Mobile Documents. Install complete, you’ve got the freedom to browse the demo on your phone. We’d recommend you try the demo first as it’s a good way of knowing what the app is all about without setting up your email addresses, that comes later.

Happy with your tutorial and want to continue setting up your email accounts? Go back to the main screen and enter your email address to sign up for the full version, which is still free. During setup, you’ll need to assign your email account with a pin number, for added security, which we think is a good idea.
Homescreen widget setup

Find an empty slot on one of your homescreens and long-press on the screen. Select the plus symbol, scroll to mail and your mailbox will ask you to select which email account you wish to use. Now you’ll notice you have the Mobile Documents logo next to your email address, selecting this will mean all your mail will now run through the Mobile Documents client.
Viewing attachments

If you receive a large email with attachments, open it up and scroll to the bottom to find the attachments. Pressing on one of these attachments will bring up a menu with the options; View, Read, Copy and Download.

View, opens a preview of the document with the ability to flick through the pages from left to right. This is great for selecting what you actually want to view from the document without having to download it first.

Read, transcribes the document for you and gives it to you in the simplest form. If you’ve got a PDF or Word document, Read will give you the text version.

Copy, allows you to copy that file to your clipboard and Download, does what you’d expect. It saves it to to your phone for later use, if you so need it.

One of the great features of Mobile Documents is that you can send any of the attachments you’ve already received, onto somebody else without having to download the file. Because all this data is never actually downloaded in the first place, you’re simply passing the information from the server to the other recipient, this is called Cherry Picking.
Cherry Picking

Open Mobile Documents, select the email account you wish to send an email from if you have more than one, and compose new mail. Start with adding the contact who will receive the email. Next, press the screen below the subject line. This is the box you’ll need to type your message in. Once you’ve typed your message, press Add Att. at the bottom of the screen and it’s here that you can browse any other email – from any email account you’ve set up- and add an attachment straight into your message – without ever downloading it onto your device. Pressing send will send the email instantly, from The Cloud.
Document Support

You’ll be able to retrieve most documents that get sent to your inbox, as there is currently support for a variety of Word documents and image files;
.jpg
.png
.pdf
.doc
.ppt

Currently Mobile Document is available for the Nokia N8. Download it from Ovi Store, or Nokia Beta Labs However, remember as it’s a Beta app, it may be a little rusty around the edges.

Nokia Reader 1.0 beta (Nokia Beta Labs)

A simple and easy-to-use push-enabled RSS reader.

Five health and fitness apps for the new year

GLOBAL – With the Christmas festivities over, it’s time to put away the sherry and throw out those mince pies and start working at reducing that extra weight we’ve put on over the past few weeks. Saying and doing are two different things, though. We’re here to support you through this tough time, with some handy apps that will make the process a little easier to achieve. We’ve got five apps that you’ll want to load up to keep you on track, from Ovi Store.
2011 Resolution Reminder

Making a list of what you want to achieve in your fitness-filled year is the key to success. Without actually really writing it down, it’s all too easy to forget and pretend the six-pack you desire can wait until next year. It’ll never happen. 2011 Resolution Reminder has a really simple interface, pressing + Add resolution does exactly what you would expect. Once you’ve added a couple of things you want to take care of this year, you can now add reminders to them to help you not forget. Pressing the clock item next to one of the listed items lets you set a time and a day to remind you. You can choose every day, just one day a week or just on the weekends, so you’ve got the flexibility to choose when it’s convenient to do that task. Find yourself one week in and feeling proud that you’re sticking to the resolutions? Hit the Share on Facebook button to tell all your friends about it.

Speedhero Football Lite

Kicking a ball with your friends in a park on a Sunday morning is a fun way to burn off some of those unwanted calories. So is just kicking a football as hard as you can. Install Speedhero Football Lite, place your phone on the ground a few feet away from the ball and give yourself a long run up to the ball. Run to the ball and give it the biggest kick you’ve got and this app will give you the top speed of your shot*. Using sound recognition technology, this app listens to the speed of the ball, or more accurately, the sound of the thump as your foot hits it. Clever stuff. This free version offers you ten hits and if you want to continue using it you’ll need to purchase the full version; Speedhero Magical Games, for £8.00.

