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Less focus on feature phones while extending the smartphones effort: further readjustments at Nokia

Update as of Aug 9, 2012: … Lumia direction … camera direction …
… Asha positioning vs. Lumia and Android:

[3:19] First of all what we’re working on with Windows Phone is to take it as low end price point as we possibly can. Having said that, the Nokia Asha devices have really been developed with the emerging market consumer in mind. We’ve brought a lot of smartphone like features to the user interface, as well as investing in making access to the Internet possible for consumers who have real affordability constraints, for data compression in our browser etc. We are working to continue to invest there so that Asha is a relevant competitor to the lowest end Android devices. [4:05]

see: The BGR Show – Nokia’s Smartphones Guru [iamOTHER YouTube channel, Aug 9, 2012]

  • Speculations about Nokia
  • Nokia and the Windows Phone Summit
  • Nokia Q&A conference for financial analysts and investors, June 14, 2012
  • Nokia announcements, June 14, 2012
  • Scalado acquisition
  • Asha Touch family of mobile devices

Closely related information:
Windows Phone 8 software architecture vs. that of Windows Phone 7, 7.5 and the upcoming 7.8 [June 22, 2012]
The new, high-volume market in China is ready to define the 2012 smartphone war [Jan 6 – Feb 17, 2012]
Tech investment banking expertise to strengthen the unique value focus of growing the HTC brand and to achieve high growth again [April 18 – 25, 2012]

Other related information:
The Where Platform from Nokia: a company move to taking data as a raw material to build products [April 7, 2012]
Nokia under transition (as reported by the company) [March 11-30, 2012]
Nokia’s strategy for “the next billion” based on software and web optimization with super low-cost 2.5/2.75G SoCs [Feb 14 – April 23, 2012]
Nokia trying the first Lumia month in China with China Telecom exclusive [March 28, 2012]
MWC 2012 day 1 news [Feb 27, 2012]: Samsung and Nokia [Feb 28 – March 1, 2012]
China-based second-tier and white-boxed handset makers targeting the emerging markets [Feb 13, 2012]
Nokia CEO: salespeople to deliver true WP7 retail experience supported by improved product management, marketing and accelerated global coverage with a full breadth of products [Jan 29, 2012]
Nokia’s Lumia strategy is capitalizing on platform enhancement opportunities with location-based services, better photographic experience etc. [Jan 12 – April 27, 2012]
Smarterphone end-to-end software solution for “the next billion” Nokia users [Jan 9, 2012]
The precursor of 2012 smartphone war: Nokia Lumia vs. Samsung Omnia W in India [Jan 3 – 23, 2012]
Be aware of ZTE et al. and white-box (Shanzhai) vendors: Wake up call now for Nokia, soon for Microsoft, Intel, RIM and even Apple! [Feb 21 – March 25, 2011 ]


Speculations about Nokia

A “short-term surprise” technology speculation: Nokia Air [s60betalabs YouTube channel, June 24, 2012]

Here’s a pretty interesting Nokia promo video we managed to find on Vimeo, the video is named ‘Nokia AIR’ having ‘company confidential’ watermark on it. The video shows-off some pretty cool concept devices, according to the video ‘Nokia Air’ is a type of cloud storage and sync service that allows you to access your data and services anytime anywhere. http://www.symbiantweet.com/weekend-watch-nokia-air

A “short-term” investors’ speculation: Nokia Takeover Seen As Collapsing Shares Signal Bottom: Real M&A [Bloomberg, June 15, 2012]

… Nokia plunged 18 percent yesterday after forecasting a wider second-quarter operating loss from handsets and saying it will cut as many as 10,000 jobs as it cedes market share to Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s iPhone and Samsung Electronics Co. devices. After wiping out about $100 billion in market value, Espoo, Finland- based Nokia trades at a 38 percent discount to its net assets, the least expensive on record, according to data compiled by Bloomberg dating back to 1995.

Nokia started out as a wood-pulp and paper company in 1865 before expanding into rubber, electronics and eventually telecommunications. The company’s market capitalization, which was more than 300 billion euros in 2000, has tumbled more than 90 percent since the iPhone was introduced five years ago, valuing it at 6.8 billion euros ($8.6 billion) as of yesterday.

Nokia had $12.4 billion in cash and short-term investments as of March 31, topping its market value of $8.6 billion yesterday, the data show. After accounting for debt, Nokia’s net cash position of $5.9 billion is still the equivalent of 68 percent of its market capitalization.

“Close to half of the market cap is cash — that’s cheap no matter what’s going on,” Falcon Point’s Mahoney said. For private-equity firms, “it’s cheap enough. When you are at this type of level, you don’t even need to cut costs that much to get value out of the transaction.”

“Who would buy them at this point?” Lars Soederfjell, a Stockholm-based analyst with Bank of Aaland, said in a telephone interview. “You need to stabilize the business. There’s too much uncertainty. It’s more like buying a lottery ticket than anything else.”

Still, industry analysts at Gartner and Framingham, Massachusetts-based IDC say they expect the Windows Phone platform will make inroads as Microsoft develops it further.

Carolina Milanesi, an analyst at Gartner, said the firm forecasts Windows Phone will be the second-biggest smartphone ecosystem after Android in 2015. IDC expects Windows Phone to pass Apple’s iOS in 2016.

Nokia seen to be running out of money and time [Helsingin Sanomat, June 15, 2012]

A result warning and the decision to cut 10,000 jobs by the end of next year is a stark indication of how badly Nokia’s business activities and financial position have weakened this year. Furthermore, there are no indications of improvement any time soon.

The Finnish mobile telephone manufacturer expects its operating loss to increase in April-June, and the complicated turns of phrase in the result warning suggest that the spiral will not end in the third quarter either.

Nokia is cutting 3,700 jobs in Finland. A mobile phone factory in Salo, which employs 850 people, is to be shut down, and the research and development unit in Oulu is to be scaled back. In addition, a research and development unit in the German city of Ulm, which has 730 employees, is to be shut down.
Job cuts are also likely to affect locations in Finland other than Salo and Oulu, but Nokia gave no further details on the matter on Thursday.
The aim is to reduce the operational costs of the mobile phones unit to EUR 3 billion by the end of next year. In 2010 the costs were EUR 5.4 billion.

By the end of March Nokia’s net assets (liquid assets minus debts with interest) had declined by more than EUR 2.1 billion. In the present quarter this trend has probably accelerated.
The depletion of assets and the significant reduction in sales could eventually lead to insolvency and possibly even bankruptcy. To avoid this, costs need to be reduced to better correspond to shrunken business activities.
After the reductions in jobs, Nokia has about 44,000 employees at work around the world [sans Nokia-Siemens obviously]. The last time that the company had such a small work force was in 1998. The serious problems are attributed to miscalculations by the management and the board of directors that have been made since 2005.
The company lost competitiveness because it held on too long to the antiquated Symbian operating system.


Nokia and the Windows Phone Summit

Closely related information:
Windows Phone 8 software architecture vs. that of Windows Phone 7, 7.5 and the upcoming 7.8 [June 22, 2012]

Nokia at Windows Phone 8 Microsoft Dev Summit 2012 [Camb078 YouTube channel, June 21, 2012]

Kevin Shields, Senior Vice-President, Program and Product Management for the Nokia Lumia range

Nokia at the Windows Phone 8 unveiling [Nokia Conversations, June 20, 2012]

Today, Nokia’s Kevin Shields – who leads product development for Lumia smartphones – joined Microsoft representatives on stage at the Windows Phone Summit in San Francisco to outline how we’re working together to build a winning Windows Phone ecosystem and bring new experiences to Lumia phones.

Microsoft’s Terry Myerson, Kevin Gallo and Joe Belfiore started the morning by previewing Windows Phone 8, which will come out later this year, and unveiled new hardware specs like NFC, multi-core processors and improved screen resolutions.

With years of experience building NFC experiences on Symbian, the Nokia N9 and most recently the Nokia Lumia 610 NFC with Orange, we’re excited about what we can do with NFC across the whole of Windows Phone. Just take another lookat the Nokia Play360 NFC speakers if you have any doubts.

Microsoft also revealed that Nokia would continue bringing unique innovations to Windows Phone 8 through our hardware, services and apps.

StartScreen_Maria35 StartScreen_Robin50

Nokia Lumia owners to get new Windows Phone 8 experience

But the news doesn’t stop there. For those who already have Lumia devices with Windows Phone 7.5, you’ll be able to update your phones with some of the new Windows Phone 8 features like the start screenand download new apps from companies like Zynga, whose Words with Friends and Draw Something will be available in Autumn.

Microsoft also announced today that the Windows Phone Marketplace has reached 100,000 apps, and with Windows Phone 8 sharing the Windows 8 core, millions of Windows developers will also be able to develop for Windows Phone ecosystem. Lumia customers can expect thousands more apps to be introduced across Windows Phone platform.

StartScreen_Kari22

The announcements underline the progress Nokia is making with the Lumia family of smartphones and in building a winning ecosystem with Microsoft. It shows how the Windows Phone experience continues to evolve at a faster pace than the competition and how Nokia’s continued investments in great location-based services benefit partners, developers and consumers.

New apps and functionality for Lumia owners

Finally, Kevin revealed that Nokia will deliver existing Lumia customers exclusive new Marketplace apps like digital Camera Extras to bring new possibilities to your Lumia including panorama shots, a self-timer, Action Shot for capturing movement and Smart Group Shot for creating the perfect group shot from several different images; new features for Nokia Drive and Nokia Transport; and also distributing a pattern of updates like WiFi tethering and flip-to-silence.

To learn more about those updates and when you can expect to see the new apps in Marketplace, check out this dedicated post. There’s a lot of exciting new stuff coming to Lumia now and in the future and we’ll keep you posted.

Camera Extras for Nokia Lumia — More Options for Capturing Great Pictures [Nokia YouTube channel, June 20, 2012]

Your existing Nokia Lumia will soon get an upgrade with added functionalitieshttp://nokia.ly/Lf6k2j Camera extras will become available June-July 2012 in Marketplace under ‘Nokia Collection’. The upcoming camera extras include four new features. Smart Group Shot makes it easy to capture great group shots with just one attempt. Action Shot captures movement in several shots and allows you to go back and forth the action. With the self-timer, you can get yourself also to the picture. And finally, the new Panorama UI helps you to capture beautiful wide landscapes with precise alignment.

Nokia Drive for all Windows Phone 8 smartphones [Nokia Conversations, June 20, 2012]

Location-based services, as Nokia announced last week, are becoming more and more core to our strategy. We’re focusing on location-based services, not just at Nokia, but bring our extending our services across many industries.

Today, we are making Nokia Drive available to other Windows Phone 8 partners to offer a turn-by-turn navigation experience for people in over 110 countries. Nokia Driveis one of the key experiences on Nokia Lumia smartphones, thanks to its ease of use and the experience that has gone into developing our location-based services. With Nokia Drive on Windows Phone 8, we will make drive navigation effortless.

Nokia Drive is one of the major apps that on Nokia’s location platform. Today, we are also making this platform and its unrivalled quality of data and richness of features available on Windows Phone 8 for all partners. This means that Nokia’s Location platform will be central to the Windows Phone 8 experience, with the intention of developing smartphones that bring advanced location experiences. Windows Phone 8 partners and developers will be able to use our location assets to build location-based apps and experiences of superior quality.

Nokia has more quality location data than any smartphone manufacturer in the market. Our platform is the most advanced mobile location platform in the world because it offers true offline functionality (for the past six years), fast client-side map rendering (50 fps) and only requires 10 per cent of the bandwidth when compared to traditional server-side map platforms.

The Nokia location platform is the biggest in the world:

  • We have maps data for more than 190 countries in more than 50 languages and navigation in more than 110 countries
  • We collect information from Nokia Drive users and local authorities to provide traffic alerts in 26 countries, and also allow dynamic rerouting
  • We have venue maps in over 5,000 shopping malls, train stations, airport, sports venues, etc. in 35 countries
  • We support multi-modal routing: by car, on foot (including footpaths, shortcuts, etc. in over 400 cities) and by public transportation (over 100 cities)

Also, Nokia’s location data is not confined to smartphones and computers. Our data already powers four out of five cars with in-car navigation and our customer list includes top brands in the tech and auto industries: Bing, Yahoo!, BMW and Ford.

All of these elements are coming together to form the ultimateWhere experience, connecting individuals with the world around them. At Nokia, we are working on constantly improving that experience, and striving to deliver novel and meaningful customer interactions with our location platform, content and apps.

*Image credits: Samsung and HTC respectively. This is a mockup of what Nokia Drive might look like on different Windows Phone 8 devices.

Nokia Q&A conference for financial analysts and investors, June 14, 2012

Nokia’s Elop: Lumia price cuts will help us take on Android in retail war [ZDNet, June 14, 2012]

Consumers do actually like Nokia’s Windows Phone Lumia device, but retailers are proving harder nut to crack, according to Nokia chief exec Steven Elop – as he set the scene for a price war with Android.

For the relatively small number of consumers the Lumia has reached in its short existence, the phone has been “well received”,  Elop told analysts on a conference call Thursday.

With “specific support from Microsoft”Nokia will aim to increase its appeal by pushing the price of the Lumia line below the entry level Lumia 610 as part of its “low end price point war” with Android.

The real challenge, Elop said, is convincing retailers to bring the device out of the shadows.

“How do you get a preferred position on a shelf, how do you make sure the lights on your device are brighter than the ones from down the road?” asked Elop.

While the aim is to get more Lumia devices into the hands of consumers, Nokia will in fact narrow its direct sales and marketing efforts to select markets, palming off less significant ones to distributors to be managed through a central hub.

The US, UK, China and “certain” Asian and European nations would remain in focus with more effort placed on carrier partnerships, said Elop.

“We’re deliberately going through a cycle of concentrating on some markets at the expense of others.”

While mapping and navigation have become commoditised, Elop said,  Nokia’s location-based services would give it an edge over rivals, pointing to Nokia City Lens, its augmented reality application, and its public transport mappingsystem.

Elop blamed Nokia’s inability to differentiate the Nokia experience on Windows Phone to date on its late entry on the platform but added that Windows Phone 8 (Apollo) and Windows 8, both expected to be released by the end of summer or thereabouts, will be “key milestones” for Nokia.

Nokia to End “Meltemi” Effort for Low-End Smartphones [AllThingsD, June 14, 2012]

One of the casualties of Nokia’s latest cuts is Meltemi, the company’s effort to create a new Linux-based operating system for low-end smartphones.

Nokia never officially confirmed the existence of Meltemi, so it likewise isn’t confirming its demise. However, sources tell AllThingsD that the project has been shelved, though elements of it may live on in other efforts.

Asked about Meltemi on a conference call Thursday, Nokia CEO Stephen Elop said that he had never talked publicly about a development project by that name, but noted that Nokia was ending some development projects.

In its press release, Nokia also took pains to note its continued focus on its current low-end smartphone platforms, known as Series 30 and Series 40. Last week, the company announced new all-touch phones in its Series 40-based Asha line.

Richard Kerris, who helps lead Nokia’s efforts with developers, said that Thursday’s moves, while difficult, should allow the company to put more resources into its key projects.

“We have awesome products in the pipeline, and our developers are going to love them,” Kerris said.

Nokia is also exploring alternatives for another of its development environments, known as Qt, which today is used largely in embedded devices.

“We’re fans of Qt, and we’ll continue to support it in the near term, but are being open about looking for opportunities which may be best for this developer framework,” Kerris said.

More information:
Nokia Meltemi survivors suggest axed OS was nearly ready [SlashGear, June 21, 2012]
No Meltemi, what about Smarterphone? What is there beyond S40? What of Qt? [My Nokia Blog]:

According to TheRegister, the Smarterphone team will work on S40 instead.

MediaTek lands 2.5G handset solution orders from Nokia, say sources [DIGITIMES, May 21, 2012]

MediaTek reportedly has landed orders for 2.5G handset solutions from Nokia with shipments to begin in the third quarter of 2012, according to industry sources. MediaTek declined to comment.

Given that global demand for 2.5G handset solutions still reaches one billion units a year, there is room for MediaTek to further expand sales in the segment although the company’s sales of 2.5G solutions have been turning weak recently, indicated the sources. MediaTek shipped 550 million 2.5G solutions in 2011.

With a revised goal of shipping 75 million 3G solutions in 2012, mostly to first-tier handset makers in China, MediaTek is expected to post strong revenue growth in the second half of the year, the sources noted.


Nokia announcements, June 14, 2012

Nokia’s own diagnosis:

During the second quarter 2012, competitive industry dynamics are negatively affecting the Smart Devices business unit to a somewhat greater extent than previously expected. Furthermore, while visibility remains limited, Nokia expects competitive industry dynamics to continue to negatively impact Devices & Services in the third quarter 2012. Nokia now expects its non-IFRS Devices & Services operating margin in the second quarter 2012 to be below the first quarter 2012 level of negative 3.0%. This compares to the previous outlook of similar to or below the first quarter level of negative 3.0%.

Nokia’s strategic changes:

Nokia plans to:

  • Invest strongly in products and experiences that make Lumia smartphones stand out and available to more consumers;
  • Invest in location-based services as an area of competitive differentiation for Nokia products and extend its location-based platform to new industries; and
  • Improve the competitiveness and profitability of its feature phone business.

Nokia City Lens for Nokia Lumia: Augmented Reality Browser (Beta) [Nokia YouTube channel, May 8, 2012]

Nokia City Lens http://nokia.ly/Im17jr instantly connects you to all of the places you’re looking for—and even more importantly—gets you there exactly when and how you want to. Now available on Nokia Betalabs. Just landed in town and looking for a good restaurant? Interested in checking out the local museum or theater? Time to hit the nearest transit station to catch a ride uptown? No longer is finding your chosen destination a hassle—whether you’re in a new city or your hometown. Now you can simply launch Nokia City Lens on your phone to easily find all the places you want to go. City Lens instantly reveals what you’re looking for on your phone’s camera display, no matter if it’s down the street or just around the corner. You simply tap your chosen destination on your screen to conveniently access walking directions, make a reservation, or learn more detailed information about the locale.

In Smart Devices:

Nokia plans to extend its strategy by

  • broadening the price range of Lumia; and
  • continuing to differentiate with:
    – the Windows Phone platform,
    – new materials,
    – new technologies and
    – location-based services, including navigation and visual search applications such as the recently announced Nokia City Lens
  • acquisition of assets from Sweden-based Scalado, which currently has imaging technology on more than 1 billion devices. This acquisition is aimed at strengthening Nokia’s imaging assets.

Scalado’s Vision [ScaladoInc YouTube channel, June 1, 2012]

Fadi Abbas, one of the co-founders of Scalado, talks about Scalado’s vision and what lies ahead in the near future of mobile imaging.

In Mobile Phones:

Nokia aims to

  • further develop its Series 40 and Series 30 devices, and
  • invest in key feature phone technologies like the Nokia Browser, aiming to be the world’s most data efficient mobile browser. Early results of this innovation can be found in Nokia’s latest Asha feature phones which offer a full-touch screen experience at lower prices.

Additional reductions in Devices & Services:

Nokia plans to pursue a range of planned measures including:

  • Reductions within certain research and development projects, resulting in the planned closure of its facilities in Ulm, Germany and Burnaby, Canada;
  • Consolidation of certain manufacturing operations, resulting in the planned closure of its manufacturing facility in Salo, Finland. Research and Development efforts in Salo to continue;
  • Focusing of marketing and sales activities, including prioritizing key markets;
  • Streamlining of IT, corporate and support functions; and
  • Reductions related to non-core assets, including possible divestments.

Nokia plans to reduce up to 10,000 positions globally by the end of 2013.

Taking into account these planned measures the company now targets to reduce its Devices & Services non-IFRS operating expenses to an annualized run rate of approximately EUR 3.0 billion by the end of 2013. This is an update to Nokia’s target to reduce Devices & Services non-IFRS operating expenses by more than EUR 1.0 billion for the full year 2013, compared to the full year 2010 Devices & Services non-IFRS operating expenses of EUR 5.35 billion. This means that in addition to the already achieved annualized run rate saving of approximately EUR 700 million at the end of first quarter 2012, the company targets to implement approximately EUR 1.6 billion of additional cost reductions by the end of 2013.

