Nokia is ditching business market and focusing on consumers
Nokia announced yesterday that it is reallocating its resources and selling assets focused on the business and enterprise market. They are planning on stopping the research and development of business solutions and enterprise mail. Surprising, since Mail for Exchange 2.7 had just been released not long ago – which would lead some to believe that Nokia’s business support would continue going. Not so. Instead, they are focusing on the consumer and devices and software geared toward non-business types. Nokia is planning on selling off its security appliances business to a financial investor with the EVP of Services & Software saying:
“If this transaction is concluded, it would be an extremely positive development for the security appliance business, which will be able to realize its full potential under new ownership. The investor is committed to continuing the development and growth of the business, to serving its current network of customers, and to retaining and motivating its employees.”
We’ll see if this new investor can actually help that side of Nokia’s soon-to-be-former department “realize its full potential” and motivate its employees. This does seem like a logical step for Nokia since their business devices, like the E71 and E90, haven’t done so well against Blackberry, Motorola, and HTC in terms of sales, popularity, and enterprise support. Not to mention them stupidly dropping BlackBerry Connect. With Nokia tightening its focus on the consumer market, we can only hope that it leads to some awesome multimedia devices and compete with the iPhone, G1, and future devices that will be featuring Android.
UPDATE: To clarify, Nokia is not ceasing to manufacture business devices. They are concentrating on consumer software.
She said “items that have been misread” not “mis-written.”
@Marc
And please forgive the multiple posts but your headline reads:
“Nokia is ditching business market and focusing in on consumers.”
How are we not suppose to interpret “ditching” as Nokia stopping it’s support? No where in Nokia’s press release was the word “ditching” uses or insinuated when talking about the business market. Sorry, but again I must say you were sensationalizing this post…
@Marc:
I could again be misinterpreting Mel’s comment, but it sounds like you were the one being accused of “miss-reading” the Nokia press release. I don’t think any of of miss-read what you posted since you clearly wrote “Nokia is ditching business market…”.
Mel, please forgive me if I am referencing your post incorrectly.
No problem Evilhomer. It’s my fault for being vague and I could easily see how the reference might have been taken. If the day were to ever come (let’s hope not), I’ll put it in bold writing with lots of exclamation points that Nokia stops making business hardware! When I said “ditching” the business support, I was referring to the EVP’s statement regarding the sale of one of their divisions. Most of the allusions I got were from the article I sourced, where the title itself may have been misinterpreted.
Thanks for chiming in, though, and continuing to be supportive (despite the misunderstanding)!
No big. Wasn’t trying to beat you with a hammer or anything. I think that it was just that you made some of us sh*t our pants a little…
Haha… oops. Well, I do love Nokia (regardless of that other comment about how cheap their devices are) so I would’ve been just as nervous if they stopped production on certain devices.
The E71 “Brad Pitt of Smartphones” was poorly marketed. Should of been a lot bigger.
@Marc: I agree about the cheap feel of most of the Nokia phones. I recently owned a Nokia N95-4 which was a great device but there is something unsettling about having paid over $700 for what as mostly plastic. And the slider just didn’t feel like I was going to get $700 out of it.
@jon: I agree that they really stepped it up with the E71. That thing it built like a small tank but with an elegant design. It’s too bad that most carriers in the US don’t pick up more of the higher quality Nokia devices, but instead choose to carry cheaply built devices such as the E61 and N75. On top of that, cripple the hell out of them with their own UI/Software modifications. The N71 is about the finest Nokia that I’ve seen in awhile. Nokia doesn’t really seem to care much for tackling the US market but that is probably due to the fact that most US consumers just want the “free” phone offered by carriers and have little interest in the high end market.
Correction: The E71 is what I was referring to in the above post. Not N71. (sorry)
@Evilhomer The N95 does feel cheap because of the plastic and its lack of weight despite all that bulk. I got it free from a friend who, in Germany, signed up for a contract with T-Mobile and got the phone for $5.00 w/contract. He already had a phone so gave it to me. Very nice, GREAT battery life, but the feel is lacking.
@Marc: Well I’d take one for free and not complain one bit.
Wish I had your friends.