*Please don’t try this indoors, outdoor use is essential.
Wellness Diary

Having a diary to keep track of your eating habits and exercise routines is a must if you’re to ever truly beat the bulge. Wellness Diary keeps a record of your height, weight, BMI and the types of food you eat in any given day. Most of it you have to manually update, as there’s no way an app can know what you’ve eaten otherwise. The steps counter is something I found useful, as I’ve no idea how many steps I take in a day, apparently the average should be 10,000. Knowing I now take about half of that, generously, leaves me with the desire to walk more. And with it being the easiest type of exercise, we’re sure you would like to start your training-regime with something as simple as walking.

The Vitamin Widget

If you’re trying to cut back on the sweets and want to start eating more fruits or vegetables, you’d probably like to know what are the benefits. This app is a database of most of the common fruit and veg you’re going to see in the supermarket and gives you details on what vitamins they contain. Really quite useful if your trying to control the intake of certain vitamins such as vitamin C, it is flu season after all. The smoothie section of the app is a good little add-on, as it tells you how mix your favourite fruits into near-liquid form for easy consumption. You can even share and upload you own recipes, but you’ll need to create an account for that, which is free.
Sports Tracker

If taking to the streets with running, cycling or roller skating is your thing, Sports Tracker is a great way of logging your workout. Create your profile, select the New workout option and you’ll be taken to the workout page. It’s here you’ll see the clever bits, like distance you’ve travelled, your pace and even a map of your route using the built in GPS on your phone. If you’re fortunate enough to own the Sports Tracker heart rate transmitter, you’ll even be able to keep an eye on your heart rate on the phone while your doing your exercise. Workout complete, you can upload all the training session’s details to the Sports-Tracker.com server or even your friends on Facebook.

Crocodile Eats Mobile Phone, Now Not Eating

A crocodile at a Ukraine zoo snaps up a mobile phone after a visitor drops it while trying to get a picture. Now, doctors say the croc is not eating and seems sluggish. If it does not get better, they may have to operate. (Jan. 21)

Nokia Board of Directors convenes Annual General Meeting 2011

Dividend of EUR 0.40 per share will be proposed for 2010 (EUR 0.40 for 2009)

Nokia Corporation
Stock Exchange Release
January 27, 2011 at 13.15 (CET +1)

Espoo, Finland - Nokia announced today that its Board of Directors has resolved to convene the Annual General Meeting on May 3, 2011 and that the Board and its Committees will submit the below proposals to the Annual General Meeting.

- Proposal to pay a dividend of EUR 0.40 per share
- Proposals on the Board composition and remuneration
- Proposal for a new stock option plan as part of Nokia Equity Program 2011
- Proposal to authorize the Board to repurchase shares to maintain flexibility but with no current plans to repurchase shares in 2011
- Proposal to re-elect the external auditor

Proposal to pay a dividend
The Board will propose to the Annual General Meeting that a dividend of EUR 0.40 per share be paid for the fiscal year 2010. The dividend ex-date would be May 4, 2011, the record date May 6, 2011 and the payment date on or about May 20, 2011.

Proposals on Board composition and remuneration
Nokia Board members, Lalita Gupte and Keijo Suila, have informed that they will no longer be available for the Nokia Board of Directors. Ms Gupte was first appointed to Nokia Board in 2007 and she has been a member of the Audit Committee during her entire directorship. Mr Suila has been Nokia Board member since 2006 and he is currently also a member of the Personnel Committee.

The Board's Corporate Governance and Nomination Committee will propose to the Annual General Meeting that the number of Board members be eleven (11) and that the following current Nokia Board members be re-elected as members of the Nokia Board of Directors for a term ending at the Annual General Meeting in 2012: Bengt Holmström, Henning Kagermann, Per Karlsson, Isabel Marey-Semper, Jorma Ollila, Marjorie Scardino and Risto Siilasmaa.