Joining the Nokia Leadership Team effective July 1, 2012:

  • Juha Putkiranta as executive vice president of operations


In place of Niklas Savander, executive vice president of Markets who led Nokia’s sales, marketing, supply chain, manufacturing operations and information technology teams
Formerly, Putkiranta was senior vice president, supply chain. “Juha has demonstrated exceptionally strong leadership in leading our supply chain operations,” said Stephen Elop. “His breadth of experience at Nokia will help with our focus.”
  • Timo Toikkanen as executive vice president of Mobile Phones
In place of Mary McDowell, executive vice president of Mobile Phones, who is leaving to pursue other opportunities outside of Nokia
Formerly, Toikkanen was vice president, business development, programs and special projects. “Timo is well known as an engaging leader with valuable business acumen and keen insights into delivering customer satisfaction,” said Stephen Elop. “These attributes will be key as we progress through our transformation.”
  • Chris Weber as executive vice president of sales and marketing
In place of:
– Jerri DeVard
, executive vice president and chief marketing officer [joining Nokia just in January 2011] who led Nokia’s marketing and brand management as a member of the Nokia Leadership Team, and who is leaving to pursue other opportunities outside of Nokia
– Niklas Savander, executive vice president of Markets who led Nokia’s sales, marketing, supply chain, manufacturing operations and information technology teams [Note that Savander had sales duties just for the last two months, taking over from the long-term Nokia veteran Colin Giles who decided “to leave the company to be closer to his family”]
Formerly, Weber was senior vice president Markets, Americas. “Chris has made tremendous strides in kick starting our re-entry into the US and his track record of driving results will serve Nokia well,” said Stephen Elop.

In addition to that there were two additional new appointments:

Tuula Rytila as senior vice president and chief marketing officer

In place of Jerri DeVard, executive vice president and chief marketing officer [joining Nokia just in January 2011] who is leaving to pursue other opportunities outside of Nokia. Rytila, who will report to Weber, was formerly senior vice president of portfolio and business management.

Susan Sheehan as senior vice president of communications

Sheehan, who reports to Elop, was formerly vice president of communications.

There were new single word expressions of the executives’ views on the second day of a meeting considering the options, according to Helsingin Sanomat:

Exhausting week for Nokia CEO
Difficult decisions made late Wednesday

  • love – “Love for design and love for future products”: Marko Ahtisaari, Design
  • passion: Henri Tirri, Chief Technology Officer
  • purpose: Michael Halbherr, Location and Commerce
  • consumer: Chris Weber, Sales and Marketing
  • consumer: Tuula Rytilä, Chief Marketing Officer
  • commitment: Jo Harlow, Smartphones
  • result: Timo Toikkanen, Mobile Phones
  • result: Juha Äkräs, Human Resources
  • success: Stephen Elop

Scalado acquisition

Scalado Remove – Capture a clear view [ScaladoInc YouTube channel, Feb 13, 2012]

When capturing photos in a busy area, like a public square or a concert for example, it is often difficult to get a clean shot without unwanted objects entering the frame. Now you can capture the shot anyway, and simply let the camera remove the people for you! Point your camera and take a photo. Afterwards you can remove anyone moving around, or select your friends and remove any strangers. Don’t forget to ‘like’ Scalado on Facebook and to follow us Twitter for the latest updates and news. Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Scalado/113223242033399 Twitter: http://twitter.com/ScaladoInc

Nokia to acquire developers, technologies and intellectual property for imaging from Scalado [Nokia press release, June 14, 2012]

Acquisition aimed at enhancing imaging experiences for Nokia Lumia devices

Espoo, Finland and Lund, Sweden: Nokia is announcing plans to acquire world-class imaging specialists as well as all technologies and intellectual property from Scalado AB.

“Nokia has been working with Scalado for more than ten years and they’ve contributed to many of our leading imaging applications,” said Jo Harlow, executive vice president, Smart Devices at Nokia. “This transaction would enable us to combine our leadership in camera devices with their expertise in imaging, helping people move beyond taking pictures to capturing moments and emotions and then reliving them in many different ways.”

The Lund site is planned to become a key site for Nokia’s imaging software for smartphones, in addition to Nokia’s existing locations in Espoo and Tampere, Finland.

“This is a great opportunity for many of our people to show their leadership in imaging and to continue to build its future,” said Håkan Persson, chief executive officer of Scalado AB. “Doing this as part of Nokia, already a leader in mobile imaging, will reinforce the strength of the technologies and competences developed at Scalado. We are very excited about this opportunity, which is a natural next step in our longstanding relationship with Nokia.”

The transaction, which is subject to customary closing conditions, is expected to close during the third quarter of 2012. The terms of the transaction are confidential.

Scalado Rewind – The perfect group shot 3 [ScaladoInc YouTube channel, July 15, 2011]

Capture the perfect group shot! When taking a photo of several people at once, it’s almost impossible to get that one ‘perfect shot’ where everyone is smiling and looking at the camera – and where no one is blinking! Not anymore! It’s now actually possible to take the perfect group shot with Scalado’s Rewind. Don’t forget to ‘like Scalado’ on Facebook and to follow us on Twitter for the latest updates and news. Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Scalado/113223242033399 Twitter: http://twitter.com/ScaladoInc

Nokia to acquire developers, technologies and intellectual property for imaging from Scalado [Sacalado press release, June 14, 2012]

Lund, Sweden: Scalado is announcing plans under which Nokia would acquire world-class imaging specialists as well as all technologies and intellectual property from Scalado

“This is a great opportunity for many of our people to show their leadership in imaging and to continue to build its future,” said Håkan Persson, chief executive officer of Scalado AB. “Doing this as part of Nokia, already a leader in mobile imaging, will reinforce the strength of the technologies and competences developed at Scalado. We are very excited about this opportunity, which is a natural next step in our longstanding relationship with Nokia.”

The Lund site is planned to become a key site for Nokia’s imaging software for smartphones.

Scalado AB will continue to exist. All present customer agreements and obligations will remain with Scalado AB. The main task of Scalado AB will be to continue to work with our customers honoring our delivery and support obligations and fulfill any and all obligations in relation to its existing customers.

“We are very pleased to have signed an agreement with Nokia” said Anders Lidbeck, Chairman of the Board of Scalado AB. “We believe that this not only creates value for Scalado employees and shareholders but also ensures the future development and use of the Scalado heritage and technology”

The transaction, which is subject to customary closing conditions, is expected to close during the third quarter of 2012. The terms of the transaction are confidential.

Home /ABOUT US

Company

A whole new focus on imaging

Scalado is a world leader in the mobile imaging industry, with a long history of developing innovative platform-independent imaging solutions. Based on Scalado’s unique Random Access JPEG and more than 50 patent and patent pending technologies, these innovations are currently being used by the world’s leading global telecom and platform players in over 1 billion mobile devices, a figure that is growing with over 500 million devices each year.

Since the start, the company’s mission has been to help camera and mobile phone manufacturers to significantly improve their imaging solutions in order to deliver an optimal end-user experience. Scalado helps companies shorten their time-to-market and differentiate their products through imaging solutions that offer top of the line advantages in editing, enhancing, viewing and sending images.

Scalado’s technology has gained worldwide recognition by all of the major players in the IT industry. The company already licenses its solutions to the top five tier 1 mobile phone manufacturers, top 10 ISP/Sensor companies, and most leading platform providers. As a result, when someone is using a camera phone, it’s very likely that Scalado’s patented imaging platform is onboard.

Through the years, the company has received several awards for innovation and excellence in export. In 2010, Scalado was bestowed the Hermes Export Award by the Swedish Chamber of Commerce on World Trade Day, and listed as one of the fastest growing companies in EMEA.

Scalado has offices in Sweden (HQ), Korea, China, Taiwan, Singapore and the United States. The company employs around 110 people, most of them working at its Swedish HQ in Lund. Scalado has been doubling its revenues year on year since 2007.

Introducing PhotoBeamer [ScaladoInc YouTube channel, May 29, 2012]

Scalado PhotoBeamer is a new innovative and easy way to show your photos on any screen. Just point your iPhone at any screen displaying http://www.photobeamer.com and you’ll be able to enjoy your photos anywhere with family and friends. It’s a modern era slide projector available anytime, anywhere! Download at App Store: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/scalado-photobeamer/id524972199?ls=1&mt=8 Scalado PhotoBeamer at Scalado.com: http://www.scalado.com/display/en/Scalado+photobeamer

Home /ABOUT US /History

The first product from Scalado was the imaging web tool Scalado™ ImageZoom™. Today we still work with imaging but have changed our focus to benefit the telecom industry and hand held devices.

2012

  • Scalado™ now included in more than 1 billion mobile devices (over 500 million/year)
  • Scalado™ Remove showcased live at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona
  • Scalado™ will co-host 6Sight, Future of Imaging Conference, in June in New York City

2011

  • Scalado™ now included in more than 900 million camera phones
  • Scalado™ releases Camera & Album application
  • Scalado™ expands into China and Singapore
  • Scalado™ is one of the fastest growing companies in EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) according to Deloitte

2010

  • Scalado™ is awarded with the prestigious prize “Export Hermes”
  • Scalado™ now included in more than 500 million camera phones
  • Scalado™ relocates to new and larger head office
  • Scalado™ employs a new CEO, Håkan Persson
  • Scalado™ changes logotype and graphic profile
  • Scalado™ expands into Japan and Taiwan
  • Scalado™ starts collaboration with Qualcomm Incorporated
  • Scalado™ opens regional office in USA
  • Scalado™ nominated for the Great Export Prize 2010 (Sweden)
  • Scalado is nominated at the “Mobile Gala”  for “Innovative Technology of the Year”

2009

  • Scalado™ shows its financial strength with highly-prized “triple-A” credit rating
  • Scalado™ now included in more than 400 million camera phones
  • Scalado™ featured in the 100 million club (published by Vision Mobile)
  • Scalado™ nominated in GSMA’s Mobile Innovation Grand Prix EMEA Tournament
  • Scalado™ expands into North America
  • Red Herring names Scalado™ as winner in the Europe 100 awards
  • Scalado™ and Kodak join forces to enhance next-generation imaging solutions
  • Scalado™ optimizes new imaging solution for Windows Mobile® 6.5
  • Scalado™ SpeedTags™ technology in Fujitsu Microelectronics’s products

2008

  • Scalado™ launch the Scalado™ PhotoFlow™ application plug-in
  • Scalado™ registers several patents for Scalado™ PhotoFlow™
  • Scalado™ launch Camera Solution including Scalado™ SpeedTags™
  • Scalado™ registers Scalado™ SpeedView™ as registered trademark
  • Scalado™ signs a Scalado™ CAPS™ licensing agreement with Symbian

2007

  • Scalado™ signs major agreement on Scalado™ CAPS™ with Sony Ericsson and Motorola
  • Scalado™ launch Scalado™ SpeedView™ and registers patents for its technology
  • Scalado™ signs agreements with LG and HTC

2006

  • Scalado™ signs a strategic agreement with Teleca Mobile for global sales and customer services
  • Scalado™ launches a new release of its Camera Phone Solution, CAPS™ 3.1
  • Scalado™ signs a global agreement with a Korean Mobile Phone manufacturer licensing Scalado™ CAPS™
  • Scalado™ opens regional office in Korea
  • Scalado™ signs an agreement with a leading Taiwan Mobile Phone manufacturer licensing Scalado™ CAPS™

2005

  • Scalado™ celebrates its 5th Anniversary
  • Scalado™ attracts a new investor: the Danish VC firm, IVS A/S
  • Scalado™ delivers imaging solutions to several tier1 manufacturers of camera phones
  • Anders Cedervall becomes chairman of the board of directors
  • Scalado™ wins the Series 60 Challenge Awards with PhotoTwister™

2004

  • Scalado™ licenses mobile imaging technology to Sony Ericsson
  • Launch of imaging application Scalado™ PhotoTwister™
  • Scalado™ attracts new investors
  • Scalado™ gains access to advanced Nokia technical and marketing support
  • Scalado™ changes strategy, and focuses only on imaging solutions for the telecom industry
  • Scalado™ launches Scalado™ CAPS™: an enhanced imaging software platform for mobile phones

2003

  • Launch of Scalado™ ImageZoom™ Generator
  • Scalado™ signs OEM agreement with Axis Communications
  • Scalado™ signs of license agreement with CNN.com
  • Scalado™ signs of exclusive distribution agreement with Macromedia for ImagePilot™
  • Launch of first camera phone application, AutoRama™
  • Scalado™ enters partnership with Symbian
  • Scalado™ signs of license agreement with Sony Ericsson
  • Awarded Prize for Scalado ImageZoom™ by the European IST
    Prize evaluation group

2002

  • Launch of ImageZoom™ 1.0
  • Registration of the Scalado™ ImageZoom™ patent

2001

  • Development of the web tool Scalado™ ImageZoom™

2000

  • Scalado™ is founded by Fadi Abbas, Maziar Jahanshahi, Sami Niemi and Pierre Elzouki

Scalado SpeedTags Camera Solution Latest Version [scal99 YouTube channel, May 29, 2009]

Scalados SpeedTags Camera Solution enables photographers to instantly capture multi-megapixel images without any shutter lag, freezing the moment of capture. Users can zoom into the resulting JPEG images to review the details of the image without any delay. This gives greater freedom to photographers and enhances a whole variety of camera phone functions, including burst capturing and viewing.

Home /ABOUT US /Innovations

Over the years Scalado has developed a wide range of imaging technology solutions, all with the aim of making imaging fun, fast, and efficient. A selection of Scalado’s innovative technology is presented below.

2012–Scalado Remove

Scalado Remove solves common photographic problems with unwanted objects in captured images, such as people getting in the way of our camera shot. Remove detects and selects the unwanted object and simply removes them automatically or by touching the selections on the screen after capturing the image.

2011–Scalado Camera Framework

Scalado has continued its research around effective image capturing, and has lately released the Scalado Camera Framework, which makes it both effective and simple to achieve the same performance as SpeedTags on any platform.

2010–Rewind

This technology deals with a problem that photographers have been struggling with since the first group picture was taken: to get everyone to look their best at the same time. With Rewind, users can take the best facial expressions from several shots and combine them in the same picture.

2010–TimeWarp

TimeWarp takes a bust of images, where the capturing starts even before the user presses the button! The user can then decide which picture to use, by browsing back and forth in time.

2008–1st zero shutter lag capturing device

Zero Shutter Lag is the only software-based innovation that enables the user to capture photos instantly. Zero Shutter Lag is the first of many innovations based on the SpeedTags-technology. Its follow-on products include Rewind, Shot-to-shot, Burst, HDR and several others.

2007–SpeedTags: Revolutionizing capturing

SpeedTags is one of the innovations that really make a difference in the mobile camera industry. Its introduction changed the way images are captured on a mobile device, and greatly enhanced the user experience and quality of a digital imaging. The top 10 world players in the Sensor/ISP industries already integrate SpeedTags in their devices, and the technology is now available in 450 million new sensors and SOC’s (System-on-a chip) every year.

2005–The 1st super-fast album viewing for mobile phones

Image viewing technology has never been easy, but in 2005 Scalado introduced a technology that made it faster and easier to view, search and organize images. The market was impressed and inclined to ask the question that Scalado is frequently asked – how can you do this on a mobile device? This early technology has been further developed and more advanced solutions have been released through the years.

2004–The 1st advanced mobile editor

This product is unique; not only because it was the first advanced image editor on a mobile phone, but also because it was the first time that a mobile handset manufacturer used imaging in its marketing campaigns. During the campaign for N90, Nokia marketed the phone and the image editor using the sentence: “Editing on-the-fly? I could not believe it either”.

2004–CAPS™–Making imaging faster and more efficient

CAPS™ is Scalado’s flagship product and with its unique features, it has made imaging in mobile devices faster and more efficient since its launch in 2004. CAPS™ is a software development kit that enables developers to produce imaging solutions that are extremely CPU and memory efficient and that drastically decrease processing time when managing multi-megapixel images.

2003–The 1st panoramic images on a phone

Scalado created the first imaging technology in the world for capturing and viewing panoramic images on a mobile phone. It is based on the random access technology and Scalado managed to integrate this tool in Sony Ericsson’s T610.

2002–Random Access JPEG

Scalado has several patents for random access technology. The best known is Random Access JPEG (RAJPEG), which is a very effective way to process images. RAJPEG saves a huge amount of working memory and increases performance significantly. It enables an astonishing user experience on any device, independent of the existing memory and CPU performance.

2000–ImageZoom

This was Scalado’s first innovation. Regardless of the size of the image, ImageZoom makes it possible for the user to access – using any internet connection – and zoom into a specific part (or parts) of a megapixel image, without having to download the entire image.


Asha Touch family of mobile devices

Nokia Asha 311: fun, fast and always connected [Nokia YouTube chnnel, June 5, 2012]

Explore with a swipe with the Nokia Asha 311 http://nokia.ly/JKxsQq Featuring a scratch-resistant 3-inch capacitive touch-screen and 1GHz processor to power your apps and games. Our cloud-accelerated Nokia Browser makes surfing the internet up to 3x faster and up to 85% cheaper than other phones. An exclusive gift of 40 free games from EA will keep you entertained and there are many more apps and games to download from Nokia Store. With social networks and Nokia Maps preloaded and ready straight out of the box, you’ll quickly be connected with your friends.

Nokia accelerates the journey to mobile internet with the introduction of Asha Touch device range [Nokia press release, June 6, 2012] [3″ WQVGA, i.e. 240×400]

Fun, colorful range of touch screen phones will bring fast mobile web browsing, social networks and gaming to millions

Bangkok, Thailand – Nokia has today taken another step towards connecting the next billion consumers by unveiling the Asha Touch family of mobile devices, taking the full touch experience to new price points. The three new phone models – the Nokia Asha 305, Nokia Asha 306 and Nokia Asha 311– further expand the successful Asha family, first introduced in October 2011. Today, there are 10 Asha devices available in more than 130 markets, providing young, social consumers with a choice of phones to match their own lifestyle.

These latest phones have been designed to provide an incredibly rich, smartphone-like experience to consumers who want to be set free from excessive data consumption costs and short battery life. The Nokia Asha 305, Asha 306 and Asha 311offer a new, fully re-designed touch user interface, combining the proven ease-of-use from Nokia’s heritage with digital design innovations specifically fit for the purpose.

The beautifully crafted Nokia Asha 311 is a fast and fluid 3.5G capacitive touchscreen [3″ WQVGA, i.e. 240×400] device, powered by a 1GHz processor to provide a great internet experience. The bright and edgy Nokia Asha 305 is a fun and affordable phone, featuring the exclusive Easy Swap dual SIM. Its sister, the Nokia Asha 306, is a single SIM model, and becomes Nokia’s most affordable Wi-Fi handset to date.

“By introducing the Asha Touch phones to the market, we’re accelerating our commitment to connect the next billion consumers,” said Mary T. McDowell, Nokia’s executive vice president for Mobile Phones. “These phones deliver on what young, urban people value most — a great-looking device; and an intuitive and affordable experience for connecting to the internet, to their friends, and to a world of entertainment, web apps and content.”

Great for fast, affordable mobile internet and gaming entertainment

The new devices take full advantage of the Nokia Browser 2.0, a major recent updatewhich uses Nokia’s cloud technology to reduce data consumption by up to 90%, meaning that consumers can enjoy faster and cheaper internet access. Web sites load up to three times faster in comparison to devices without cloud-accelerated browsing, making it simple for users to find and select from more than 10,000 web apps available for download. They deliver a richer and more interactive consumer experience whilst using less data than a stand-alone internet connected app.

Consumers can easily stay connected with friends and family at the touch of a button as well as share files and links across their social networks. Furthermore, the Nokia Browser’s Download Manager feature helps consumers to manage external content easily, saving music, video or pictures on a memory card, while surfing the internet.

The Asha family is also getting positive support from developers and consumers. Nokia Store has just broken the 5 billion downloads landmark. From January to April, 42% of all content downloaded from Nokia Store was delivered to Asha and other Nokia devices based on the Java ecosystem. Just one year ago, that number was 10%. Also, there are 410 Nokia developers with apps which have achieved more than 1 million downloads. India Games and Pico Brothers just passed 100 million.

As well as providing a great, social online experience, the Nokia Asha 305, Asha 306 and Asha 311 have been created with entertainment in mind. All users will receive an exclusive gift of 40 EA games to download for free* and keep forever. These games range across action, arcade and sports, and include titles such as Tetris®, Bejeweled®, Need for Speed(TM) The Run and EA SPORTS(TM) FIFA 12. The Nokia Asha 311also comes with 15 levels of Angry Birds pre-loaded onto the phone, perfect for making the most of the touchscreen and 1GHz processor.

“Nokia is taking another interesting step forward in connecting consumers to the Internet, seeking to improve their experience through a new touch user-interface that is allowing the company to compete in new mass-market price bands. The mass-market is a competitive segment, but we believe Nokia’s upgraded Asha portfolio has included an attractive package that can enable consumers to have lower running costs, taking advantage of things like its compressed browser and a long-life battery”, says Neil Mawston, Executive Director of devices research at Strategy Analytics. “It is also interesting to see how Nokia is promoting its Asha strategy with global launches taking place in important high-growth markets such as Asia. Nokia resonates well there and the response from local consumers is likely to be positive”.

