26 February 2009

Nokia's CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo
We Are Eyeing Entering The Laptop Business

Nokia is well aware that golden days of mobile business won't last forever and Nokia’s main intention over the past few years or so has been the fundamental desire to reinvent itself and switch from being a handset vendor only to being an "Internet company".

Throughout its long history, Nokia Corporation has changed its business model many times. Initially the company started as a lumber mill on the banks of the river Nokia in 1865.

Since then it evolved into a large stodgy conglomerate which produced everything from rubber boots and cables to lavatory paper to televisions and finally established itself as the main producer of mobile-phone handsets on the world and I wonder have you ever asked yourself what the next is?!

Well, Nokia's CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo Wednesday told the Finnish national broadcaster YLE that the company is considering entering the laptop business, according to Reuters. “We are looking very actively also at this opportunity,” Kallasvuo reportedly said.

Industry has rumored about Nokia's possible plan to enter the PC industry since late last year, but Kallasvuo's comment was the first official admittance of such plans.

"We don't have to look even for five years from now to see that what we know as a mobile phone and what we know as a PC are in many ways converging," Kallasvuo said. "Today we have hundreds of millions of people who are having their first Internet experience on the phone. This is a good indication," he added.

Bunch of companies that naturally make laptops, companies like Apple and HP, Acrer (dell soon?) have moved from the computer business into the phone business, so there is a certain logic in Nokia's possible move to computer business.

In a matter of fact, with the processing power, onboard memory and broadband access that Smartphones today possess they have entered the day when they are more like the personal computers and basically, Nokia is already in the personal computer business if you ask me.

"Nokia maybe nervous about entering a market segment that is already heavily commoditized, but it would be in a position to exploit its enormous scale in manufacturing, supply chain and distribution," said Ben Wood, research director at CCS Insight.

"All leading mobile network operators and retailers are adding connected notebooks and netbooks to their portfolios alongside mobile phones. On this basis it comes as no surprise that Nokia is evaluating this segment," he said.