In addition, the Committee will propose that Jouko Karvinen, CEO of Stora Enso Oyj, Helge Lund, President and CEO of Statoil Group, and Kari Stadigh, Group CEO and President of Sampo plc, be elected as members of the Nokia Board of Directors for a term ending at the Annual General Meeting in 2012. Also, the Committee will propose election of Stephen Elop, President and CEO of Nokia Corporation, to Nokia Board of Directors for the same term.

Additional information about the Board member candidates will be available in the Committee proposal.

As to the Board remuneration, the Corporate Governance and Nomination Committee will propose that the annual fee payable to the Board members elected at the Annual General Meeting on May 3, 2011 for a term ending at the Annual General Meeting in 2012, remain at the same level than during the past three years as follows: EUR 440 000 for the Chairman, EUR 150 000 for the Vice Chairman, and EUR 130 000 for each member, excluding the President and CEO of Nokia if elected to the Nokia Board; for the Chairman of the Audit Committee and the Chairman of the Personnel Committee an additional annual fee of EUR 25 000; and for each member of the Audit Committee an additional annual fee of EUR 10 000. Further, the Corporate Governance and Nomination Committee will propose that, as in the past, approximately 40% of the remuneration be paid in Nokia Corporation shares purchased from the market, which shares shall be retained until the end of the board membership in line with the Nokia policy (except for those shares needed to offset any costs relating to the acquisition of the shares, including taxes).

New stock option plan as part of Nokia Equity Program 2011
As part of Nokia Equity Program 2011, the Board proposes to the Annual General Meeting that selected personnel of Nokia Group be granted a maximum of 35 million stock options until the end of 2013. The planned maximum annual grant for the year 2011 under this Stock Option Plan 2011 is approximately 12 million stock options, with the remaining stock options available through the end of 2013. The proposed 2011 Stock Option Plan will succeed the previous 2007 Stock Option Plan approved by the Annual General Meeting 2007 which has not been available for further grants of stock since the end of 2010. The stock options entitle recipients to subscribe for a maximum of 35 million Nokia shares over the life of the plan. The sub-categories of stock options to be granted under the plan will have a term of approximately six years. The vesting periods of the stock options are as follows: 50% of shares granted under each subcategory vesting after three years from grant date and remaining 50% vesting four years after the relevant grant date. The exercise period for the first sub-category will commence on July 1, 2014 and the exercise period for the last sub-categories will expire on December 27, 2019. The exercise prices (i.e., share subscription prices) shall be determined on a quarterly basis at grant and will be equal to the market price of the Nokia share quoted in public trading at the time of the pricing, as determined in the plan's terms and conditions.

The overall Nokia Equity Program 2011, following previous years' practice, has the below structure as approved by the Board of Directors and subject to the approval of the Stock Option Plan 2011 by the Annual General Meeting:

- Performance Shares - offered as the main equity-based incentive to approximately 4 700 employees, who receive shares only upon the achievement of threshold level for the two independent performance criteria: Average Annual Net Sales Growth and Average Annual EPS;
- Stock options - a more limited plan, used in conjunction with performance shares on a selective basis for senior managers, to better align with a focus on Nokia share price appreciation; and
- Restricted Shares - granted on a very selective basis to retain our high potential and critical talent, vital to the future success of Nokia.

As Nokia clarifies its strategic directions, the Equity Program 2011 will support employee focus and alignment with the company's targets. The Equity Program 2011, like Nokia equity programs of previous years, will attract, retain and motivate critical talent. Similarly, it intends to align the potential value participants receive directly with the long-term performance of the company, thus aligning the participants' interests with Nokia shareholders' interests. Nokia's balanced approach and use of the performance-based plan as the main long-term incentive vehicle effectively contributes to the long-term value creation and sustainability of the company and ensures that compensation is based on performance.

Under the Nokia Performance Share Plan 2011, Nokia shares will be delivered provided that the Company's performance reaches at least one of the required threshold levels measured by two independent performance criteria:

(1) Average annual net sales growth during the performance period; and

(2)Average annual earnings per share (EPS) (diluted, non-IFRS) during the performance period.