Product details

The Nokia Asha 311 is a colourful, compact touch screen device that comes Nokia Asha 311with all the features you’d expect for a fun and easy mobile experience. It boasts a bright and colourful, scratch resistant capacitive glass screen with polarization filters ensuring users get the best experience from the unique and visually entertaining user interface. The Nokia Asha 311also features a 3.2MP camera and pre-installed Nokia Maps, in addition to the 15 level pre-bundled version of Angry Birds.

The pre-loaded social client makes accessing Facebook, Twitter and many other global social networks simple while Nokia Browser makes using mobile internet fast and affordable. It also includes the most popular messaging services. “WhatsApp has a clear vision of creating a reliable and easy to use cross-platform messaging application that enables people to stay in touch with their family and friends from all around the world,” said, Brian Acton, Co-Founder of WhatsApp Inc. “By partnering with Nokia whose worldwide reach in mobile is well established, WhatsApp becoming available for the Asha Touch devices will enable us to further realize our core mission”.

Nokia Asha 305The Nokia Asha 305 is a fun and entertaining Easy Swap dual SIM phone, helping users make the most of their phone while retaining control of their costs. The phone features a bright and colorful 3″ WQVGA resistivetouch screen along with Bluetooth and Dual Band connectivity. Forty EA games are available for download with every phone as well as a 2MP camera, Nokia Maps and the revolutionary Nokia Browser which helps significantly lower data costs.

The Nokia Asha 306 is the sister device to the Nokia Asha 305. Along with all the great features that come with its sister, such as bright and colorful, 3″ WQVGA resistive touch screen and 40 EA games for download – a Nokia exclusive offer, the Nokia Asha 306 also provides WLAN, enabling users to stay connected while on the move. It also supports video streamingthrough both GPRS and WLAN, meaning this handset truly is a fun way to stay in touch.

The estimated retail price for Nokia Asha 305 is EUR 63 [US$ 79] and it’s expected to start shipping in the second quarter of 2012. The estimated retail price for Nokia Asha 306 is EUR 68 [US$ 85]. The Nokia Asha 311 has an estimated retail price of EUR 92 [US$ 115]. Both devices are expected to start shipping in the third quarter of 2012. Above mentioned prices exclude taxes and subsidies.

The new devices images are available at Nokia.com/press.

*Data costs may apply.

Nokia Asha 306: discover a fun way to stay in touch [Nokia YouTube chnnel, June 5, 2012]

Nokia Asha 306 http://nokia.ly/JKxJCU features our cloud-accelerated Nokia Browser, making surfing the internet up to 3x faster and up to 85% cheaper than other phones. The 3-inch touch-screen brings your photos and videos to life. Wi-Fi connectivity gives you a choice of how to get online. An exclusive gift of 40 free games from EA will keep you entertained and there are lots more apps and games to download from Nokia Store. With social networks and Nokia Maps preloaded and ready straight out of the box, you’ll quickly be connected with your friends.

Have a Touch: Nokia’s new Asha phones [Nokia Conversations blog, June 6, 2012]

A great new touch screen experience, fast web browsing, games and social networks lie at the heart of three new mobiles phones being launched today by Nokia.

The Nokia Asha 305, Nokia Asha 306 and Nokia Asha 311are a colourful range of mobile phones designed for young, urban and social people to get online faster, better and cheaper.

The devices will run on Asha Touch, which is a new, fun and playful touch screen interface that builds on Nokia’s swipe heritage.

Asha Touch will provide aspirational young people a first ‘smartphone-like’ experience, for example, through the notification bar and the 10,000 web applications that are available.  This is on top of more than 25,000 regular apps already in the Nokia Store.

Nokia Browser 2.0

All the phones also feature a major update of the Nokia Browser, which uses cloud technology to reduce data usage by up to 90%. The benefits are numerous: web pages will load faster, battery life is improved and mobile Internet access becomes much more affordable.

Keeping in touch with friends on social networks is also central to the three new members of Nokia’s Asha family. They all come pre-loaded with applications for Facebook and Twitter, and there is also email and instant messaging.

People who want great games will not be disappointed either. Each phone will come with a gift of 40 free games from EA to download and keep forever. The games will include Tetris®, Bejeweled®, Need for Speed The Run and EA SPORTSFIFA 12.

So, now we know that the Nokia Asha 305, Nokia Asha 306 andNokia Asha 311come with great features and dozens of free games.

What are the differences between the phones themselves?

The Nokia Asha 305 and the Nokia Asha 306:

  • 3.0” WQVGA resistive touch screen
  • 2 MP camera
  • Music player and FM radio
  • Built-in speaker
  • Plug and Play, easy PC connection and file transfer
  • GPRS/EDGE connectivity
  • Nokia Mapsand Nokia Life (in selected markets)
  • Colours: Silver White, Red, Mid Blue and Dark Grey (varies by market)

In addition, the Nokia Asha 305will benefit from Nokia’s Easy Swap Dual SIM technology, which allows SIM cards to be swapped without opening up or turning the phone off. This is useful for storing different numbers on your SIMs and for taking advantage of different operator rates.

The unique feature of the Nokia Asha 306is its Wi-Fi capability. Indeed, it is set to be Nokia’s most affordable Wi-Fi handset device.

The Nokia Asha 311

  • 3.0” scratch resistant, capacitive glass screen
  • Polarised display filters for better usability in direct sunlight
  • WLAN
  • 3.2 MP camera
  • 1GHz processor
  • Music Player, FM Radio and Internet Radio
  • Plug and Play, easy PC connection and file transfer
  • HSPA connectivity
  • Nokia Mapsand Nokia Life (in selected markets)
  • Colours: Dark Grey, Rose Red, Blue, Brown and Sand White (colours will vary by market)

The Nokia Asha 311 … is a 3.5G mobile phone powered by 1GHz processor to make for a speedy online and gaming experience. As well as the 40 free EA games, the Nokia Asha 311 will also include 15 preloaded levels of Angry Birdsfor you to enjoy.

Taken together, these new mobile phones, the Nokia Asha 305,Nokia Asha 306 and the Nokia Asha 311are another big step in the quest to connect the next billion.

For approximate costs, before local taxes or operator subsidies:

Nokia Asha 305 – 63 euros / 85 USD, available in Q2 2012
Nokia Asha 306 – 68 euros / 93 USD, available in Q3 2012
Nokia Asha 311 – 92 euros / 121 USD, available in Q3 2012

Nokia Asha 305 will be available in the second quarter of 2012. Nokia Asha 306 and Nokia Asha 311 are arriving in the third quarter of 2012.

Infographic: How Nokia Browser saves you time and money [Nokia Conversations blog, June 7, 2012]

Searching for content on the Internet from your mobile phone is now faster and cheaper, with the Nokia Browser.

It uses Nokia’s unique compression technology, which means the pages that you visit are reduced by up to 90%, making surfing the Web faster, and more importantly, cheaper.

Check out our Nokia Browser infographic for more reasons as to why you should all be using Nokia Browser.

Initially, Nokia Browser was created to help the next billion internet users connect for the first time to the Netwithout compromises.

While it’s still vitally important for people in emerging markets to have a great, affordable browsing experience, Nokia Browser is also great for everybody else, too, proving to be up to three times faster then other browsers.

As you can see by the infographic, this means that  when you use your Nokia Browser, you would be saving a day every year. This has to be good news for everyone.

To save yourself some money, and browsing time, be sure to check out the latest Nokia Browser 2.0 which is already preloaded on your Asha phones as the recently launched Nokia Asha 305, Asha 306 and Asha 311. Nokia Browser is available in 87 languages and in 250 countries.

If you have a Series 40 phone you can update to the latest version of the Browser. Check it out!

Nokia Browser 2.0 update available now [Nokia Conversations blog, April 23, 2012]

Getting online fast, and affordably, is crucial for Internet users everywhere. Now that experience is about to get even faster and easier with an update for all existing Nokia Browser users, covering phones across the Nokia Asha range and Series 40 devices.

We know Nokia Browser is often the first, and main, way of accessing the Internet for millions of you in dynamic fast-growing parts of the world. Since the Browser launched last yearyou’ve been able to access all the information you need, without the headache of worrying about your data bill.

Nokia Browser condenses data by up to 90%. That makes loading web sites faster, and cheaper – in fact, our cloud-accelerated browsing makes loading web sites up to three times faster. If you’re on a pay-per-use contract you’ll enjoy cheaper browsing, or if you’re on an operator data plan you’ll be able to do more web surfing without exceeding your monthly usage limits.

Download Manager

As well as needing less data to show the same web pages you also want to do different things at the time. We know you are busy. Using the new Download Manager you can save music, video or pictures on a memory card, while you’re surfing the Internet.

The update also includes a host of new features to make searching, discovering and sharing content even easier

Russia India

Better searching and sharing

The Browser now has a new, more intuitive, user interface with one-click access to top local sites from the start page. A new feature enables multitasking while browsing, meaning that you can switch between text messages and the web.

Nokia Browser 2.0 makes it even easier to share content across social media: You can post any page URL via Facebook or Twitter from within the browser, including a comment directly from the options menu. If you’re in China, you’ll be able to do the same for Sina Weibo and RenRen.

The Browser makes it simple to find, install and use Web Apps, which provide you with a more desktop-like internet experience. Launched in mid-2011, the Nokia Browser is the first browser of its kind to support Web Apps, and now boasts a catalogue of more than 10,000 apps. Nokia Series 40 users have downloaded more than 35 million Web Apps in total, with the most-downloaded app – ‘Free Wi-Fi Locator’ – having been downloaded more than 2 million times alone.

The update supports all forms of Nokia Series 40: Touch, QWERTY and Non-Touch, including the Nokia Asha range, as well as popular devices such as the Nokia C3-00, Nokia C2-03 and Nokia X3-02. The update will be pre-loaded on some current and all future Nokia Series 40 devices, while for existing users the update arrives as a free, optional over-the-air download. New users can download it from the Nokia Store.

image credit: webwizzard

Nokia makes internet access faster and easier with new browser for Series 40 devices [Nokia press release, April 23, 2012]

– Nokia Browser 2.0 delivers enhanced speeds and a new user interface for a faster, better way to explore the web
– Powered by cloud-based servers, it delivers accelerated browsing and reduces data consumption by up to 90%, without compromising the internet experience
– Web apps from the expanding catalog are easier than ever to explore and install right in the browser

Espoo, Finland – Nokia has today announced the availability of Nokia Browser 2.0, a major update dedicated to Nokia Series 40 devices. The new version reduces data consumption by up to 90%, meaning that consumers can enjoy faster and cheaper internet access. Web sites load up to three times fasterin comparison to devices without cloud-accelerated browsing and consumers will also benefit from a number of other enhanced capabilities.

From the first look, consumers are easily able to discover new web content and enjoy one-click access to top, local sites via the Nokia Browser’s inviting and intuitive start page. We have optimized the browser to enable users to easily stay connected with friends and family at the touch of a button as well as to share files and links across social networks. The new and improved Download Manager helps consumers to manage external content easily, saving music, video or pictures on a memory card, while surfing the internet.

Free Wi-Fi Locator – Smartphone-like web app on an Asha device – consumer don’t have to compromise
An app that showcases many features of the platform is this Movie Review app.

The browser includes a revamped, modern user experience that makes it simple to find, install and use interesting web apps that offer a richer, more desktop-like internet experience. Launched in mid-2011, the Nokia Browser is the first browser of its kind to support web apps, and now boasts a catalogue of more than 10,000 of the latest apps. Several publishers have experienced over a million downloads in a matter of months, demonstrating strong consumer demand.

With this update, developers will find new monetization capabilities, more extensive user interface options for their web apps and productivity improvements for Nokia Web Tools so they can continue delivering engaging, connected experiences to the ‘Next Billion’ consumers.

The update supports all forms of Series 40: Touch, QWERTY and Non-Touch, including the Nokia Asha range, as well as popular devices such as the Nokia C3-00, Nokia C2-03 and Nokia X3-02. The update will be pre-loaded on some current and all future Nokia Series 40 devices, while for existing users the update arrives as a free, optional over-the-air download. New users can download it from the Nokia Store. The browser is available in 87 languages in over 200 countries and territories.

Nokia Browser 2.0 makes use of cloud-based servers which adapt standard web pages so that they perform better on Nokia Series 40 devices. Since web pages are compressed and cached in the cloud, end users can access web sites in a manner which is faster and requires significantly less data to be sent over their mobile network. For pay-per-use contracts this will result in more cost-effective browsing, while users on an operator data plan will be able to do more web surfing without exceeding their monthly usage limits.

“With our new version, we’ve created a newer, faster, better browsing experience. As many consumers around the world will experience the internet for the first time through a mobile phone, this is a great step towards our goal to connect the ‘Next Billion’,” explains Dieter May, senior vice president of mobile phones services, Nokia.

New in the Nokia Browser 2.0

  1. Faster browsing with speed improvements throughout the experience.
  2. Easier access to new and popular Web apps to enable a richer and more engaging internet experience.
  3. New, intuitive user interface offers one click access to search, most popular content and most valuable features.
  4. Media handling enhancements provide an easier way to enjoy video, audio and images. Users can download in background mode while continuing to browse the web or queue downloads for later when performance or rates are better.  Downloads can be saved to memory cards or phone memory for later offline viewing or listening.
  5. One-click share on Social Networks by remembering Facebook and/or Twitter login to easily share any page URL and comments from your browser.

Developers can find out more about how the updated browser will enable them to build rich standards-based web apps at: http://www.developer.nokia.com/Develop/Series_40/Series_40_web_apps/.
Consumers can download the Nokia Browser 2.0 at: http://store.nokia.com/content/51924

Tech investment banking expertise to strengthen the unique value focus of growing the HTC brand and to achieve high growth again

Updates #2:

–  HTC sees revenues down sharply on-year in July [DIGITIMES, Aug 7, 2012]

HTC saw its revenues dip 16.7% on month and 44.5% on year to a five-month low of NT$25 billion (US$834.45 million) in July. For the first seven months of 2012, revenues amounted to NT$183.9 billion, decreasing 32.8% from a year earlier, according to company filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TSE).

… With HTC estimating its revenues to reach only NT$70-80 billion in the third quarter [US$2.3-2.7 billion], it is unlikely to see HTC’s revenues rebound to NT$30 billion in August and September, the Chinese-language Commercial Times said on August 7 report.

HTC sees fall in 3Q12 sales with lower margin [DIGITIMES, Aug 3, 2012] [US$3.5 billion]

HTC reported second-quarter consolidated revenues of NT$91.04 billion (US$3.04 billion), in line with its targeted NT$91 billion, which had been cut from its original target of NT$105 billion [US$3.5 billion]. Gross margin and operating margin for the second quarter came to 27.01% and 9%, respectively.

Second-quarter sales represented a 34.3% increase, but were 26.8% lower than those posted in the second quarter a year ago. Meanwhile, gross margin and operating margin showed improvement from the prior quarter, but decreases compared to the same period of 2011.

HTC generated net profits of NT$7.4 billion, or NT$8.90 a share, in the second quarter of 2012. Profits declined more than 50% from a year earlier, but rose over 60% on quarter.

HTC adjusts workforce [DIGITIMES, July 25, 2012]

HTC has been adjusting human resources in its production, R&D, and sales teams. Industry sources believe corporate restructuring is necessary as HTC’s sales have been declining.

Sales of the HTC One series have not been picking up due to tough competition in Europe and North America. HTC has been adjusting its global workforce by shutting down the R&D team in North Carolina, US, and offices in Brazil. Some members of the R&D team have been laid-off and there will be no renewals of contracts for 600 workers. The adjustments have impacted close to 1,000 staff.

Nokia, RIM and HTC to see smartphone shipments continue sliding in 2H12, say sources [DIGITIMES, July 9, 2012]

Nokia, RIM and HTC are expected to see their smartphone shipments, as well as market share, continue declining in the third and fourth quarters of 2012 due to a lag in migration to new platforms and weakening competitiveness of their products, according to industry sources.

Despite efforts initiated by Nokia, RIM and HTC to fend off competition from Apple and Samsung Electronics, RIM and HTC have reported lower than expected shipments for the second quarter of 2012, while Nokia is expected to see its second-quarter smartphone shipments drop below 10 million units, said the sources.

Although HTC managed to post a sequential gain in shipments in the second quarter, its second-quarter smartphone shipments barely reached nine million units, pointed out the sources.

HTC is expected to see its shipments stay flat or drop to eight million units in the third quarter and slip further to seven million in the fourth quarter, according to a Chinese-language Commercial Times report.

End of updates #2

Preliminary reading: HTC: the most promising ICT brand in Taiwan [Oct 18, 2010 – July 5, 2011; then with major updates on Feb 7, 2012

imageSource: HTC, Investor Relations

Updates #1: The MWC introduced HTC One series unveiled (for the first time) a proprietary HTC ImageChip image signal processor (thus not relying on ISPs coming with the Tegra 3 and Qualcomm S4 SoCs) in order to be able to take a shot “in just 0.7 seconds” and to have “a new superfast 0.2-seconds autofocus, continue to take nearly unlimited continuous shots“, as well as “capture a photo and shoot video at the same time” and be “also able to capture a photo frame from a previously recorded video.” (See also a detailed description of that inside of the so called HTC ImageSense feature set.) Such a hardware based differentiation approach will even be greater with HTC’s upcoming products according to the following news:

HTC plans to develop customized processors [DIGITIMES, April 24, 2012]

In order to have significant product differentiation, HTC plans to cooperate with Qualcomm, Nvidia and ST-Ericsson to develop and produce customized processors with specific functions for its smartphones, according to Taiwan-based handset chip designers.

HTC may develop specific functions for its smartphones and secure supply of customized processors, but it may run the risk of inventories because such processors are unlikely to be adopted by other vendors, the sources commented.

HTC plans to develop its own processor [China Times, April 23, 2012] with Google translation of the original in Chinese , or the same with Bing translation.The essential content of that was first reported by Unwired as: HTC is developing its own CPU for lower end smartphones with ST-Ericsson

HTC is following in the footsteps of Apple and Samsung, and is now working on its own dedicated applications processor. According to China Times, the Taiwanese smartphone maker has already signed memorandum of cooperation with ST-Ericsson to co-develop the chip.

Contrary to high performance Samsung and Apple CPUs which power their flagships, the new HTC processor will run the lower end smartphones. The devices with new chip will start shipping in volume sometime in 2013.

It seems that HTC is getting increasingly unhappy with Qualcomm, which powered most of HTC devices until this year. They have signaled their unhappiness in early February, and may even consider Qualcomm one of the reasons for the sales problems of the last few months.  HTC has already added NVIDIA to its application processor supplier list –quad core Tegra 3 is powering non U.S. version of the new One X flagship. But it has yet to diversify on the lower end.

Turning to ST-Ericsson and co-developing its own, cheaper CPU, may also be a way for HTC to start moving down market with lower priced devices. Up until now – HTC was mostly focused on a premium high-end smartphones, pretty much ignoring the low-end of the market. But as component prices get cheaper, and ever better quality Android devices are released at ever lower price points by Samsung, ZTE and Huawei – Taiwanese vendor has to find a way to respond.

And this move may be one of the responses.

 HTC, Facebook jointly developing smartphone, say sources [DIGITIMES, April 25, 2012]

Given that Google is expected to continue to cooperate with Samsung Electronics for the development of the next-generation Nexus smartphone, HTC reportedly has decided to move forward in its own way and is currently developing a customized smartphone in cooperation with Facebook slated to be launched in the third quarter of 2012 at the earliest, according to industry sources.

HTC had previously joined forces with Google to launch Google’s first own-brand smartphone, the Nexus One. However, Google then shifted to cooperating with Samsung as its primary production partner for the launch of its second and third own-brand smartphones.

Since Samsung has become the top vendor of Android smartphones, Google will continue to have Samsung develop its next-generation Nexus models, leveraging Samsung’s innovation ability with regard to the Android platform, and its ability to control the supply of key components, said sources.

The new Android smartphone being developed by HTC will have a platform exclusive to Facebook to enable and integrate all functions available on the social networking site, the sources indicated. Previously, HTC launched two Facebook-enabled smartphones, the Salsa and Chacha.

Facebook is expected to further expand its investments and sources of income after becoming a public company, and the launch of own-brand smartphones will be part of its development strategy, the sources commented.

End of updates #1

HTC personnel change indicates new value focus: Goldman Sachs [Focus Taiwan, Taiwan’s national news agency, April 17, 2012]

… The 45-year-old Chang, an investment banker and partner at Goldman Sachs before joining HTC, will be responsible for corporate finance and accounting, strategic acquisitions and investment, and investor relations.

“We believe the change in CFO may indicate HTC’s more aggressive attitude toward its finance department in terms of creating value other than just accounting integrity,” Goldman Sachs analyst Robert Yen wrote in a research note.

For example, he said, added value could mean enhancing “the uniqueness and competitiveness of HTC’s smartphone products and services.”

Given HTC’s many acquisitions and strategic investments in content and mobile services in the past and its decent cash position, it could be creating a different value by choosing a CFO with industry and banking background, Yen said. …

imageHTC Desire V for China Unicom (WCDMA)

Comparison [PDAdb.net]: HTC Desire VC T328d vs. HTC Desire V T328w vs. HTC Desire VT T328t [3]

Note: According to the detailed specifications given above these phones all have SLCD screens (see: Super LCD, Explained [DisplayBlog, Nov 24, 2011]), as on quite a number of higher end HTC smartphones in the last 2 years (since HTC Desire A8181 / HTC Bravo). Otherwise they have been using “transflective TFT LCD” mostly and in very few cases Super AMOLED.

HTC eyes cheaper smartphone market in China [Focus Taiwan, Taiwan’s national news agency, April 17, 2012]

Taiwan’s HTC Corp. launched several smartphones in China priced as low as 1,999 Chinese yuan (US$317) Tuesday in a bid to tap into the emerging mobile market.

The HTC launch in Beijing includes three smartphones in its customized New Desire series, which will go on sale from mid-April through three major Chinese telecom operators, according to a company statement.

The New Desire V, running on China Unicom’s 3G WCDMA network, will start from 1,999 Chinese yuan before subsidies, while the New Desire VC will support China Telecom’s CDMA 2000 frequency, for the same price tag.

Pricing for the New Desire VT, which will run on the country’s home-grown TD-SCDMA network provided by China Mobile, was not disclosed.

“The China market has always been a critical part of HTC’s global strategy. In addition to the HTC One series, we are introducing the New Desire series targeting Chinese consumers,” said Ray Yam, president of HTC’s China division.

“We believe HTC’s future is closely connected with China and that HTC will continue to bring the best experience and the most innovative smartphones to the country as soon as possible,” he added.

All the models in the New Desire series are equipped with a 4-inch display, a 1 GHz processor and a 5-megapixel camera, according to the company.

Separately, HTC said its new “One” family will also hit store shelves in China this month, with price tags ranging from 2,688 to 5,688 yuan.

The Taoyuan-based manufacturer is hoping that the streamlined models and an increased retail presence will help it boost its market share in China, which stood at only about 2 percent last year, according to analysts at Morgan Stanley.


HTC Desire VC for China Telecom (CDMA2000)

China market: HTC launches One, new Desire lineups [DIGITIMES, April 18, 2012]

… HTC currently accounts for a 10% share of smartphones sold with a price tag over CNY2,000 in China, but has not entered the mainstream sub-CNY1,000 segment, indicated the sources. …

HTC Prepares to Launch Lower-end “Kewang” Smartphones for China [IDG News, April 17, 2012]

… The HTC Kewang V, or Desire in English, will launch on April 23 through mobile operator China Unicom. … HTC’s goal with the Kewang series is to provide smartphones at a low price, but also with high-performance and strong features, said Ethan Qian, an HTC spokesman. The Kewang line is being released only in China, he added. …

HTC Desire VT for China Mobile (TD-SCDMA)

Dual card dual standby for only 1999 yuan HTC desire V officially released [China Tech News, April 17, 2012]

On the afternoon of April 16, China Unicom and HTC jointly held “China Unicom fertile 3G HTC new Desire V listed” conference, officially released the HTC new Desire V. It is customized by China Unicom, has 9.3mm ultra-thin body, support dual card dual standby, using clocked at 1GHz Qualcomm MSM 7227A processor [with Cortex-A5 single core, having 1.57 DMIPS/MHz performance, while Cortex-A8 has 2.0 DMIPS/MHz], 4 inches [Super LCD] screen with a resolution of 480×800 (WVGA). The phone will be powered by the Android 4.0 system, using the HTC Sense 4.0 UI, 5 megapixel camera with auto-focus, [512MB RAM] 4GB ROM, integrated Beats audio audio technology, the battery capacity of 1650 mA. Bare metal price of 1999 yuan is also a bright spot.

Super LCD vs Super AMOLED displays (HD) [TheTechTonicdotCom YouTube channel, Dec 11, 2011]

OK it’s time to get ultra geeky. This is a video comparison of the respective qualities of Super LCD and Super AMOLED displays. Famous for their true blacks and high contrast, how does a SAMOLED display fare against the warmer tones of SLCD? SLCD screen provided by the HTC Radar, at 480 x 800 resolution and 3.8 inches. SAMOLED screen provided by the Samsung Omnia 7 at the same resolution but at 4inches. More mobile tech content at http://www.thetechtonic.com Follow us on Twitter @the_tech_tonic
Note: Nokia has a superior technology for better brightness, contrast and outdoor visibility with a significant enhancement of both In-Plane Switching (IPS) type TFT and AMOLED display panels typically used. See: The leading ClearBlack display technology from Nokia [Dec 18, 2011 – Feb 2, 2012], especially for comparison with Super LCD of HTC Mozart (as well as with the Super AMOLED of Samsung Galaxy S II).

Commentary: HTC appoints new CFO, but challenges remain [DIGITIMES, April 17, 2012]

HTC has reshuffled its management team again by appointing former Goldman Sachs Group partner Chia-Lin Chang as its chief financial officer, which is part of the company’s strategy for global deployment.

The new appointment, which took effect on April 16, came after HTC announced earlier a 70% on-year decline in net profits for the first-quarter of 2012.

Perhaps, the new CFO could help the Taiwan-based smartphone vendor secure more acquisitions to strengthen its global deployment, but it remains to be seen whether HTC is able to regain its growth momentum in 2012 as it faces more challenges in integration of its corporate culture as well as increasing competition.

HTC has created or added a number of high-level positions since the second half of 2010, including the appointments of Ron Loukes as chief strategy officer and Kouji Kodera as chief product officer in July 2010, and Matthew Costello as COO in December 2010. HTC also appointed Jason Mackenzie as its president of global sales and marketing in July 2011.

HTC has also brought in Scott Croyle of One & Company and Shashi Fernando of Saffron Digital responsible for design and content, respectively, through acquisitions of the two companies.

It is also the second time in less than two years HTC has changed its CFO. The newly appointed CFO Chia-Lin Chang replaced Winston Yung, who took the post in January 2011.

If the latest management team is unable to bring back the growth momentum in 2012 that HTC enjoyed during the period from 2010-2011, HTC will no longer be able to compete with Samsung Electronics, Apple and even Huawei Device in terms of economies of scale in production.

While the hiring of talent with management and marketing expertise from abroad, and the acquisition of certain companies overseas are indeed necessary for HTC in its thrust to become a global brand, the impact resulting from the integration of corporate culture on HTC is expected to intensify along with such processes.

Given that nearly all top-rank positions with the exception of the CFO post at HTC have been filled with foreign executives, the promotion of local talent will likely become a major issue of concern in the future.

The Quietly Brilliant Story of HTC [HTC YouTube channel, Nov 23, 2011]

A short film about how the smartphone evolved – from some of the early pioneering handhelds to today’s most innovative smartphones.

HTC replaces CFO after just one year [15 1/2 months] on the job (update) [The Verge, April 17, 2012]

HTC has issued a statement on the transition:

On Monday, HTC announced the appointment of Chia-Lin Chang as Chief Financial Officer with Winston Yung, his predecessor, transitioning to a corporate development role.

“Media speculation that ties this announcement to HTC’s partnership and investment in Beats By Dre is categorically inaccurate,” said Peter Chou, CEO of HTC Corporation. “HTC and Beats have made impressive progress in innovation and brand awareness and the integration of the Beats brand and technology in the new HTC One series is a clear indication of our commitment to this partnership.”

Amazing camera, authentic sound, iconic design. HTC One has them all. [HTC YouTube channel, Feb 27, 2012]

Highlights of launch event in Barcelona on February 26, 2012 with Peter Chou, CEO and Scott Croyle, Vice President of Design.

HTC One series unveiled [from the 2012 HTC press releases or directly on the Canadian site]:

BARCELONA, SPAIN – Mobile World Congress – February 26, 2012 – HTC, a global designer of smartphones, today unveiled its new HTC One series of smartphones that represent its most premium mobile experience with a new level of iconic design and amazing camera and authentic sound experience. …

With HTC’s most premium experience, the HTC One series integrates Android 4.0 (ICS) with HTC Sense™ 4, the new version of HTC’s branded user experience that is introducing HTC ImageSense™, a new suite of camera and imaging features that set HTC One apart from other phones. HTC Sense 4 also includes broad enhancements to audio quality and simplifies how people listen to music on their phone.

Amazing Camera
With ImageSense HTC One rivals traditional digital cameras with improvements to every part of the camera, including the lens, the sensor, the software, and even integrating a new custom HTC ImageChip. These enhancements combine to deliver our fastest image capture, best image quality under adverse conditions and easiest interface that enables quick access to capturing stills and videos with side-by-side photo and video capture buttons.

  • Superfast Capture – HTC One dramatically reduces the time it takes to capture those key moments. In just 0.7 seconds you’re able to take a shot, and with a new superfast 0.2-seconds autofocus, continue to take nearly unlimited continuous shots simply by holding the shutter button.
  • Good photos in adverse conditions – HTC One delivers dramatic enhancements in image capture quality even in adverse conditions such as low light, no light or with bright backlighting. The f/2.0 lens on the HTC One X and HTC One S offers best-in-class performance, capturing 40 percent more light than the f/2.4 lenses available on other high-end phones. HTC One also includes HDR, a market-leading technology, for taking great photos even when there are varying levels of brightness.
  • Video Pic (Concurrent Video/Still Capture) – With Video Pic you capture a photo and shoot video at the same time. Now, while you’re shooting HD video, all you have to do is tap the shutter button and it snaps a high-resolution still photo while the video continues to shoot. You are also able to capture a photo frame from a previously recorded video.

Authentic Sound
With HTC One, Beats By Dr. Dre Audio™ integration is enabled for the first time across the entire experience for richer, more authentic sound whether you’re listening to your favorite music, watching a YouTube™ video or playing a game. … All this makes HTC One the one place to enjoy all your music, wherever you are, with the power of Beats By Dr. Dre Audio and HTC Car.

HTC One X
… HTC One X is blazing fast with the new NVIDIA® Tegra 3 Mobile Processor for clear graphics, faster applications and longer battery life. It includes a 1.5GHz Super 4-PLUS-1™ quad-core with an integrated fifth Battery Saver Core and a high-performance 12-Core NVIDIA® GPU. The HTC One X also has an amazing 4.7-inch, 720p HD screen crafted from contoured Corning™ Gorilla Glass. HTC One X will also be available in select 4G LTE markets with a LTE-enabled Qualcomm Snapdragon S4™ processor with up to 1.5GHz dual-core CPU’s.

HTC One S
The HTC One S is for people who want a high-end smartphone in a more compact size. It is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor with up to 1.5GHz dual-core CPU’s. It also includes a 4.3-inch screen crafted from contoured Corning™ Gorilla Glass. …

HTC One V
Utilizing the classic, award-winning design of the HTC Legend, the HTC One V brings top-end design to a smartphone with broad appeal and a premium experience that delivers an amazing camera and authentic sound. It features a simple, iconic aluminum unibody design that exudes craftsmanship and quality.

Global Availability
With unprecedented excitement, the HTC One series will begin shipping in April with broad global availability available beginning in April through more than 140 mobile operators and distributors globally. For more information and to pre-register for HTC One visit www.htc.com.

HTC Rezound™, the only phone with the Beats Audio™ built in [HTC YouTube channel, Nov 3, 2011]

Experience your sound like never before.

HTC And Beats By Dr. Dre Set To  Introduce New Era In Mobile Audio [from the 2011 HTC press releases]:

Strategic HTC investment to result in Beats integrated HTC phones this Fall.

Taoyuan, Taiwan & Santa Monica, CA – August 11, 2011– HTC Corporation, a global designer of mobile devices, today announced a strategic partnership and investment with Beats™ Electronics LLC, the company redefining the audio market with its iconic Beats by Dr. Dre™ audio experience. The two fast-growing brands will focus on bringing high performance sound to HTC phones. …

… “Beats has found a unique way to harness popular culture in a manner that is unlike any other brand today,” said Peter Chou, CEO of HTC Corporation. “It’s an exciting brand that has been built around providing something very special, and we believe our strategic partnership will provide customers with unbeatable sound on HTC phones. We obsess over every detail of a consumer’s mobile experience and audio is a critical part of that experience.”

… Established in 2006, Beats Electronics is the brainchild of legendary artist and producer Dr. Dre and Chairman of Interscope Geffen A&M Records Jimmy Iovine, who set out to develop a new type of headphone with the capability to reproduce the full spectrum of sound that musical artists and producers hear in professional recording studios. For more information, please visithttp://beatsbydre.com.

The history of last HTC CFOs:

HTC Appoints Hui-Ming Cheng as CFO [HTC press release, Aug 23, 2006]

… he has served as CFO and Spokesperson for the Fubon Financial Holding Co. in Taipei. From October 2003 to February 2006, Mr. Cheng was VP and CFO of Taiwan Mobile and received the honor of being named as Taiwan’s best CFO by Institutional Investor Magazine in 2003. Prior to his appointment with Taiwan Mobile, Mr. Cheng held various senior-level positions with the Finance Center, Winbond Electronics Corp., China Development Industrial Bank, Chase Manhattan Bank, and the Asia Partner Fund.

Mr. Cheng received a BS in Chemical Engineering from National Taiwan University and an MBA from the Kelly School of Business at Indiana University.

HTC Announces Winston K. S. Yung as Chief Financial Officer [HTC press release, Dec 23, 2010]

… Prior to joining HTC, Yung was the Chief Financial Officer for Shin Kong Financial Holding in Taiwan where he played a key role in the company’s success, and also held key positions at McKinsey & Co in Hong Kong. Yung received a bachelor’s degree in social sciences with an economics major from University of Hong Kong and a MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton Business School.

HM Cheng, HTC’s current chief financial officer will retire from the company and move into an advisory role to HTC’s board of directors. Cheng joined HTC in September 2006 and successfully established a complete financial system and was a key contributor to HTC’s corporate governance system and HTC’s overall financial success

HTC names Chia-Lin Chang Chief Financial Officer [from the Latest HTC press releases]

Taoyuan, Taiwan – April 16, 2012 – HTC, a global leader in mobile innovation and design, today announced the appointment of Chia-Lin Chang as Chief Financial Officer and spokesperson effective April 16, 2012.

Chia-Lin Chang’s predecessor, Winston Yung, joined HTC in January 2011. Winston will focus on corporate development, helping HTC maintain its competitive edge by strengthening the organization and corporate talent.

Chia-Lin, previously an investment banker and partner at Goldman Sachs, will be responsible for corporate finance and accounting, strategic acquisition and investment, and investor relations.  Chang earned a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Princeton University and an M.B.A. from the Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania.  After receiving his Ph.D. degree, Chang served as an engineer at Motorola in the US.

GOLDMAN SACHS ANNOUNCES NEW MANAGING DIRECTORS [Goldmann Sachs press release, Oct 24, 2007] “… it has invited 299 individuals to become Managing Directors as of December 1, 2007, the start of the firm’s fiscal year. … Chia-Lin Chang …

From: Latest HTC press releases:

HTC releases unaudited results for 1Q 2012

Taoyuan, Taiwan – April  6, 2012 –HTC corporation (TWSE: 2498), a global leader in mobile innovation and design, today announces unaudited consolidated results for 1Q 2012. For the first quarter of 2012, total revenues reached NT$67,790 million, a decrease of 34.92% year-on-year. Unaudited operating income was NT$5,099 million, net income before tax was NT$5,551 million, net income after tax was NT$4,464 million, and unaudited earnings per share after tax were NT$5.35 based on 834,256 thousand weighted average number of shares.

2012 First Quarter Unaudited Consolidated Financial Results

(Unit: NT$ million, Except Earnings Per Share)

*Calculation of the after-tax EPS for first quarter 2011 was based on 807,867 thousand weighted average number of shares.

HTC Reports Fourth-quarter And Annual 2011 Results

Taoyuan, Taiwan, February 6, 2012– HTC Corporation (“HTC”, or the “Company”, TWSE: 2498), a global leader in mobile innovation and design, today announced consolidated results of the Company and its subsidiaries for the fourth quarter of 2011 and for the year.

4Q Highlights
• After-tax profit was NT$10.94bn, EPS was NT$13.06
• Total revenues were NT$101.42bn
• Gross profit margin and operating margin were 27.12% and 12.71%, respectively
2011 Highlights
• After-tax profit was NT$61.98bn, up 56.77% year-on-year; EPS was NT$73.32
• Total revenue was NT$465.79bn, up 67.09% year-on-year
• Gross profit margin and operating margin was 28.30% and 14.77%, respectively
• ROE was 70.37% compared to 56.33% in 2010

“In 2011 we saw growth in the global strength of our brand, as well as earnings and revenue growth,” said Peter Chou, CEO of HTC. “While short term performance may not meet the results as expected, we have gained further experience and advancement in the areas of brand management and product innovation. These fundamental strengths and the groundwork we have laid will take us into 2012 with a renewed focus and determination.”

4Q 2011 Results
HTC’s fourth quarter revenue came in-line at NT$101.42bn, resulting in after-tax earnings of NT$10.94bn and EPS of NT$13.06. Gross profit and operating margins came in at 27.12% and 12.71%, respectively. The decline in gross profit margin was mainly a result of product transition.

2011 Results
2011 annual revenue was NT$465.79bn, a 67.09% increase over 2010 annual revenues (NT$278.76bn), resulting in after-tax earnings of NT$61.98bn. Overall gross profits and operating margins were 28.30% and 14.77%, respectively.

In 2011, in addition to solid growth in revenues and profits, HTC’s brand gained significant momentum in the global landscape, being named one of Interbrand’s 100 Best Global Brands.

2012 Outlook
In 2012, HTC will focus on: growing the Company’s brand value; continuing to create competitive advantages through innovation; enhancing the efficiency of marketing campaigns; and further driving down operating costs.

To expand its brand preference and value, HTC will work at a global level to build emotional connections with consumers, putting more of its marketing resources behind fewer products and driving value in those product brands. By building a globalized marketing campaign, HTC aims to optimize its go-to-market strategy with operators, retail distributors, and end-users, and improve the efficiency of its marketing spend. In emerging markets, such as China, HTC will continue to extend its reach to customers by expanding distribution channels.

Despite temporary weakness resulting from product cycle transition, HTC believes it has the ability to create a new wave of momentum through the upcoming product cycle. It will also continue its attention on mass market consumers by driving product differentiation through design and innovation.

1Q Outlook
The Company’s outlook for the first quarter of 2012 is as follows:

• 1Q revenue expected to be around NT$65-70bn
• Gross margin expected to be around 25%
• Operating margin expected to be around 7.5%

These margins are a temporary phenomenon and will normalized when product cycle transition is over.

Sharp-er Hon Hai / Foxconn

imageUpdate: IGZO: Vision for the Future [a special advertising section by sharpusa.com in The Wall Street Journal, Jan 7, 2013] which was timed for the CES 2013 opening and was used as a detailed landing site for banners put everywhere like here with view (Jan 20):

Powering the resolution revolution

Liquid crystal display (LCD) performance is about to take another leap forward. Existing LCDs have given us remarkable quality in HDTV, tablets and smartphones, as well as reasonably low power consumption. But Sharp Corporation is on the verge of delivering a new technology that will enable much higher resolution and significantly lower power consumption. More

The science behind the breakthrough technology

The hunger for display resolution will probably never be satisfied until displays are indistinguishable from a printed page and as nuanced as a watercolor. IGZO takes a large step in that direction by enabling very high pixel-per-inch counts on small displays and Ultra-High Definition on larger monitors, while retaining brightness. More

Inventing the future

The great thing about a technological breakthrough like IGZO is that it makes dreams come true. Yesterday’s dreams, today’s dreams, tomorrow’s dreams. More

Update: Capital Alliance with Qualcomm, Inc. and Display Technology Development Agreement with its Subsidiary Pixtronix, Inc. [Sharp press release, Dec 4, 2012]

Sharp Corporation (hereafter “Sharp”) today announced that the Company has reached an agreement with Pixtronix Inc. (hereafter Pixtronix), a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated (hereafter “Qualcomm”, NASDAQ: QCOM), concerning the development of Pixtronix’s MEMS*1 displays. In addition, Sharp signed the capital alliance agreement and will issue new shares by a third party allotment (hereafter “This Third Party Allotment”) with Qualcomm Incorporated, a world leader in 3G, 4G and next-generation wireless technologies, as the allottee.