The threshold and maximum levels for the Performance Share Plan 2011 are scheduled to be determined and disclosed during the first quarter of 2011. No Performance Shares will be granted under the plan prior to that.

The Performance Share Plan 2011 has a three-year performance period (2011-2013). The grant of Performance Shares in 2011 may result in an aggregate maximum payout of 28 million Nokia shares, should the maximum level for both performance criteria be met. Nokia intends to continue to grant performance shares also in 2012-2013 up to a total maximum payout of approximately 56 million Nokia shares, should the maximum level for both performance criteria be met.

The Restricted Share Plan 2011 has a three-year restriction period. The grant of Restricted Shares in 2011 may result in an aggregate maximum payout of 9 million Nokia shares. Nokia intends to continue to grant restricted shares also in 2012-2013 up to total payout of approximately 18 million Nokia shares.

As of December 31, 2010, the total maximum dilution effect of Nokia's equity program currently outstanding, assuming that the performance shares are delivered at maximum level, is approximately 1.5 %. The potential maximum effect of the Nokia Equity Program 2011 will be approximately another 1.3 %.

The performance period for the Performance Share Plan 2008 ended on December 31, 2010, and there will be no settlement under the plan as the threshold performance criteria of EPS and Average Annual Net Sales Growth were not met. To fulfill the Company's obligations under other, considerably more limited equity incentive plans, Nokia's Board of Directors has resolved to issue a total amount of 1 315 000 Nokia shares (NOK1V) held by the Company to settle its commitment to approximately 500 participants, employees of the Nokia Group.

Proposals to authorize the Board to repurchase shares
The Board will propose that the Annual General Meeting authorize the Board to resolve to repurchase a maximum of 360 million Nokia shares. The proposed maximum number of shares is the same as in the Board's current share repurchase authorization and it represents less than 10 % of all the shares of the Company. The shares may be repurchased in order to develop the capital structure of the Company, finance or carry out acquisitions or other arrangements, settle the Company's equity-based incentive plans, be transferred for other purposes, or be cancelled. The shares may be repurchased either through a tender offer made to all shareholders on equal terms, or through public trading from the stock market. The authorization would be effective until June 30, 2012 and terminate the current authorization granted by the Annual General Meeting on May 6, 2010.

The repurchase authorization is proposed to maintain flexibility, but the Board has no current plans for repurchases during 2011.

Election of external auditor
In addition, the Board's Audit Committee will propose to the Annual General Meeting that PricewaterhouseCoopers Oy be re-elected as the Company's auditor, and that the auditor be reimbursed according to the invoice and in compliance with the purchase policy approved by the Audit Committee.

The notice to the Annual General Meeting and the complete proposals by the Board and its Committees to the Annual General Meeting are scheduled to be published on Nokia's website at www.nokia.com/agm on February 2, 2011.

Press kit available at http://www.nokia.com/A4686368?kit=135

HD Voice

Orange have launched a number of phones that go back to basics and improved the often maligned audio quality of today's communications. HD Voice aims to sort this out, offering better voice reproduction and ambient noise cancellation. Martin Stanford experiments.

Nokia Q4 2010 net sales EUR 12.7 billion, non-IFRS EPS EUR 0.22 (reported EPS EUR 0.20) Nokia 2010 net sales EUR 42.4 billion, non-IFRS EPS EUR 0.61

Nokia Board of Directors will propose a dividend of EUR 0.40 per share for 2010 (EUR 0.40 per share for 2009).

Nokia Corporation
Interim Report
January 27, 2011 at 13.00 (CET +1)

This is a summary of the fourth quarter and annual results 2010 interim report published today. The complete fourth quarter and annual results 2010 interim report, including the full year 2010 information and tables, is available at http://www.nokia.com/results/Nokia_results2010Q4e.pdf. Investors should not rely on summaries of our interim reports only, but should review the complete interim reports with tables.

Common chargers are on the way

You may well have seen news
emerge of a new standard for a Common Charger for mobile phones with which major players in the phone manufacturing business have agreed to make their new devices compliant. That includes Nokia, of course. If it isn’t already obvious, click through to find out why this is good news for you, the industry and the environment.