MEMS display to be developed jointly by the two companies is a display using ultrafine process technology and existing display manufacturing infrastructure with features including high color reproducibility and low-power consumption. The development for commercialization of MEMS display will be achieved by integrating Sharp’s core display technology, IGZO*2 and MEMS display technology of Pixtronix.

In addition, Sharp is planning to accept up to 9.9 billion yen*3 from Qualcomm in equity investment to pursue this joint development. This capital will be used for the development of MEMS display and necessary capital investments related thereto targeting for the achievement of the technology for commercialization.

With this agreement, the two companies will consider the possibility of further collaboration of chipsets by Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated and IGZO-based display technology for lower power consumption and higher performance of mobile terminals.

With this agreement, Sharp will accelerate its strategy for growth in small- to medium- sized LCD business with IGZO-based display technology as its core, and expand its revenue and corporate value.

*1  MEMS: Micro Electro Mechanical Systems

*2  IGZO: IGZO (InGaZnO) is an oxide comprising indium (In), gallium (Ga), and zinc (Zn). A thin-film transistor using this material has been developed by Sharp in collaboration with Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd. (a company based in Kanagawa, Japan, and led by President Shunpei Yamazaki)

*3  Equivalent to 120 million U.S. dollars calculated by exchange rate of December 3, 2012

Summary of the joint development and capital alliance

1. Development for the Commercialization of Next Generation Display

  • The next generation display will be jointly developed integrating Sharp’s IGZO-based display technology and Pixtronix’s MEMS display technology. The joint development will establish facilities in the LCD panel plant in Sharp Yonago Corporation (location: Yonago city, Tottori prefecture, Japan) for development of the technology for commercialization.
  • The development for next generation displays and necessary investment will begin immediately. At the point when the development of the technology for commercialization is confirmed to be feasible, we will move to the next stage by implementation of equipment targeting to achieve mass production technology.

2. This Third Party Allotment
Sharp will issue new shares by third party allotment with Qualcomm as the allottee by each stage of joint development of the technology for commercialization. The second stage is contingent upon achieving certain milestones.

<Notice Regarding the Execution of Capital/Business Alliance Agreement with Qualcomm (US Company) for the Joint Development of Next Generation MEMS Display and the Issue of New Shares by Third Party Allotment (PDF:83KB)>
http://sharp-world.com/corporate/ir/topics/pdf/121204.pdf

Update: Foxconn aims to land iTV orders by investing in Sharp, says CMI former executive [DIGITIMES, June 29, 2012]

Foxconn Electronics’ investment in Sharp is aimed at securing iTV orders from Apple, which will be a positive development for the flat panel industry if the strategy works, according to Ho Chao-yang, former president of Chimei Innolux (CMI) [also controlled by Foxconn] and current chairman of Chi Mei Materials Technology.

It is a win-win strategy for Foxconn and Sharp, and the tie-up is believed to be able to create new markets, Ho stated.

In addition to benefiting the flat panel industry, the launch of iTVs will also benefit polarizer makers, including Chi Mei Materials, Ho added.

Chi Mei Materials posted net profits of NT$1.43 billion (US$47.73 million) or an EPS of NT$3.37 in 2011.

Foxconn [Hon Hai] `Gamble’ on Sharp an Apple TV Bet [Bloomberg YouTube channel, March 28, 2012]

March 28 (Bloomberg) — Pelham Smithers, managing director of Pelham Smithers Associates, discusses Foxconn Technology Group’s 133 billion yen ($1.6 billion) investment in Sharp Corp. He speaks with Mark Barton on Bloomberg Television’s “Countdown.” (Source: Bloomberg).
[0:07] Q: WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO BUY A COMPANY WHO LAST MONTH FORECASTED A RECORD 290 BILLION YEN LOSS FOR THE FISCAL YEAR? NOT THE COMPANY BUT A 9.9% STAKE. A: Because there is one lovely gem in that business, which is the 10G LCD manufacturing plant in Sakai. This is the only one of its type. It’s probably going to be the only one of its type. It is the most efficient plant at making 60-inch TV screens and as such, it could be the future of smart television.
Q: AND THE FUTURE OF SMART TELEVISION MIGHT BE THIS ADVANCED SCREEN TECHNOLOGY CALLED IGZO. … A: IGZO is a transparent semiconductor device. So what this means is that one day you could be looked in window, switch on a button and suddenly turn it into a television because all the transistors are transparent. And that is seen as the future of television for variety of different reasons. It is very efficient, electricity passes very quickly through, so there is no loss of power, it’s very thin, very flexible, and it leads very nicely from LCD into AMOLED. [1:26]
… [1:41] I think they [i.e. Sharp] have sold a lot of their future to survive today. This is a very, very good deal for Foxconn because it gets them firmly into the TV side of the Apple pipeline. [1:53]
… [2:03] It is a gambling in that regard. But if anybody knows what Apple is going to be up to in the future, it’s Hon Hai, who makes or fabricates lots of Apple products. So they’ve come in and they’ve made this decision that if it’s not Apple than it is probably somebody else. [2:20] …

Updates: Hon Hai Estimated to Ship Some 10 Million LCD TVs This Year [CENS, May 8, 2012]

[The Shanghai office of the] Market research firm DisplaySearch [in preparation to the 2012 China Smart TV and Smart Display Conference] estimated Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd., currently the world’s No.1 contract electronics manufacturer, to ship close to 10 million LCD TVs this year thanks to hefty contracts from Sony and Sharp.

Sony has contracted Hon Hai to supply eight million TVs while Sharp has designated the contract supplier to ship 1.5 million TVs this year. Hon Hai has acquired many of Sony’s overseas factories and bought into Sharp in order to secure steady contracts with the two brand name suppliers.

People say Hon Hai is likely to acquire Sharp’s TV factories in mainland China, Indonesia and Mexico to expand its contract TV manufacturing capacity.

Sharp plans to deliver 12-13 million TVs this year while Sony projects to ship 19 million TVs. Both companies will ramp up outsourcing.

As Hon Hai is the primary recipient of the contracts, other contract suppliers like Wistron Corp. are estimated to receive reduced number of contracts from the two companies. Wistron is projected to ship 4.8 million TVs this year, around half the number it shipped last year.

Hon Hai is posing a challenge to the world’s No.1 contract supplier TPV Technology Corp. with the bright shipment estimate. TPV shipped 13-14 million LCD TVs last year to big-name suppliers including Philips, Sony, Vizio, Best Buy, TCL and Skyworth. Its 2012 shipment is projected at 15 million systems.

Compal Electronics Inc. has put its 2012 shipments of LCD TVs at eight million systems mostly thanks to contracts from Toshiba, which will increase outsourcing to 70% of its output this year.

Samsung also revises strategy to begin outsourcing the TVs, planning to depend on contract suppliers for around 30% of its total output this year. This year alone, the company aims to ship 45 million LCD TVs.

Special analysis: Hon Hai into sharp and subsequent effects [DisplaySearch Shanghai office press release, May 3, 2012] as traslated by Bing (or the alternative translation by Google)

NPD DisplaySearch Shanghai Office, May 3, 2012-the flat panel display industry as a whole in the near future the most shocking news is Hon Hai into sharp’s investment. Be held in Shenzhen on May 24- DisplaySearch 2012 smart TVs in China Summit Forum [see the English version of 2012 China Smart TV and Smart Display Conference]will provide an in-depth analysis of industry news and discussion between participants and Panel and an oversized TV Panel development trends. For more details, please refer to the official Web page of the Conference www.DisplaySearch.com.CN.

On March 27, 2012, Hon Hai and sharp have announced the following two types of investment decisions.

  • Hon Hai gets sharp will invest 800 million dollars approximately 11% shares, Hon Hai also became sharp’s largest shareholders, this will ensure that the Hon Hai can be directly involved in operation sharp liquid crystal display sector and related technology research and development projects.
  • Hon Hai gets sharp to invest about 800 million dollars in Japan, Sakai 46.5% stake in ten lines, thus ensuring that Hon Hai can has about half of the ten generations line capacity and ownership of the output panel products.

After the investment of the sharp, Hon Hai in the two panel manufacturers in the possession stakes: Chimei 12% equity 10% equity and sharp. Our blog posts in March 27, 2012 (DisplaySearch Blog) , “Hon Hai investments Sharpe-10 line joined the competition with Samsung and LG” (Hon Hai Invests in Sharp’s Gen 10 – Joining to Compete with Samsung and LG) have discussed the background and impact of this massive investment, further analysis of this article will be on the …

Hon Hai and before its investment stake among panel makers Chi Mei, has established in the past a number of strategic alliances with the sharp, specific terms are the following several points:

  • Hon Hai was sharp LCD module Assembly contract manufacturer.
  • Sharp UV2A photo distribution to it by technology licensing technology licensed to Chi Mei, sharp has helped us improve and odd in Taiwan 7 ‘s and 8 ‘s line of light distribution to the production process of climbing.
  • Sharp LCD TV OEM business orders it to the company.
  • Chi Mei started to supply some not for the production of the sharp LCD sharp LCD TV.This sharp 8 generations it wire into metal oxides (Oxide TFT) production process and the capacity utilization rate of 10 lines to reduce gradually increased.
  • Hon Hai is a major machine-Assembly of the Apple iPhone and iPad. At the same time, sharp is a major Panel suppliers for iPhone and iPad. Both have worked closely together to address the production of Apple mobile phones and tablet computers and technology issues.
  • Hon Hai is also a main unit of the Sony LCD TV Assembly; at the same time Sony purchased from a sharp LCD TV panels, mainly sharp 10-generation production line of 40-inch and 60-inch Panel and Panel provides to its television assembly plant for Assembly. In other words, sharp and Hon Hai on Sony LCD TV products to cooperate on the project with indirect relationship.

Taking into account these relationships, you can guess Hon Hai and sharp through both direct and indirect cooperation for a long time on the other side there is a certain understanding. This fusion of the two companies ‘ corporate culture would be very helpful.

Hon Hai into sharp and influence

Once the company into sharp, lots of new status will appear. Direct effect is Hon Hai will obtain sharp 10 lines of a large production capacity, as well as many leading LCD Panel sharp technology. With such huge sums of money into, Sharpe must also be able to improve its financial position and balance of expense reports. According to our analysis, there will be the following:

50% 1, Hon Hai will obtain sharp 10 lines of capacity control

LCD TV market in the current situation, sharp 10 line capacity utilization has been poor.Its total capacity is 10 lines 72K mother glass into a month, but Sharpe has been unable to get enough orders to meet the maximum capacity, capacity utilization is not high.Sharp 10 lines are now mainly produce 40-inch, 60 and 70 inch panel products, but in the first quarter of this year, only input 42k of glass per month. And sharp originally planned in two or three quarters of this year reduced input to 35~36k per month with a minimum of cost. After the arrival of Hon Hai will be by looking for more orders to meet the remaining close to half of the capacity requirements. At the same time, 40-inch, 60 and 70 inch does not singularly American TV panel production within product list, so relatively speaking on the impact of the Chi Mei is also relatively small.

Table a, sharp 10-generation size glass line inputs (in thousands of pieces/month)

Data source: Quarterly Large-Area Production Strategy Report , Q2’12-Q4’12 to forecast values

Table II, sharp glass 10 lines into the size ratio

Data source: Quarterly Large-Area Production Strategy Report, Q2’12-Q4’12 to forecast values

2, the company will expand sharp’s LCD TV manufacturing

Company plans produce 9.5 million in 2012 LCD TV sets, including 1.5 million of the 8 million units of Sony and sharp. Hon Hai was a few years ago Sony and Sony’s LCD TV assembly line production. With sharp Panel capacity and technology, Hon Hai will expand its OEM business. Sharp LCD 2012 TV shipments expected to reach 1,200 to 13 million units, in other words 1.5 million accounted for 12.5% of the Hon Hai worker, compared to the last quarter of 2011 only 3.2% sharp LCD TV is Hon Hai worker, has a good growth. If Hon Hai is sharp more OEM orders, TPV and other contract manufacturer Wistron orders will be directly affected.

Table three, sharp LCD TV manufacturer and percentage list (Q4’11)

Data source: Quarterly LCD TV Value Chain Report

3, Hon Hai will contact sharp many industry-leading Panel technology

Not only large-size LCD Panel technology, Hon Hai will also get sharp’s small and medium size panel technology and mobile devices. As sharp’s largest shareholder, Hon Hai will be greater use of sharp’s reserves of power engineering technology to strengthen its display technology. These technologies include LTPS (low temperature poly silicon, sharp called the CGS), oxide TFT,UV2A,RGBY the four panels of the color spectrum, and a number of other important related technologies. Hon Hai’s need to leverage these technologies to assist them in deep in China Shenzhen Super 5 line shifts from amorphous silicon to LTPS process and Hon Hai in Chengdu city LTPS 6 generations of the construction of a new line-Tianyi display 6 generations line of science and technology, these technologies will help a lot. Rumor has Apple will launch a new display technology used in LCD TV products, Hon Hai can also use a sharp order to win Apple’s advanced technology projects. Even more interesting is that shown in the following figure, Sharpe is also a major patent holders of the naked-eye 3D technologies, which would also become a major advantage of Hon Hai.

Figure, naked-eye 3D technology patent ownership

Data source: Synergytek Consultancy

4, Hon Hai will be on material procurement of parts and components to help sharp

Hon Hai to components suppliers, strong negotiating abilities known to the industry. In his intervention after sharp 10-line operation, Hon Hai is its powerful procurement negotiation skills can also be used to assist the sharp reduction of parts procurement costs.

5, the Chi Mei will benefit from Hon Hai and sharp’s new relationship

Chi Mei was originally through the payment of licensing fees, Forms Panel gets sharp UV2A technology production and supply to the sharp. After this investment, the company also owns shares of the two companies and 12%, Hon Hai will have the opportunity to coordinate between the two companies, greater support of Chi Mei to get sharp, even you can reduce licensing costs and sharp agreement to pay.

6 Panel, sharp will be able to get more customers

Sharpe has been dominated by self production, its LCD TV panels from the main internal supply. In the past, sharp had planned to rely on its strong customer base high-generation panel production capacity expansion, but sharp panel facing a Terminal product under the brand over competitors ‘ challenges. Currently main supply Panel for sharp TV sharp, Philips, Samsung, Sony, TPV and (as described in the following table), Hon Hai after intervention, Hon Hai helps Sharpe to find more customers. However, because there is a competitive relationship between, Hon Hai allows sharp continues to supply to Samsung and TPV would face uncertainty. In addition, Philips and TPV TPVision has a joint venture, and TPV compete on many OEM business with Hon Hai, so delicate.

Table four, first quarter of 2011 sharp LCD TV Panel’s main customers

Data source : Quarterly LCD TV Value Chain Report

Hon Hai and sharp the next possible courses of action

Analysis and judgment based on NPD DisplaySearch, we believe that the Hon Hai will then take the following action:

  • Hon Hai could get further sharp located in China, Indonesia and Mexico’s TV manufacturing plant. After getting these manufacturing plants, Hon Hai will also further consolidate its important position in the Sharpe television manufacturing business.
  • North America’s leading brand of LCD TV Vizio may balance Hon Hai and sharp’s resources in an attempt to form a new supply chain, and this will also help to Vizio in markets such as China and Europe have more choices. Vizio LCD TV OEM customers currently Hon Hai. This investment Vizio can seek more flexible company and Sharpe’s contract manufacturing and supply Panel. Sharp 60 inch to 70 inch Vizio to enrich their product lines are also useful.
  • Hai dedicated business team formed to sharp 10-line business and plant operations.Sharpe 10 lines for the business group supply and capacity allocation, customer choice, Panel pricing and so on all have the right to decide; 10 lines of course they also need to be responsible for the sales and financial performance. Therefore, Hon Hai for sharp TV’s growth in the global market will have a significant impact. Hon Hai was also needed on the productivity of 10 lines to maintain a higher capacity utilization and rational distribution planning is responsible for.
  • The company want to optimize the productivity of 10 lines, and clearly is the best cut of 10 lines of products are more than 60 products. Target customers will be sharp, Vizio (60 and 70 inch), Sony (60 inch), Panasonic (60 inch) and channel in mainland China customers (such as SUNY), Vizio, and so on. Now sharp Samsung 60 inch LCD TV Panel supplier, the future is likely to gradually fade. Therefore, Samsung may have alternative sources of supply for its 60-inch TV Panel.
  • Samsung on a 60 inch TV products may be forced to only get a supply from Samsung Panel, Samsung will also focus on the 65-inch, 65 inch Panel can have friends, strange, after all, in the United States, BoE and Panda, and many other vendors.
  • In order to promote its 60-inch product, best time will be the second half of 2012 television season, especially the November Black Friday sales season in North America.Therefore, Hon Hai will begin and the 60 inch product strategy 10 lines of its potential customers to discuss possible cooperation plan. Example is most likely cooperation, sharp panels and company Foundry manufacture mode of cooperation, between October and November this year in terms of costs and prices to attract customers.This terminal products price LCD TV market this year will have a certain effect.

The impact on other television brands and contract manufacturers

Before the Hon Hai to fund, sharp selling its 10 lines for production of 60-inch products are very positive. For example, in last year’s Black Friday sales in North America, sold its 60-inch LCD TV CCFL Backlight only $ 999. Now with Hon Hai’s power, sharp 60 inch product pricing strategy may be more active.

Hon Hai-sharp Alliance will lead to more intense competition, and also brought more price cuts urge the whole supply chain. Sharp in 2011 in North America and Europe by the end of the 60-inch low-price policy has caused a certain amount of pressure on competitors, already there are concerns in the industry now, price wars in particular, more than 60 inch price war, teamed up with Hon Hai and sharp and is only just beginning, and not what we want to become relaxed.

Of course, Hon Hai and more than 60 inch sharp product policy also means that 60-inch product penetration will further improve in the world, particularly in China and the United States market. Hon Hai to sharp’s investment will also affect other contract manufacturers such as performance of the TPV and Wistron. Now with sharp panel power, Hon Hai in the foundry business will be even more powerful.

For more industry news, master the first flat-panel displays and television industry development and welcome to NPD DisplaySearch 2012 China smart TV Forum .Conference invite the leading television brands, Panel manufacturers, operators and technical programmes, covering Intelligent interactive, 3D TV and flat panel industry and networking with naked-eye 3D, AMOLED, LED backlight, TV technology and market value chain. Global sound control, smart synchronization procedure and intuitive man-machine interface control lead program Nuance, Flingo and Hillcrest Labs is also a keynote speech. In addition, NPD DisplaySearch special brings 2012 global TV for consumer survey results to share, as well as the analysis of the usage of network TV and 3D TV.

Welcome to enjoy early bird discount prices, costs include the two-day meeting of the Conference, information (including USB), afternoon refreshments and VIP dinner, is an extension of your contacts, listen to different views and ideas best occasion for policy.For more details, please refer to the Conference Web site www.DisplaySearch.com.CN,or please contact Shanghai offices.

Contact window:
Luo Mei-Director of marketing, DisplaySearch China

Phone:             +86-21-62752555
Mobile phone:             +86-139-1738-2072
Fax: +86-21-32097567
E-mail: michelle.lo@displaysearch.com
Company Web site: www.displaysearch.com.cn

Commentary: The battle cry in the global LCD TV market [DIGITIMES, May 4, 2012]

CEC-Panda, TPV to jointly set up 10G LCD panel line in Nanjing [DIGITIMES, May 4, 2012]

China-based CEC-Panda LCD Technology and Top Victory, a subsidiary of TPV Technology, will jointly invest CNY35 billion (US$5.57 billion) to set up a 10G line for the production LCD panels. CEC-Panda will take up a 99.2% stake in the 10G line, according to an announcement by the companies.

The 10G line will focus on the production of large- and ultra large-size LCD panels for local brand TV vendors in China.

TPV said the establishment of the 10G plant will save a substantial amount of import tariffs due to the local availability of large-size TV panels in China, while strengthening its global competitiveness.

The 10G line has a cost advantage for the production of large-size panels, according to industry sources. Glass substrates at the 10G line can be cut into eight units of 60-inch TV panels compared to a yield of three units from the 8.5G lines at Samsung Electronics and LG Display, the sources indicated.

However, Taiwan-based panel makers are currently reluctant to commit investments on 10G lines due to heavy capital requirements and the financial strain, the sources commented.

TPVision  [TP Vision] likely to showcase OLED TVs in 2012 IFA, say sources [DIGITIMES, April 17, 2012] TP Vision

TPV Technology has finished a takeover of LCD TV business operations from Philips through the establishment of a joint venture, TPVision [TP Vision], which is expected to showcase OLED TVs at the 2012 IFA consumer electronics trade fair to take place in Berlin, Germany from August 31-September 5, according to industry sources.

TPVision  [TP Vision] is likely to purchase large-size OLED panels from LG Display for its production of OLED TVs, the sources noted.

For 2012, TPVision  [TP Vision] will continue to launch a series of high-end LED, 3D, and smart TVs under the Philips brand, including the Philips 3500, 4000, 6000 and 7000 lineups, said the sources.

In China, TPVision  [TP Vision] will release the 5-series of Philips-branded models, including PFL5825, 5820 and 5721, supporting Philips’ Ambilight and AmbiwOOx technologies, added the sources.

Increased competition in TV sector as Korean brands promote OLED TVs [DIGITIMES, April 30, 2012]

Competition in the TV sector is continuing to grow as Korean firms are reporting increased sales and developing their TV technology.

Samsung Electronics’ consumer electronics business, which includes TVs, saw its operating profits grow 550% on year to US$467 million in first-quarter 2012 as Smart TV and LED TV sales increased. This is mostly in part because of the firm’s success in commercializing technologies for Smart TVs, OLED TVs and direct-type LED TVs, commented industry observers.

Despite Japanese brands designing TVs that have 3D and Internet connection features, Korean-brand TVs have better voice-controlled functions and are more advanced with OLED technology, added the sources.

With Samsung setting a shipment of 48 million LCD TVs, and LG Electronics 46 million for 2012, the target of Sony, the third laregest TV vendor in 2011, is only 20 million units. Sony says its focus has shifted from boosting unit shipments to providing high value added products.

However, Samsung is set to merge its subsidiaries, Samsung Display, Samsung Mobile Display and S-LCD into one for OLE technlogy development, with the sources saying OLED technology mature may not mature until 2013-2014. However, the sources said Korean manufacturers will get the upper hand on the OLED industry before Japanese and Taiwan brands, which will pose challenges in the market.

China TV firms see increasing sales as domestic demand heats up [DIGITIMES, May 7, 2012]

China TV firms have overtaken Japanese and Korean ones in China’s market as Chinese consumers are increasingly purchasing LCD TVs.

Sources said China brands are pushing their products domestically mainly in third- and fourth-tier cities as populations there are seeing economic growth.

Chinese brands have smart TVs similar to Korean and Japanese brands with functions such as voice control and cloud computing, and they have price advantages over Japanese and Korean ones, making their TVs a popular choice for domestic consumers added sources.

Chinese brands are looking to become more competitive by putting more added value features in their products and are figuring out strategies for expanding sales abroad amongst Korean firms pushing their OLED technology and Japanese firms lowering prices for high-end LCD TVs.

Display Research, however, stated that China’s market will see a big shift in 2012 as past government subsidies for purchasing new energy efficient TVs have already expired, making China’s TV brands more reliant on what kind of competitive edge they can offer for consumers.

Foxconn may receive large-size TV orders from Vizio, say sources [DIGITIMES, May 7, 2012]

Foxconn Electronics is likely to also land large-size OEM TV orders from Vizio in addition to existing clients including Sharp and Suning Appliance after it took up a 46.5% stake in Sharp’s 10G LCD panel line, according to industry sources.

The inclusion of Vizio into the Sharp-Foxconn alliance is also expected to result in a reduction in shipments of 60-inch TV panels to Samsung Electronics, which has been counting on Sharp and in-house facilities for the supply of large-size panels, the sources indicated.

The possible shift of shipment policy at Sharp will force Samsung to focus on 65-inch products with the 65-inch panels coming from AU Optronics (AUO), Chimei Innolux (CMI) or even BOE Technology, the sources noted.

Foxconn is expected to see its shipments of OEM TVs reach 10 million units in 2012, including eight million units to Sony, 1.5 million units to Sharp and the remaining to Panasonic, Vizio and Suning, said the sources.

Foxconn’s increasing shipments of OEM TVs will also affect rival company Wistron, which is expected to see its OEM TV shipments slide to five million units in 2012 compared to eight million in 2011, the sources estimated.

End of Updates

Sharp Sells Stake to Hon Hai [Foxconn] [WSJDigitalNetwork YouTube channel, March 27, 2012]

Discussion with George Stahl, Dow Jones Newswires Managing Editor, and Michael J. Casey, Dow Jones Newswires Managing Editor

Sharp Establishes Strategic Global Partnership with Hon Hai Group [Sharp press release, March 27, 2012]

Sharp Corporation (hereinafter “Sharp”) entered into agreement today with Hon Hai group, the world’s leading EMS (electronic manufacturing service) company, to establish strategic global partnership to collaborate in various business fields, and to issue new shares to Hon Hai group through third-party allotment (hereinafter “the issuance of new shares through third-party allotment”).

The market surrounding electronics industry is becoming severe, with rapid price decline due to the development of digital technology and increasing competition in a global market. We believe the timely action is necessary to tackle these changes in the market.

Looking at the business environment, Hon Hai Precision Industry, the key company of Hon Hai group, saw Sharp’s LCD technology with high reputation, and decided to procure ultimately up to 50% of large-size LCD panels and LCD modules manufactured at the LCD panel plant in Sakai-city, Osaka, Japan. The LCD panel plant will be mutually managed by one company set by partner companies.

In addition, this partnership allows each company to establish a new business model, combining each company’s strength, to launch cost competitive component and products fit to market demand by utilizing Sharp’s potential for the development of one-of-a-kind components and products with Hon Hai group’s mounting technology and cost competitiveness.

Sharp plans to enhance this partnership by broadening the collaboration field, to allocate funds received from Hon Hai group by the issuance of new shares through third-party allotment, to the investment for the new technology introduction, to increase mid-and long- term profitability, and to strengthen competitive edge in the global market.

Overview of Strategic Partnership

1. Stabilize LCD panel plant operation in Sakai and strengthen cost competitiveness by purchasing power of Hon Hai Precision Industry

Hon Hai Precision Industry will procure ultimately up to 50% of LCD panels and LCD modules manufactured by SDP. Both companies will mutually take in part of the management through one company set by partner companies, which enables stable operation of the LCD panel plant in Sakai.

The two companies will take advantage of the economy of scale and material procurement in LCD panel and LCD TV fields, and will further enhance cost competitiveness in the global market.

*Share holding rate of SDP:
Current status:
Sharp:   Approx. 93%
Sony:   Approx. 7%
After signing the partnership:
Sharp:   Approx. 46.5%
Terry Gou and others including investment corporations:   Approx. 46.5%
Sony:   Approx. 7%

2. The issuance of new shares to Hon Hai group through third-party allotment

Sharp will issue new shares to Hon Hai group through third-party allotment (the number of new shares to be issued: 121,649,000 shares)

*The issuance of new shares through third-party allotment and share holding rate after the issuance of new shares:
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.:   4.06%
Foxconn Technology Co., Ltd.:   0.65%
Foxconn (FAR EAST) Limited:   2.53%
Q-Run Holdings Limited:   2.64%
[Total of 9.88%]

Hon Hai Goup's and other ownership in Sharp -- as agreed on 27-March-2012

Source information is from: Issuance of New Shares Through Third-Party Allotment Associated with Business Alliance and Partial Transfer of Shares in Subsidiaries [Sharp Corporation, March 27, 2012] as per the following essential details compiled from that:
Capital Increase Through Third-Party Allotment (no director from Hon Hai is scheduled to be dispatched as of today in association with the Capital and Business Alliance): with issue price of 550 yen per share
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd ([also known as Foxconn, http://www.foxconn.com/] represented by chairman: Terry Tai-Ming Gou)
– major shareholder and ratio of shareholding: Terry Tai-Ming Gou 12,02%
– 50,000,000 shares [27,500 million yen = US$ 332.0M]
Foxconn Technology Co., Ltd (represented by president: Lin, Don-Lang)
– [as per Businessweek: engages in the design sales and manufacturing of Mag/Al casing and mechanic parts primarily in Taiwan. It also involves in the design sales and manufacturing thermal modules for O/T, NB, server, and other 3C products. In addition, the company engages in the design sales and assembly of consumer electronic products.]
– major shareholder and ratio of shareholding: Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd 10,09%
– 8,029,000 shares [4,415,950 thousand yen = US$ 53.3M]
Foxconn (FAR EAST) Limited (represented by directors: Yu Huang, Chiu-Lian, Lee Jin-Ming)
– [as per Annual Report for 2010*: Investment holdings in Mainland China, Europe and North America and Hong Kong electronics manufacturers]
– major shareholder and ratio of shareholding: Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd 100%
– 31,143,000 shares [17,128,650 thousand yen = US$ 206.8M]
[*for Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd and subsidiaries consolidated]
Q-Run Holdings Limited (represented by director: Lee Han-Ming)
– [as per Businessweek: through its subsidiaries manufactures and distributes computer thermals and hardware parts]
– Foxconn Technology Co., Ltd 100%
– 32,477,000 shares [17,862,350 thousand yen = US$ 215.6M]
Total: 121,649,000 shares[66,906,950 thousand yen = US$ 807.7M]
Transfer of Shares in a Subsidiary: Sharp Display Products Corporation
Terry Gou (Terry Tai-Ming Gou):
– 1,320,000 shares providing a holding rate of 46.48%
(Sharp Corporation the same 46.48%, Sony Corporation 7.04%)
– Transfer price: 66,000 million yen [US$ 796.8M]
(as per the registered capital: 6,972 million yen [US$ 84.2M])

Sharp and Sony Amend Agreement Regarding Joint Venture to Produce and Sell Large-Sized LCD Panels and Modules [Sharp press release, March 28, 2012]

Sharp Corporation (“Sharp”) and Sony Corporation (“Sony”) announced that they have agreed to further amend the joint venture agreement originally executed by the parties in July 2009, as amended in April 2011, for the establishment and operation of Sharp Display Products Corporation (“SDP“), a joint venture to produce and sell large-sized LCD panels and modules.

Pursuant to the April 2011 amendment, Sharp and Sony discussed possible further contributions by Sony to SDP, but they have agreed that Sony will not make additional capital injections to SDP. The parties have also agreed to set a new time period, up to the end of September 2012, to permit study of the future direction of the joint venture, including with respect to the treatment of the shares that Sony has in SDP (7.04% of all issued shares) and possible purchases of large-sized LCD panels and modules. Under the March 2012 amendment, Sony may require that Sharp acquire all of Sony’s shares in SDP, even before the end of September 2012, upon the occurrence of certain events such as a transfer by Sharp to any third party of some or all of the shares that Sharp has in SDP.

On July 1, 2009, Sharp transferred its LCD panel plant in Sakai City, Osaka Prefecture, to SDP. On December 29, 2009, Sony invested 10 billion yen into SDP in exchange for new shares issued by SDP to Sony (representing 7.04% of the issued shares in SDP) and, as a result, SDP became a joint venture company of Sharp and Sony. Since then, Sharp and Sony have continued discussion about possible further contributions by Sony to SDP.

Nokia trying the first Lumia month in China with China Telecom exclusive

Update: Nokia Recruits Locals to Compete in China [Business Week, March 28, 2012]

“In China, the game is far from over,” said Derek Ling, who runs Tianji, China’s biggest professional networking site with 9 million users. “The iPhone is not nearly as dominant in China as it is in the U.S.” Apple has been “having difficulty negotiating the right terms with the biggest provider in China, which is China Mobile (941), so everything is up for grabs.”

Advantages of such a launch strategy for Nokia:

    1. China Telecom has been a top 3G performer so far (3G subscribers in millions):
      3G Subscribers in China - 3 operators -- Dec-10--Feb-12
    2. A one time opportunity to gauge high-end Lumia performance against the current market leader as: China Telecom to Offer iPhone 4S in China on March 9 [China Telecom press release, Feb 21, 2012]
      China Telecom today announced it will offer iPhone 4S to customers in China beginning Friday, March 9. iPhone 4S will be available starting at RMB 0 for the 16GB, 32GB and 64GB models on select contracts in China Telecom’s authorized stores and online at http://www.189.cn. Online reservations will be available beginning Friday, March 2.
      image
      image
      source: Annual Results 2011 – China Telecom Corporation Limited [March 20, 2012]
    3. As such it is also a very good fit for Nokia’s Lumia strategy is capitalizing on platform enhancement opportunities with location-based services, better photographic experience etc. [Jan 12, 2012]: … in 2011, China Telecom … accelerated development of innovative businesses, with substantial progress in the strategy of the “Three New Roles” (i.e. “a leader of intelligent pipeline”, “a provider of integrated platforms” and “a participant in content and application development”); …
      source: China Telecom 2012 Annual Work Conference Highlights [Dec 21, 2011]
      image
      source: Annual Results 2011 – China Telecom Corporation Limited [March 20, 2012]
    4. A very good fit for Exclusive applications and services [strategy of Nokia] for a uniquely local experience:Wang Xiaochu, Chairman of China Telecom and Stephen Elop, CEO of Nokia on stage with Nokia 800C
      China Telecom and Nokia have worked closely together
      to bring integrated China Telecom services that target young people including music, games, videos, and integrated reading apps right onto the Nokia 800C home screen.  To reach this target market, the Nokia 800C will be featured prominently in Tianyi FlyYoung shops, a distribution arm and new, youth-centered sub-brand of China Telecom.People purchasing Nokia Lumia  smartphones in China will have access to exclusive applicationssuch as magazines from Trends and special offers for free downloads of popular gaming titles such as Fruit Ninja and PVZ.- Trends, a provider of highly interactive fashion magazine applications, will launch Cosmopolitan first forNokia Lumia smartphones and provide people using a Nokia Lumia phone with free access to For Him Magazine (FHM), Harper’s Bazaar and Esquire magazines inMarketplace, opening today.
      – As an added incentive for  people using a Nokia Lumia smartphone in China, Nokia will soon offer 100,000 free downloads of the hit gaming titles Fruit Ninja and PVZ through the Nokia Collection in Marketplace.

      Nokia and Microsoft also announced the Be Top program, which is designed to encourage and support developers in creating great new applications on Windows Phone specifically for people in China.

      These exciting offers and the BeTop development program illustrate Nokia’s commitment to the local ecosystem of application developers and service providers. Through joint innovation with leading local providers, Nokia is able to offer Lumia users access to all major Internet services in China including Sina, SOHU, Tencent and Renren. When paired with the choice of nearly 20,000 apps available for download through Marketplace, people using a Nokia Lumia smartphone in China can create a truly personalized and locally relevant experience on their device.

Source: China Telecom and Nokia launch first CDMA Windows Phone in China [Nokia press release, March 28, 2012]

More information:
Nokia launches first CDMA Windows Phone in China [Windows Phone blog, March 28, 2012]
China says Ni Hao to the Nokia Lumia [Nokia Conversations, March 28, 2012]
Nokia seeks to retake China market share [Reuters, March 28, 2012]

Nokia Chief Executive Stephen Elop unveiled two models based on the Lumia 610 and Lumia 800 cellphones but designed for Chinese networks, which will go on sale initially through China Telecom, the nation’s third-largest carrier.

The Lumia 800C will be sold without a carrier contract for 3,599 yuan ($573) from April, Elop said. Pricing for the 610C, to launch in China in the second quarterand intended as an entry-level phone to bring younger users to Nokia Windows phones, will be announced later.

Nokia also plans to bring its 700, 800 and 900 models to the China market, and they will eventually run on all three of China’s mobile networks, including China Mobile and China Unicom, said Colin Giles, Nokia’s executive vice president for global sales.

He would not give a time frame for their introduction to the Chinese market, for which they are specifically designed. “We’ve invested heavily in China,” Giles told reporters. “We’re creating innovation in China for China, which a number of our competitors aren’t doing.”

Shares in Nokia rose 3.6 percent to 4.14 euros, boosted after Sweden’s Swedbank lifted its rating on the stock to “buy” from “neutral”.

Nokia has lost its No. 1 position in the Chinese mobile handset market to Samsung, with Samsung at 24.3 percent and Nokia 19.6 percent in the fourth quarter of last year, according to market researcher Gartner.

China’s Huawei Technologies and ZTE stood at 12.6 percent and 11.1 percent, respectively, with Apple a small but buzz-grabbing 7.5 percent.

Huawei Enterprise after its 1st year and the 2012 strategy

Huawei Enterprise at CeBIT 2012 – Press Conference – Geoff Johnson, Research VP, Gartner [HuaweiEnterprise YouTube channel, March 13, 2012]

Geoff Johnson, Research VP at Gartner, discusses Huawei Enterprise’s position in the market and our range of enterprise business solutions

Huawei Enterprise at CeBIT 2012 – Press Conference – David He discusses our first year [HuaweiEnterprise YouTube channel, March 13, 2012] THE VIDEO IS THERE, JUST CLICK

David He, President of Marketing, Huawei Enterprise, discusses our first year in business and our plans for the future.

Started with: Huawei Boosts Investment In European Enterprise Tech[TechWeekEurope, Sept 16, 2011]

Chinese networking and telecoms company Huawei has announced a programme of investment to kick-start its entry into the enterprise market in Western Europe.

Huawei first launched its Western European enterprise division in 2010, and has since built up a workforce of around 400 employees, spanning the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Switzerland and ‘Benelux’.  The division is headquartered in Amsterdam.

Although the company was unable to name an exact figure, it said the new investment would enable it to double its headcount in the region year-on-year, as well as to build a new sales channel structure in Europe.

“The European region is a key market for Huawei Enterprise,” said Mario Fan, President for Huawei Enterprise Business for Western Europe. “Since we first established our European presence a year ago, we have made tremendous progress. We will build on this strong start by placing an emphasis on developing partnerships with customers, integrators and resellers at all levels.”

Huawei is now commencing a regional tour of 18 cities in its Enterprise Business Roadshow, starting in Amsterdam and ending in Utrecht on 7 December. Customers and prospective partners can visit the company’s showtruck for demonstrations of its data centre and networking technologies, as well as its corporate communications solutions.

Huawei Showtruck Launch [HuaweiEnterprise, Sept 30, 2011]

Huawei Enterprise is proud to announce the start of the Huawei Showtruck tour. Over 12 weeks, visiting 18 cities the Showtruck aims to bring Huawei Enterprise solutions to you. Stop by to view live demonstrations of our innovative communications solutions and ask our experts questions. Some of the products we will be showcasing include our open IP network One Net, Data center and Cloud based applications, and One World and One Office telepresence systems amongst many others.

Huawei Enterprise rolls into Middle East [ITP.net, Jan 19, 2011] see also: follow-up on that [ITP.net, Aug 7, 2011] + another follow up [CommsMEA, March 26, 2012]: “to grow its enterprise business in the Middle East by between 80-90% in 2012 to reach revenues of up to $600 millionachieved revenues of about $320 million in 2011, with a year-on-year growth rate of about 85-90% … particularly strong growth in the Gulf and Iraq, with government projects and the oil and gas sector

Huawei has announced the official launch of its enterprise business unit in the Middle East.

The company is kicking off its regional enterprise business, which will focus on providing end-to-end ICT solutions to key regional vertical sectors, with a roadshow to take in UAE, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.

The company is already well established in the region through its telecoms operations, and already has several enterprise customers such as Saudi Aramco, Saudi Ministry of Health, and the new Maktoum Airport in Dubai, but the new unit will focus on provision of solutions to the enterprise segment.

Huawei will be focusing on government and semi-government entities in the region, particularly in energy and power sector, transportation, oil and gas, and SMART cities. The company’s enterprise offerings include expertise infrastructure solutions from data communications (includes security and firewalls, switches, routers, VPN, voice and video communications solutions including high-end unified communications), to transmission to help with integration industrial automation in manufacturing plants, to setting up large scale wireless broadband and WIMAX solutions.

Speaking at a launch event in Dubai, Mr Dongwu, general manager for the Middle East for Huawei Enterprise, commented: “We see convergence in the IT and communications technology, with this kind of convergence, enterprises need both kinds of technologies. As Huawei we have a solid background and experience in communications technologies over the past 20 years, and our IT experience of the past ten years, through business units like Huawei Software, puts us in a unique position that gives us very good opportunities to penetrate the market.

See also: Huawei unveils Enterprise Business unit [for Middle East] [Reseller Middle East, Jan 18, 2011]

Huawei Climbs ‘Food Chain’ in Cisco Enterprise Challenge [Bloomberg, May 9, 2011]

… “Cisco is clearly the leader in this domain, but we also believe changes are happening,” Leon He, president of solution sales at Huawei’s enterprise business unit, said in an interview in Shenzhen, China. “When those changes occur, the current market and customer needs will change.” …

“Enterprise is our core capability,” Cisco Chief Executive Officer John Chamberstold investors at a technology forum on April 7. “We’re an enterprise company. That’s where we started.”