Following the recent publication of charging standards, the new chargers will use the micro-USB connector – already in use for the data connection in many smartphones.

The majority of current Nokia devices already support micro USB based charging, going forward this will be the industry standard. In addition Nokia’s standard 2mm charger will continue to be supported, so standard Nokia chargers will still be useable as well.

This is good news in three ways:

- It makes life easier. You won’t need to buy a new charger for your new device, hunt through your drawer of old chargers or hope that someone in the office has the same brand of phone when you need a top-up away from home.

- The waste and environmental impact created by old, discarded chargers that no longer work when you change manufacturer for your new device, will be eliminated.

- Environmental impact may be reduced by the ability to sell phones without chargers (a development currently being piloted by Nokia to gauge customer reaction).

Do not forget, old unneeded chargers can be brought to one of the 50,000 Nokia Recycling Points – where they can be completely recycled to make new components.

This is all good news, of course, and eminently sensible. What’s your view?

There’s a video introducing the initiative here. Update: Since we published this post, the European Commission has launched an entire website about the development. Head over to OneChargerforAll.eu for more information.

Footnote;
A memorandum of understanding – indicating their intention to adopt the new standard – was signed by Nokia was in June 2009 and to date 13 other companies including Apple, Emblaze Mobile, Huawei Technologies, LGE, Motorola, NEC, Qualcomm, Research in Motion (RIM), Samsung, SonyEricsson, TCT Mobile (ALCATEL mobile phones), Texas Instruments and Atmel.

Getting started with Nokia Big Screen

Fans and owners of the Nokia N8 will be all too aware of its multimedia capabilities. Taking superb photos, shooting high-def videos and listening to your music library is all very fun on your own, but what if you want to share them with friends? Nokia Big Screen lets other people share your experience, on your TV set. Find out how, and why this is a must-have.

In the olden days, people huddled around a projector to watch slides from somebody’s holiday and it was a whole family affair. These days it’s slightly different. We’ve moved from projector to passing around pieces of paper with photos on them, to – as of late – passing our digital cameras around the room to share our images. Until now that is. Nokia Big Screen allows you to share your holiday snaps with everyone, in one go, at the same time.

Currently residing at Nokia Beta Labs, it’s an experimental app that’s aimed at showcasing the best features of the Nokia N8 and it does that well. Log into Nokia Beta Labs now using your regular Nokia account, download the app and we’ll talk you through it.

Once installed, there’s no need to do anything else on the phone. Find your HDMI adapter from your box (CA-156), lift the cover to the HDMI port on the Nokia N8 and plug in the cable. Plug in a standard HDMI cable into the back of your TV and plug the other end into the CA-156. You’ll see the TV spring to life and within a few seconds you’ll be looking at a menu screen, with thumbnails of your image collection cascading down the screen and the option to select Videos, Music, Photos, About and Exit on the left.

Controlling Nokia Big Screen

Once you’ve plugged in your Nokia N8 to you TV, you’re faced with this new interface and you’ll see at the top of the screen you’ll be notified that your phone is searching for a Bluetooth device. This is where you have the option to connect controllers such as a Bluetooth keyboard or a Wii Remote, as your method of controlling the on-screen features. Connecting via bluetooth is a great way to flick through your phone’s content while sitting back from the comfort of your couch, without feeling tethered to the TV by the cable. Using the navi-pad on the Wii Remote, you navigate through the features. The A button selects whatever you want to select and the B button underneath is your back button.
How to connect the Wii Remote

Attach your Nokia N8 to your TV using the HDMI cable. Wait for the screen to display your phone’s content and the green bar at the top of the page to display “Searching for remote controllers”. Now press and hold buttons 1 and 2 on your Wii Remote, until you see “Connected to Nintendo RVL-CNT-01″ in the green bar at the top of your TV. You’re now set to use the Wii Remote as your controller.