The enterprise business and public sector contribute about 46 percent to Cisco’s sales, Chambers said. David McCulloch, a spokesman for Cisco, declined to comment.

“The market Huawei sees is huge,” Huawei’s He said. “If we digitize, we will bring a revolution. When the shift occurs from digital to smart networks, that will be another revolution.”

Huawei aims to double annual sales at its enterprise group to $4 billion this year, from $2 billion last year, He said. Within three to five years sales will more than triple again to between $15 and $20 billion, He said. Huawei’s Roese said the company is moving 10,000 employees into the new enterprise division, including 6,000 research and development staff. That’s about 9 percent of the company’s 110,000 staff worldwide.

The initiative is being led by William Xu Wenwei, one of four executive directors on the company’s 13-member board, according to its annual report released last month.

See also a follow-up on that [Bloomberg, Feb 29, 2012]:

Growth at Huawei Enterprise may be slower than originally anticipated, Xu said, adding that $15 billion in contract revenue by 2015 is a more realistictarget. Leon He, another Huawei executive, in May last year gave a sales projection of $15 billion to $20 billion for the division.

That more cautious outlook stems from a change in strategy where Huawei now works more through system integrators such as Spain’s Telefonica SA (TEF) to create solutions for specific industries.

“In the past, in the previous strategy there was more high-level integration so there was more conflict with our partners,” Xu said. “As a result our sales revenue might not be as high as in the past strategy, but we’ll have closer cooperation.”

Still, the enterprise business plans to increase its workforce to more than 20,000 people this yearfrom over 10,000 at the end of 2011, Xu said.

The enterprise unit is making about 40 percent of its sales in China, Xu said, adding that that ratio will probably remain steady through 2015.

More of the same kind:
Huawei targets corporate sector [FT, March 8, 2011]
Huawei enters the enterprise market [in Norway] – a game changer or just another player? [primesource.no, March 18, 2011]
Huawei Malaysia Forms Enterprise Division [Hardware Zone Malaysia, July 7, 2011]
(But partner driven entrance to Malaysia began on Feb 8, 2011: see the Huawei Enterprise Business [Feb 8, 2011] presentation delivered by HD Technology Sdn Bhd. (a distributor of storage products and solutions), since 51% of acquired by Vasseti Berhad owned by Vasseti (UK) plc controlled by rich entrepreneur Syed Mohd Yusof Bin Tun Syed Nasir (the owner of the Concorde Hotel chain in Malaysia), and an investment holding company focused on acquiring the majority of the supply chain of the telecommunications and information and communication technology industry.)
Huawei appoints new VP of Enterprise [in UK and Ireland] [mobile news, Sept, 2011]
Huawei to Launch HEAP [Huawei Enterprise Advantage Partner] Partner Program in Australia [ARNnet, Sept 16, 2011]
Huawei Launches Enterprise Business Unit in India [Indo-Asian News Service, Sept 28, 2011]
Huawei Launches Its U.S. Enterprise Business Through Channels [Huawei Enterprise press release, Oct 5, 2011]
Huawei Building Up Its Enterprise Muscle [Digital Life, Singapore, Nov 2, 2011]
Huawei Launches Partner Program in HK and Macau [telecomasia.net, Hong Kong, Nov 4, 2011]
Webcom Appointed as Huawei Reseller [in South Africa and sub-Saharan Africa] [IT-Online, Nov 11, 2011]
Huawei Builds Channel Red Army in Europe – a distribution deal with SDG to punt its enterprise kit to resellers in the UK, France and the Netherlands [The Register, Nov 24, 2011]
Huawei to Reach a Thousand Partners in Europe [Dealer World, Spain, Jan 1, 2012]
Huawei Hails Thailand as Regional Hub [for enterprise business in Southeast Asia] [Thai News Service, Nov 24, 2011]

2012 market expansion from Germany’s CeBIT to the whole western hemisphere: Huawei Germany Celebrates 10 Year Anniversary [HuaweiEnterprise YouTube channel, March 7, 2012]

Huawei Germany kicks off the year with a grand anniversary celebration of its 10 years of successful business operations in Europe and Chinese New Year with over 350 guests

Involving resources of Taiwan as well: Huawei’s Enterprise Market Expansion Attempt to Benefit Taiwan’s ICT Supply Chains [CENS, March 26, 2012]

Huawei Technologies Co., a world leading ICT supplier headquartered in mainland China, will place orders with Taiwan’s supply chains in a big way in line with its aggressive goal of boosting sales of its enterprise equipment operation to US$15-20 billion in 2015 from current US$3.9 billion.

The company would record higher outsourcing to Taiwan in 2012 than in 2011, when which it purchased NT$110 billion (US$3.6 billion at US$1:NT$30) worth of products from Taiwan. In 2010, Huawei contracted Taiwanese manufacturers to supply NT$99.5 billion (US$3.3 billion) of products.

To quickly gain more market share worldwide, Huawei has decided to increase contracts to Taiwan for ICT products, including servers, switchers, routers, mobile phones, network connectivity cards, tablet PCs and touch screens. The company’s global vice president for enterprise business operation, Jia Cholong, stressed that Taiwan is a strong logistics backup for his company’s aggressive global plan.

The company’s contract suppliers in Taiwan include Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd., Accton Technology Corp., Unizyx Holding Corp., Gemtek Technology Corp., Alpha Networks Inc., and Unimicron Technology Corp.

Jia emphasized that Huawei will team up with distribution channels of local markets worldwide to expand market pie in international enterprise ICT sector, instead of acting as a price killer.

He noted that the company’s enterprise ICT operation saw sales rise to US$3.9 billion in 2011 from US$2 billion in 2010 and US$100 million in 2009. The company aims at shooting the No.2 title in enterprise ICT market and No.3 spot in cloud-computing market in 2015.

The company’s enterprise ICT products include video conferencing equipment, data center, cloud solution, switching equipment, router, firewall, and servers.

In line with its aggressive market plan, the company will double its marketing staff to 20,000 worldwide by the end of this year. In Taiwan, it now has 200 marketing staffers and will open Huawei Certified Datacom Associate (HCDA), Huawei Certified Datacom Expert (HCDE) and Huawei Certified Datacom Profession (HCDP) centers to verify telecom equipment for it.

With major product expansion in Huawei Server line [Huawei Enterprise product catalogue, Feb 27, 2012]

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Huawei Enterprise at CeBIT 2012 – Press Conference – Johann Strauss on Technology and Intel [HuaweiEnterprise YouTube channel, March 13, 2012]

Johann Strauss, and guest spokesperson from Intel, discuss the latest technology and our partnership with Intel

See also:
Huawei Unveils Tecal V2 Servers with Intel® Xeon® E5-2600 Inside [Huawei Enterprise press release, March 20, 2012]

Huawei Showcases A Better Way for Enterprises in the ICT Era at CeBIT [Huawei Enterprise press release, March 5, 2012]

Huawei, a leading global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider, along with its partners, will be showcasing its comprehensive range of integrated ICT solutions at CeBIT, one of the largest technology trade shows. Addressing specific needs of enterprise customers across various industries, Huawei helps global organizations tap on opportunities presented by the changing trends in today’s ICT era.

Bringing to life its vision of “A Better Way” for enterprises, Huawei, along with 12 of its solution partners, will be showcasing its comprehensive portfolio of products and solutions at CeBIT.

“CeBIT is one of the most important trade shows globally and is a key platform for us to showcase how Huawei’s integrated ICT approach can help enterprises meet the challenges of tomorrow,” said, David He, President of Marketing, Huawei Enterprise. “We will also be making a series of major announcements regarding our channel partner program, as well as unveiling our latest line-up of products and solutions.”

At the exhibition booth, Huawei experts and consultants will be on-site to conduct demonstrations on how its innovations and capabilities in cloud computing, network solutions, and unified communication and collaboration can help enterprise organizations improve business operations and achieve competitiveness in today’s changing ICT landscape. Vertical solutions that address unique customer needs in their respective industries will also be showcased. Demonstrations will also be held in a custom-built Huawei Container Data Centre. Highlights of the products and solutions on display include:

Huawei @ MWC 2012: Industry Trends in Cloud Computing. Ron Raffensberger, Director of Cloud Computing Marketing Ron Raffensperger discusses Huawei’s approach to the latest trends in cloud computing, including consulting services, software as a service and ecosystem alliances.
Huawei Modular Data Center (IDS2000). Huawei talks about how their modular data center system provides Simple Deployment, Scalable Design, Energy Saving and Smart Management for their Modular Data Center solution for enterprises, anyone building data centers.

Cloud computing – Overview of Huawei’s cloud computing capabilities and related IT/IP products, as well as data centre security solutions, desktop cloud solution, media cloud solution, etc.

Huawei eSight Mobile, mobile/tablet app for Network Administrators. Huawei provides a new application on iPad/iPhone, soon Android, to let IT Administrators do some or all of their Network Management on thei mobile devices. Here’s Huawei’s presentation at CeBIT 2012 presenting their new system.

Enterprise ubiquitous broadband network – Introduction to Huawei’s network solution, as well as solutions for WAN connectivity, campus networks and enterprise branches; Huawei’s network management solution eSight will also be showcased.

Huawei eSpace Unified Communications. Huawei provides this system to connect teams of people that collaborate in enterprise, schools and other.

Unified communication & collaboration– Demonstration of Huawei’s high-definition telepresence solution, Huawei’s eSpace Unified Communications Solutions, and eSpace Cloud Contact Center, etc.

Industry solutions– Comprehensive overview of vertical-specific solutions including eGovernment and public services, Virtual Teller Machines (VTM) for the finance industry, and Intelligent Transportation System (ITS), etc.

In addition to showcasing its products and solutions, Huawei will conduct a series of open speeches and technical symposiums at its booth throughout the week-long CeBIT event. Ranging from 15 minutes to 50 minutes, these sessions allow industry professionals to better understand how Huawei’s customer-centric innovations can be applied to their business. A full schedule of open speeches and technical symposiums is available at http://www.huawei.com/minisite/cebit2012/index.html.

Huawei will also organize a series of events specially for customers and channel partners on March 7. At the ICT Transformation and Innovation Forum, Huawei customers will hear from senior Huawei executives and industry experts on the outlook for the industry. Channel partners will learn more about Huawei’s outlook and direction for the year at the Huawei Channel Conference.

On March 8 and 9, various Huawei executives will speak at CeBIT-organized events, including Broadband World Forum, CeBIT Lab Talk. At Broadband World Forum, Huawei executives will present on Omnipresent Wireless Broadband, as well as its vision and strategies for Enterprise Network in the Era of Cloud and Internet of Things (IoT). Huawei will also address industry professionals at CeBIT Lab Talks on topics including, green intelligent cities, the cloud era, and enhancing public-private clouds by optimizing IT infrastructure.

Huawei’s booth is located at Hall 13, Booth C23 and its custom-built Container Data Centre is located at the open-air sites outside Halls 12 and 13. CeBIT is held from March 6 to 10, 2012, in Hanover, Germany. For more information on Huawei’s participation and events, please visithttp://www.huawei.com/minisite/cebit2012/index.html.

Huawei’s Booth at CeBIT2012

About Huawei Enterprise Business Group

Huawei Enterprise Business Group (“Huawei Enterprise“) is one of Huawei’s three business groups (BGs) [the other two are Devices and Telecoms Infrastructure]. Leveraged by its strong R&D capabilities and comprehensive technical expertise, Huawei Enterprise provides wide ranging and highly efficient ICT solutions and services. Together with partners, Huawei Enterprise offers solutions for vertical industry and enterprise customers globally including government and public sectors, transportation, power grids, energy, and finance, as well as commercial enterprises in many fields. These innovative and leading solutions cover network infrastructure, UC&C, cloud computing & data center, and industry application solutions.

For more information, please visit http://enterprise.huawei.com

Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/huaweiENT

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/HuaweiEnterprise

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/groups/Huawei-Enterprise-4070523?home=&gid=4070523

CeBIT 2012 – Keynote – John Roese – The ICT Approach to a Smarter Enterprise [HuaweiEnterprise YouTube channel, March 12, 2012]

John Roese – Senior Vice President and GM North American R&D at Huawei Keynote speech on The ICT Approach to a Smarter Enterprise

Huawei Outlines A Better Way to Accelerate the Enterprise Evolution [Huawei Enterprise press release, March 6, 2012]

Huawei, a leading global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider, along with its partners, today showcased a wide range of integrated ICT solutions that meet the specific needs of different industries, demonstrating how Huawei’s capabilities are able to help global organizations tap on opportunities presented by the changing trends in today’s ICT era at CeBIT, one of the largest technology trade shows.

At the keynote presentation on the first day of CeBIT, John Roese, Senior Vice President of Huawei’s North America R&D, shared with over 400 enterprise CIOs and IT experts the new reality for enterprises brought about by the “consumerization of IT”, and the paradigm shift required to address it. Compared to the continuous innovations in the device and internet industries which have resulted in the rapid growth and development of the consumer market, the enterprise technology market has lagged behind in innovation.

Enterprises need to respond to new challenges brought about by the “consumerization of IT”, and can no longer ignore new technologies that are being introduced into the enterprise space. With the convergence of communications, enterprise and consumer technologies, enterprise organizations need to fully leverage innovative ICT technologies to better address challenges and manage their business so as to enhance competitiveness.

“Huawei’s comprehensive capabilities and experience in communications technology, enterprise and consumer industries places us in a unique position to help our enterprise customers succeed in today’s era of ICT convergence. Based on customer-centric innovations, Huawei’s solutions help enterprise customers accelerate the shift in the evolution and development of ICT,” said Roese.

John Roese, Senior VP of Huawei’s North America R&D, Delivering a Keynote Speech On Day One of CeBIT

Bringing to life its vision of “A Better Way” for enterprises, Huawei, along with 12 of its solution partners, will be showcasing its comprehensive portfolio of integrated ICT products and solutions at CeBIT. This includes capabilities in cloud computing, data centers, network solutions, and unified communications and collaboration that help enterprise organizations improve business operations and achieve competitiveness in today’s changing ICT landscape. Additionally, sector-specific ICT solutions will also be showcased for industries including government and public sector, electricity, transportation, finance, energy and large enterprises. Huawei’s container data centre will also be situated outside the Huawei exhibition hall to showcase mobile data center capabilities.

NEW TABLETS PREMIERE AT HANNOVER CeBIT [HuaweiEnterprise YouTube channel, March 12, 2012]

CCTV reporting and interviewing John Roese – Senior Vice President and GM North American R&D

Huge sector-specific marketing efforts already started (excerpts only if any):

Only Energy so far: they are definitely piloting the return effects from such an approach
Huawei to Appear at World Top Gas Conference In 2012 [Huawei Enterprise press release, Jan 18, 2012]
Huawei Participates In 2012 Summits of Energy Industry [Huawei Enterprise press release, Jan 18, 2012]
Huawei Assisted PetroChina To Organize 2011 Annual Convention [Huawei Enterprise press release, Jan 17, 2012]
Accelerating Energy Business Development, Huawei Attracts Visitors From Home and Abroad [Huawei Enterprise press release, Jan 17, 2012]
Huawei to Attend 2012 Offshore Technology Conference [Huawei Enterprise press release, Jan 16, 2012]
Huawei Makes a Debut in the 20th World Petroleum Congress [Dec 4, 2011, Doha, Quatar] [Huawei Enterprise press release, Jan 15, 2012]
Huawei Eyeing Opportunities with Smart Energy Technology [Huawei Enterprise press release, Oct 24, 2011]
Huawei Accelerates Enterprise Informationization with Digital Energy Solution [Huawei Enterprise press release, March 20, 2012]

Huawei, a leading global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider, today announced the launch of its digital energy solution at the 12th China International Petroleum & Petrochemical Technology and Equipment Exhibition (“CIPPE”), the world’s largest petroleum exhibition. At the exhibition, Huawei’s Enterprise Business Group will be showcasing how its ICT solutions provide “A Better Way” to meet the specific needs of energy enterprises to enhance productivity and accelerate informationization.

Hank Stokbroekx, Deputy of Enterprise Services, Huawei Enterprise, announces Global Programs for Channel Partners and ICT Training and Certification [HuaweiEnterprise YouTube channel, March 13, 2012]

Huawei Enterprise Launches Global Programs for Channel Partners and ICT Training and Certification [Huawei Enterprise press release, March 7, 2012]

Huawei, a leading global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider, today officially launched its channel partner program, aimed at driving growth for its Enterprise business, as well as the industry’s most comprehensive ICT training and certification program.

“We are dedicated to providing highly efficient ICT solutions and services to our customers, and an important component of our plan is to expand our reach by building a healthy channel partner ecosystem,” said William Xu, Senior President of Huawei and CEO of Huawei Enterprise Business Group. “Together with our channel partners, we intend to lead the industry with a dual devotion to customer-centric innovation and service, while tapping in to Huawei’s vast experience to help enterprise customers navigate the challenges and opportunities in today’s ICT era.”

“We laid the foundation for Huawei Enterprise in 2011 by introducing our value proposition that Huawei Enterprise represents ‘A Better Way’ to do business,” said David He, President of Marketing, Huawei Enterprise. This credo guides everything we do at Huawei Enterprise—from our commitment to our customers, partners, and the entire industry to our devotion to innovation through extensive investments in R&D.”

Supporting the long-term development of the Enterprise business, Huawei Enterprise’s latest channel strategy is designed to broaden its roster of partners by offering a comprehensive product portfolio, cutting edge R&D, and strong long-term expansion opportunities.

Huawei will be building the channel partner ecosystem by recruiting the following partners:

Tier-1 Resellers: Distributors and value-added partners (VAPs) are partners who purchase products directly from Huawei and receive support directly.

Tier-2 Resellers: Platinum, gold and silver partners, and recognized partners add market capabilities and influence in their specific regional/industry markets.

“The channel is a key component to Huawei Enterprise’s business growth strategy, and we are approaching partners with a Win-Win model, creating business opportunities for our partners while maximizing value for end customers,” said Robert Yang, President of Channel Sales Department, Huawei Enterprise. “As we grow our business, our broad and comprehensive product portfolio, backed by our extensive R&D expertise, provides our partners with huge opportunities for business growth.”

Industry’s most comprehensive ICT training and certification program

In parallel with its development in the Enterprise market, Huawei has launched the industry’s most comprehensive ICT training and certification program. The Huawei Enterprise Training and Certification Program draws on Huawei’s more than 20 years of experience in developing ICT talent in more than 160 countries around the world. It is the only program of its kind that covers all ICT technical fields, and Huawei Enterprise has designed and positioned the program so that it will eventually become the leading ICT technical qualification.

Huawei Enterprise has quickly assumed a leadership position in the ICT industry, and this effort will help establish training and certification standards for the entire industry to facilitate its growth in the future. The company aims to certify 300,000 professionals by 2015. Huawei will also be recruiting partners to become Huawei Authorized Learning Partners (HALP).

In 2011, Huawei Enterprise’s global sales contracts totaled US$3.8 billion, up from US$2 billion in 2010. Established in 2011, Huawei Enterprise has capitalized on Huawei’s overall strength as one of the world’s leading ICT companies in IP and mobile and fixed networks with an international presence in over 140 countries and longstanding investments in R&D, for its continued growth in the market.

Huawei Enterprise at CeBIT 2012 – Press Conference – Andreas Neuherz Discusses New Products [HuaweiEnterprise YouTube channel, March 12, 2012]

Huawei Enterprise Bolsters Comprehensive Portfolio with New Enterprise Network and Server Products [Huawei Enterprise press release, March 7, 2012]

Switches, access routers, WLAN products and servers combine customer-centric innovation with latest ICT technologies

Huawei, a leading global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider, today announced the launch of multiple enterprise products at CeBIT 2012, including S9700 series high-end switches (3 models), S5700-LI series mid-range switches (8 models), AR200/150 series enterprise access routers (7 models), WLAN products (7 models of ACs and APs), Open Service Platform (OSP) forum and TecalTM V2 servers (6 models) that are supported by Intel® Xeon® E5 processors. Based on its customer-centric approach to innovation, these new products demonstrate Huawei’s continual efforts to meet the ever-changing ICT needs of global enterprises, providing customers with a better way to do business.