You don’t have to use a Bluetooth controller to use Nokia Big Screen, but it certainly makes browsing content easier. If you choose not to use Bluetooth, the screen on your Nokia N8 will have changed to a very simple controller, with a four-way directional pad, an OK button, back button and a power off key. Very simple to use.

Features

On your TV, you’ll be able to browse through the media stored on your Nokia N8. Using the menu on the left, you can view your Videos or your Photos, in stunning high-definition. Selecting one of these options takes you to a separate page where you can scroll through your snapshots or mini-movies, enabling you to share those holiday moments with anyone who wants to see them.

Selecting Music takes you to your music library in much the same way you’d see it on the device. With the albums – including album art – stacked side-by-side, scrolling from left-to-right lets you painlessly search for your favourite band. Hit play, return to the photos page and browse your images, while still listening to music playing in the background.

Here’s Timo Pääkkönen from Nokia, showing Nokia Big Screen in action.

What we find cool about Nokia Big Screen is that it works on any TV. So that means you can plug into your friends’ TV, your parents’ TV or the widescreen set at the local pub. Should they allow it, of course. Pop the Wii Remote in your bag and you’re set to impress, wherever you are.

Nokia Big Screen is currently available for the Nokia N8 and for the upcoming Nokia E7.

So which were 2010’s Must-Have Apps?

The folk over at Ovi Daily App have, for the second year running, hosted the Must-Have App of the Year Awards. Starting back in December, they asked you to vote for your favourite apps from Ovi Store, in six different categories. Votes came to a close last week and the winners were announced. So in case you hadn’t heard, join us to find out who won.

You could say, last year was Ovi Store’s year. In April, the store was pumping out 1.7 million downloads per day. Downloads continued to rise throughout the months and by December, users were downloading more the 3.5 million pieces of content on a daily basis. So it’s no surprise that Ovi Daily App decided to acknowledge the developers behind the apps and give you the chance to do so too. Voting meant that the most popular items from Ovi Store would get the title of Must have… and you – the voters – would win a Nokia N8 if you guessed all six winners correctly.

So, on to the winners of each category.

Game Apps – Doodle Jump

Playing as a green alien, with what looks like a trumpet for a nose, your aim is to reach the sky and jump as high as you can. Controlling your movements by tilting the phone to the left or the right, make this game a joy to play. Don’t over-tilt though, or the Doodler (that’s the name of the character) will fall off the platforms and your game is over.
Social Networking Apps – Gravity

Mobile phones at their most basic function, are made to help us communicate with other people. Gravity does this really well, in that it lets you join all your Social Network profiles in one place, meaning less time clicking into different apps and more time talking to the people that matter in your life. It has all the features you’d expect to find when using these services online, like photo sharing, status updates, current trends and checking into certain locations.
Music Apps – Shazam

Music lovers rejoice. Never forget that new track you heard during the day. Let you phone listen to it, tell you what it is and even download it straight to your phone through Ovi Music Store. Full track or album details will be saved in the app as Tags so you can come back to them later, to find out the latest tour info on the band.
Utility Apps – JoikuSpot Wifi Hot Spot

Transform your Nokia phone into a WiFi hotspot. Let everybody around you share that generous data plan you’ve been given by the network – or use it for your own laptop when there’s no WiFi. Other phones connect wirelessly to your phone, browse the Internet, costing them nothing. A great example of sharing technology.
Business and Productivity Apps – Mobile Documents

If you’ve got an email account – which you probably have – there will probably come a time where you’ll pick up your phone, open your mailbox and look at the huge document somebody has sent you. How much will it cost to download that 300mb PDF, or how long will it take? Mobile Documents enables you to view your sent documents, without the need of downloading them. It’s cloud-based technology at it’s best.
Entertainment Apps – TouchNote

With the age of digital technology, often comes the demise of the old analogue technology. Sending a postcard is something we used to do when we were kids right? Wrong. Well, still right, but you can continue to send postcards using this app. Take a photo using your camera phone and Touchnote will transform it into a physical card and deliver it to anyone, anywhere. Nice for when you’re travelling the world and can’t wait to get back to upload your photos.

So there we have it. Six apps that have been voted for by their users, winning a great title of Must have… app. Head on over to Ovi Daily App for more details, and don’t forget to let us know what you think of these winning apps.

NB: The Daily App team are still waiting for the winner of the fully-loaded Nokia N8 to claim his/her prize. They’ll be announced as soon as that happens.

Top Ovi Store games and gamers

Proper games on mobile phones have been a godsend for commuters, kids and, well, everyone else, too. But which games have topped the charts on Ovi Store in the latest count? And, more intriguingly perhaps, which countries put the most time into mobile gaming? Hint: I’m British and mostly proud of it, but I’m not sure that the results below represent our finest hour…

The new generation of Symbian devices has seen a real shift in the numbers downloading and playing mobile games, thanks to a better Ovi Store perhaps, but also better games and the graphics acceleration built into the devices. But which are the most popular on the new devices? Here they are, according to the latest figures from the stats-fiends at the Store:

Need for Speed Shift HD
Angry Birds Lite
Marble Maze Classic
Galaxy On Fire
Skiller WallBall
KORa Deluxe (Not available in the UK – is it good?)
Bounce Boing Battle
Cube Touch XXL
Air Hockey Touch – Free
Soccer Bounce

The full version of Rovio’s Angry Birds retains its title as the top paid game.

But what of the top countries for gaming? Well, according to the stats we’ve received, which tracked only Nokia N8 users, it goes like this. These are the countries that downloaded the highest percentage of the total number of games:

UK 13.3 percent
India 10 percent
Italy 7.7 percent
Germany 6.6 percent
China 5.5 percent
Russia 5.2 percent

The UK is in the number one spot for something, for once! But we’re a tiny country compared to most, so I wonder why we’re such big mobile game consumers? My guesses:

We’re relatively well-off, compared to a lot of the world, so more smartphones generally.
We got the Nokia N8 fairly early compared to some countries: the results may change a lot in the coming months.
A lot of us, especially around London, have long, boring commutes on public transport.
Unlimited, flat-rate data contracts are now pretty standard.
According to the information I’ve been able to gather, the UK is already a nation of heavy computer and console gamers.

Any more reasons you can add to the pool? And Indian readers, what’s your excuse?

Nokia Siemens Networks now targets acquisition of Motorola's public carrier wireless network infrastructure assets in first quarter of 2011

- Pending regulatory approval from the authority in China
- Antitrust clearance received from US, European Union, Brazil, Japan, Russia, South Africa, Taiwan and Turkey

Nokia Siemens Networks announced that it now expects to complete its acquisition of the majority of Motorola's public carrier wireless network infrastructure assets in the first quarter of 2011. The company had expected, at the time the transaction was originally announced on July 19, 2010, to complete closing activities by the end of 2010 but the transaction has not yet received regulatory approval from the Anti-Monopoly Bureau of the Ministry of Commerce of China, which is continuing its review process. All other necessary regulatory clearances have been obtained.

"This delay is disappointing, but we're looking forward to completing the acquisition early in the new year," said Rajeev Suri, chief executive officer of Nokia Siemens Networks. "We are continuing to work closely with the authority in China to finalize the clearance process in that country. We recognize its efforts in addressing this case as a matter of importance."

Approximately 7,500 employees are expected to transfer to Nokia Siemens Networks from Motorola's public carrier wireless network infrastructure business when the transaction closes, including large research and development sites in the United States, China and India.



About Nokia Siemens Networks
Nokia Siemens Networks is a leading global enabler of telecommunications services. With its focus on innovation and sustainability, the company provides a complete portfolio of mobile, fixed and converged network technology, as well as professional services including consultancy and systems integration, deployment, maintenance and managed services. It is one of the largest telecommunications hardware, software and professional services companies in the world. Operating in 150 countries, its headquarters are in Espoo, Finland. www.nokiasiemensnetworks.com

Talk about Nokia Siemens Networks' news at http://blogs.nokiasiemensnetworks.com and find out if your country is exploiting the full potential of connectivity at www.connectivityscorecard.org