Customer-centric innovation is at the core of everything we do at Huawei Enterprise,” said David He, President of Marketing, Huawei Enterprise. “When it comes to designing hardware solutions, we approach innovation from the viewpoint of our customers, examining what their specific needs are in terms of features and operability. Our new WLAN products, switches, routers and servers embody this focus on the customer and we are confident that our enhanced product portfolio will set new industry standards.”

Switches, access routers and WLAN products that promote the evolution of “10G Cloud Campus”, “Enterprise Branches” and “Enterprise Mobility”

The S9700/S5700-LI series switches supplement Huawei’s current campus network product family. Among these new products, the S9700 provides a 320 Gbps per slot switching capacity and the highest 10GE/40GE port density in the industry to cope with the emerging high-definition video services and fast-developing “10G cloud campus”. In addition, the S5700-LI follows an energy-conservation design principle, adopting an innovative port sleeping, hibernate and awakening technology to reduce the total power consumption by over 40%.

Here’s Huawei’s new advanced router for enterprise networks. This is the type of router retail stores, mid-sized companies etc can buy.

WiFi technology is promoting the evolution of enterprise networks to integrated wired/wireless networks, and enterprises have an urgent need for a unified network management platform to manage wired, wireless, and IT devices. Huawei eSight enterprise network management software will help enterprises manage and maintain their network devices on a unified basis and improve network service quality. The 7 models of AR200/150 enterprise access routers offer various industry-leading wireless network solutions for customers to choose from. The AR G3 routers, based on industry-leading third generation architecture, are supported by multi-core CPUs and non-blocking switching network and integrate voice, data, and security services on one device. This all-in-one design extends cloud-based services to enterprise branch networks, while reducing customer’s investment by 30%. In addition, the AR G3 routers are based on the Open Service Platform (OSP), allowing partners and end customers to customize based on their needs and requirements.

Mobile office technology is changing how people work. The explosive increase in WiFi-supported smartphones, tablet computers, and laptops, and the increase in WiFi hotspots all contribute an ever-growing demand for mobile access. However, the current radio technology hinders development of mobile office. When an AP has a certain number of users connected, the bandwidth allocated to each user decreases dramatically. The WLAN products Huawei launched today are the only WLAN devices that provide fine-grained QoS control based on user groups. This mechanism provides differentiated services for each WiFi user. Enterprises and WiFi service providers can use flexible QoS policies to guarantee QoS for high-priority users.

These new products launched today provide more flexible choices for enterprises to keep pace with the fast development of cloud computing, WiFi, and smart terminal technologies in the “10G cloud campus” and “enterprise mobility” era.

Liu Shaowei, President of Huawei Enterprise network product line, said: “Huawei will continuously increase investment in the enterprise network market and devote our efforts to providing competitive products and solutions though constant innovation.”

Intel® Xeon® E5 Processor Powered TecalTM V2 Servers

Huawei’s new TecalTM V2 servers include rack mount server RH2288 V2, high-performance blade server BH622 V2 (for E6000), XH620 V2 and XH621 V2 nodes (for high-density datacenter server X6000), DH620 V2 and DH621 V2 nodes (for green and power efficient cabinet server X8000), all of which focus on applications for data centers and enterprises. These servers use the newest Intel® Xeon® E5 CPUs. These servers bring better performance, larger storage capacity and better virtualization usage, which will help internet and enterprise customers to accelerate their applications, and will also greatly increase server efficiency. Huawei helps customers to accelerate applications such as virtualization, database and big data application by providing hardware and software acceleration solutions. With an overall-considered system level design and well chosen components for power consumption control, they will help customers to achieve commercial success.

Huawei servers achieved more than 30 world records in SPEC (Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation) tests due to its continuous innovations. By adhering to the concepts of green and energy-savings, Huawei TecalTM servers received an ROHS certificate. Through the highly efficient use of raw materials, TecalTM servers achieved compliance for environmental protection across its manufacturing, product usage and treatment processes. By leveraging its power saving expertise, Huawei’s servers are able to save 5% to 10% of energy compared to similar products on the market, which helps significantly reduce a customer’s operation expenses.

“TecalTM servers have witnessed outstanding growth in the past three years. With a wide range of products including rack servers, blade servers, high density and scalability data center servers, Huawei servers are used by top ISPs and other well-known enterprises all over the world. We have also been continuously developing and launching competitive products and solutions to accelerate applications by innovation,” said Chen Shijun, General Manager of Huawei Server Product & Storage Domain.

Huawei Aggressive as Hell in Chasing New Partners [CRN (Connecting The Australian Channel), March 9, 2012]

Huawei this week confirmed more information about its expanding global enterprise channel as it seeks to burrow further into territory dominated by Cisco, HP and other vendors with monster worldwide channel programs.

The broad channel push comes on the heels of a US channel program Huawei launched last year. The global Enterprise Business Group also was formed in 2011 following a restructuring of Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., the Shenzhen, China-based parent company.

Huawei executives told CRN at the time the company’s goal is to do 100 percent of enterprise sales in the US through channel partners and that “phase one” of the program includes Huawei’s Ethernet switches, routers and video telepresence products made available through US-based solution providers. In recent months, Huawei also has continued to recruit Western-based channel management talent, including former 3Com and HP executive Alex Dobson, now Huawei’s vice president of sales, U.S. Enterprise Group.

Now comes the global program, which Huawei unveiled this week at the CeBIT conference in Germany and which includes several program levels.

Tier-1 Resellers are Huawei distributors and VARs that purchase products directly from Huawei and receive support from Huawei.

Tier-2 Resellers, the group in which Huawei includes its Silver, Gold and Platinum-level partners, add market capabilities and are described by Huawei as “influential” in their specific regions and industry segments.

Huawei also is adding a training and certification specific to information and communications technology (ICT), through which it hopes to certify 300,000 professionals by 2015. It also plans to recruit partners to become Huawei Authorised Learning Partners.

William Xu, senior vice president of Huawei and CEO of Huawei Enterprise Business Group, said that a healthy partner ecosystem is a high priority for Huawei’s international expansion.

“Together with our channel partners, we intend to lead the industry with a dual devotion to customer-centric innovation and service, while tapping into Huawei’s vast experience to help enterprise customers navigate the challenges and opportunities in today’s ICT era,” Xu said in a statement.

According to Huawei Enterprise, it did $US3.8 billion ($A3.5 billion) in sales contracts in 2011, up from $2 billion in 2010. Industry sources peg Huawei’s global revenue at about $35 billion.

Several US-based solution providers contacted by CRN said they’d been approached by Huawei and were at least intrigued by the vendor.

“Say this for them: They’re aggressive as hell,” said the CEO of a longtime West Coast-based networking solution provider, who asked that his name not be used because his team is currently discussing the Huawei option. “It’s a good product and it’s priced reasonably, and it seems like they’re in this for the long haul. We’re going to look at the program pretty closely.”

Huawei has sought a stronger global enterprise presence for years but has seen growth stymied due to continued concerns over its alleged ties to the Chinese military – ties that Huawei has continued to deny.

The company has continued to broaden its enterprise product portfolio all the while. At CeBIT this week, it unveiled three high-end S9700 switches, eight S5700-LI midrange switches, seven AR200/150 enterprise access routers, seven WLAN access points, and six Tecal V2 servers supported by Intel Xeon E5 processors.

Huawei Launches Its U.S. Enterprise Business Through Channels [Huawei Enterprise press release, Oct 5, 2011]

Huawei, a leading global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider, today announced the formal launch of its Enterprise Business group in the United States. Huawei Enterprise, one of the three main business groups including Devices, and Telecoms Infrastructure, is well positioned to help fuel future growth – internationally and in the U.S. market.

Huawei’s enterprise business will deliver its broad product portfolio and solutions to channel partners (VARs, distributors, system integrators and carriers as a channels). Through our partners, Huawei is addressing the broader enterprise market, while Huawei and its channel partners will also focus on vertical segments. Solutions will include campus networks, branch access, IP backbone, data center and video conferencing.

“Huawei is uniquely positioned to combine our growing device expertise and market presence with our traditional telecommunications infrastructure products and services solutions with emerging leadership in open-application-based cloud computing and mass storage solutions”, said Karen Yu, President of Huawei’s Enterprise business in the U.S. “Success in our Enterprise business will focus on nurturing an open, interoperable and partner-based ecosystem to ensure long-term and maximum value for our channel partners and their enterprise customers.”

Three key products are the focus of the initial launch of the U.S. enterprise business: next-generation teleconferencing, environmentally-friendly switches and enterprise-class routers.

“As we transition towards the next phase of “consumerization of IT” to deliver enterprise-grade networking and communication solutions, it’s imperative that vendors develop expertise in mobility, cloud, video and unified communications, and other intelligent network infrastructures in addition to traditional data and voice networking capabilities”, said Rohit Mehra, Director, Enterprise Communications Infrastructure, IDC.

Huawei Channel Partner’s will reap the benefits of being united with a leading global technology provider who is truly committed to our channel partners’ long-term growth, and who has a strong local platform to support the business.

Please visit us at Booth #517 for more information about Huawei’s Enterprise Business Group, speak with our channel team and see demonstrations of the products that are part of the U.S. launch.

Nokia’s strategy for “the next billion” based on software and web optimization with super low-cost 2.5/2.75G SoCs

Preliminary reading: Smarterphone end-to-end software solution for “the next billion” Nokia users [Jan 9-11, 2012]

With today’s news that Nokia reportedly to release 2.5G, 2.75G chip orders to Taiwan firms [Feb 14, 2012] (see below among the SoC-related set of information) we have all the details of Nokia’s strategy for “the next billion”. Below you can find all of that according to the title of this collection post.

Update Nokia makes internet access faster and easier with new browser for Series 40 devices [Nokia press release, April 23, 2012]

– Nokia Browser 2.0 delivers enhanced speeds and a new user interface for a faster, better way to explore the web
– Powered by cloud-based servers, it delivers accelerated browsing and reduces data consumption by up to 90%, without compromising the internet experience
– Web apps from the expanding catalog are easier than ever to explore and install right in the browser

Espoo, Finland – Nokia has today announced the availability of Nokia Browser 2.0, a major update dedicated to Nokia Series 40 devices. The new version reduces data consumption by up to 90%, meaning that consumers can enjoy faster and cheaper internet access. Web sites load up to three times faster in comparison to devices without cloud-accelerated browsing and consumers will also benefit from a number of other enhanced capabilities.

From the first look, consumers are easily able to discover new web content and enjoy one-click access to top, local sites via the Nokia Browser’s inviting and intuitive start page. We have optimized the browser to enable users to easily stay connected with friends and family at the touch of a button as well as to share files and links across social networks. The new and improved Download Manager helps consumers to manage external content easily, saving music, video or pictures on a memory card, while surfing the internet.

The browser includes a revamped, modern user experience that makes it simple to find, install and use interesting web apps that offer a richer, more desktop-like internet experience. Launched in mid-2011, the Nokia Browser is the first browser of its kind to support web apps, and now boasts a catalogue of more than 10,000 of the latest apps. Several publishers have experienced over a million downloads in a matter of months, demonstrating strong consumer demand.

With this update, developers will find new monetization capabilities, more extensive user interface options for their web apps and productivity improvements for Nokia Web Tools so they can continue delivering engaging, connected experiences to the ‘Next Billion’ consumers.

The update supports all forms of Series 40: Touch, QWERTY and Non-Touch, including the Nokia Asha range, as well as popular devices such as the Nokia C3-00, Nokia C2-03 and Nokia X3-02. The update will be pre-loaded on some current and all future Nokia Series 40 devices, while for existing users the update arrives as a free, optional over-the-air download. New users can download it from the Nokia Store. The browser is available in 87 languages in over 200 countries and territories.

Nokia Browser 2.0 makes use of cloud-based servers which adapt standard web pages so that they perform better on Nokia Series 40 devices. Since web pages are compressed and cached in the cloud, end users can access web sites in a manner which is faster and requires significantly less data to be sent over their mobile network. For pay-per-use contracts this will result in more cost-effective browsing, while users on an operator data plan will be able to do more web surfing without exceeding their monthly usage limits.

“With our new version, we’ve created a newer, faster, better browsing experience. As many consumers around the world will experience the internet for the first time through a mobile phone, this is a great step towards our goal to connect the ‘Next Billion’,” explains Dieter May, senior vice president of mobile phones services, Nokia.

New in the Nokia Browser 2.0

1. Faster browsing with speed improvements throughout the experience.
2. Easier access to new and popular Web apps to enable a richer and more engaging internet experience.
3. New, intuitive user interface offers one click access to search, most popular content and most valuable features.
4. Media handling enhancements provide an easier way to enjoy video, audio and images. Users can download in background mode while continuing to browse the web or queue downloads for later when performance or rates are better.  Downloads can be saved to memory cards or phone memory for later offline viewing or listening.
5. One-click share on Social Networks by remembering Facebook and/or Twitter login to easily share any page URL and comments from your browser.

Developers can find out more about how the updated browser will enable them to build rich standards-based web apps at: http://www.developer.nokia.com/Develop/Series_40/Series_40_web_apps/.
Consumers can download the Nokia Browser 2.0 at: http://store.nokia.com/content/51924

Update from Nokia’s CEO Discusses Q1 2012 Results – Earnings Call Transcript [Seeking Alpha, April 19, 2012]

… In the area of Mobile Phones, we continue to renew our Series 40 portfolio. For example, we recognized the need for dual SIM and delivered 8 dual SIM devices over the past year. We delivered consumers more aspirational designs and experiences through 7 new Asha products. The Net Promoter Scores for some Asha devices are the highest we’ve had for Mobile Phones products.

We acquired Smarterphone, a Norwegian company that brings new user interface technology and expertise to Nokia. We’ve increased download rates from feature phones to more than 4 million a day by improving store access and payment schemes and adding new apps like Whatsapp, Foursquare and EA.

We released a new version of Nokia Life, which delivers education, health, agriculture and entertainment services via SMS. And we delivered a new proxy browser, and we’re now bringing the browser and web apps down to super low-end devices. However, as we highlighted last week, there are still areas where our future phone portfolio is at a competitive disadvantage. We plan to address some of these issues in Q2.

That being said, the structural shift from feature phones towards low-priced smartphones is a challenge. Our increased investments in Mobile Phones R&D are intended to address these challenges. …

From Q&A part of that:

… we’ve been taking some very deliberate steps to not only pick up the pace, but to make it easier to accelerate the pace around the development in Series 40. I mentioned as one example, the acquisition of Smarterphone in this space to give us more flexibility and speed as it relates to the user interface elements, for example, of that platform. So this is — it’s a good example of something where, from a code and engineering perspective, we’re paying off a bit of a debt and having to catch up and accelerate. But you’re seeing the progress being made. But still in the near term, it causes us some problems, which is what gives me some confidence that we can continue to catch up and address those challenges. It’s just that the competition is ahead of us in a couple of spots, and we’ve got to nail that. …

Update: Relevant excerpts from the Nokia 2011 fiscal year report [March 8, 2012]

Market overview

With respect to conventional mobile devices, it is still commonplace for the market to be characterized in terms of feature phones – also sometimes called mobile phones – and smartphones. The distinction between these two classes of mobile products is typically rooted in their differing capabilities in terms of software and hardware, the opportunities they provide for third-party application development, the richness of the experience they offer and the volume of data they process. Historically, feature phones have been primarily used for calling and text messaging, while smartphones – with the aid of their more capable operating systems and greater computing power – have provided opportunities to access the Internet, navigate, record high-definition video, take high-resolution photographs, share media, play video games and more. Today, however, the distinction between these two classes of products is blurring. Increasingly, basic feature phone models, supported by innovations in both hardware and software, are also providing people with the opportunity to access the Internet and applications and, on the whole, offering them a more smartphone-like experience.

Whether smartphones or feature phones, mobile devices geared for Internet access and their accompanying Internet data plans are also becoming increasingly affordable and, consequently, they are becoming attractive to a broader range of consumer groups and geographic markets. A notable recent development has been the increased affordability of devices based on the Android platform, which has enabled some vendors to offer smartphones for below EUR 100, excluding taxes and subsidies, and thus address a portion of the market which has been dominated by more basic feature phone offerings. While developed and controlled by Google, Android is made available to others free of charge and a significant part of the source code is available as open source software, which has made entry and expansion in the smartphone market easier for a number of hardware manufacturers which have chosen to join Android’s ecosystem. Users of Android-based devices can access and download applications from the Android Market application store run by Google, so many companies deploying Android have focused their software development efforts around a few elements of the user interface they have the ability to shape as well as focused on exploring new hardware form factors, such as tablets, as they seek to differentiate their offering from that of their competitors also using Android, as well as that of competitors using alternative operating systems, including Nokia. However, in general, we believe product differentiation for Android-based products is challenging, leading to increased commoditization of those devices. We also believe that there is increasing fragmentation in the Android ecosystem, meaning that increasing custom versions of the software could weaken interoperability of applications within that ecosystem.

In the feature phone market, other ecosystems have emerged, including that based around Nokia’s own Series 40 feature phone operating system. A growing number of developers are writing Java-based applications for Series 40 which, together with applications and content for Nokia’s Symbian and MeeGo devices, are available through Nokia Store. Another ecosystem is that based around mobile solutions chipsets from low-cost reference design chipset manufacturers which have enabled the very rapid and low-cost production of feature phones by numerous manufacturers in China and India, which are gaining significant market share in emerging markets, as well as bringing some locally relevant innovations to market.

Strategy

Mobile Phones

In Mobile Phones, we have renewed our strategy to focus on capturing volume and value growth by leveraging our innovation and strength in growth markets to provide people with an affordable Internet experience on their mobile device – in many cases, their first ever Internet experience with any computing device. Almost 90% of the world’s population lives within range of a mobile signal, yet there are around three billion people who do not own a mobile device. Of those who do own a mobile device, fewer than half use it to access the Internet for a number of reasons ranging from personal choice and affordability to the lack of an available Internet connection. We recognize that there is a significant opportunity to bring people everywhere affordable mobile products which enable simple and efficient web browsing, as well as give access to maps and other applications and innovations.

While the broader mobile devices market has often been characterized in terms of smartphones and feature phones, today, however, the distinction between these two classes of products is blurring. Supported by technological and design innovations, Nokia’s portfolio of feature phones has over time become smarter to the extent that today’s feature phone models are increasingly smartphone-like in the functionality and experiences they provide. In the fourth quarter of 2011, we launched the Asha range of Nokia feature phones, which offers access to the Internet, integrated social networking, messaging and access to applications from Nokia Store.

Mobile Phones has dedicated research and development teams addressing our short to medium-term needs in product and services development. During 2011, we made changes to our research and development operations for feature phones to reflect and support our new strategy, including ensuring that each research and development site has a clear focus and that there is greater co-location of our teams. The major Mobile Phones research and development sites for our feature phones are in Beijing in China, Oulu in Finland, and Ulm in Germany.

….

Competition

…  some competitors’ offerings based on Android are available for purchase by consumers for below EUR 100, excluding taxes and subsidies, and thus address a portion of the market which has been traditionally dominated by feature phone offerings, including those offered by Nokia. Accordingly, lower-priced smartphones are increasingly reducing the addressable market and lowering the price points for feature phone

In general, we believe product differentiation with Android is more challenging, leading to increased commoditization of these devices and the resulting downward pressure on pricing.  …

We also face intense competition in feature phones where a different type of ecosystem from that of smartphones is emerging involving very low-cost components and manufacturing processes, with speed to market and attractive pricing being critical success factors. In particular, the availability of complete mobile solutions chipsets from low-cost reference design chipset manufacturers has lowered the barriers of market entry and enabled the very rapid and low-cost production of feature phones by numerous manufacturers in China and India, which are gaining significant market share in emerging markets, as well as bringing some locally relevant innovations to market. Such manufacturers have also demonstrated that they have significantly lower gross margin expectations than we do.

We also face competition from vendors of unlicensed and counterfeit products with manufacturing facilities primarily centered around certain locations in Asia and other emerging markets which produce inexpensive devices with sometimes low quality and limited after-sales services that take advantage of commercially-available free software and other free or low-cost components, software and content. In addition, we compete with non-branded feature phone manufacturers, including mobile network operators, which offer mobile devices under their own brand, as well as providers of specific hardware and software layers within products and services at the level of those layers rather than solely at the level of complete products and services and their combinations. In the future, we may face competition from established Internet companies seeking to offer smartphones under their own brand.

Principal Factors & Trends Affecting our Results of Operations

Devices & Service

Increased Pervasiveness of Smartphones and Smartphone-like Experiences Across the Price Spectrum

During the past year, we saw the increasing availability of more affordable smartphones, particularly Android-based smartphones, connected devices and related services which were able to reach lower price points contributing to a decline in the average selling prices of smartphones in our industry.

This trend affects us in two ways. First, it puts pressure on the price of our smartphones and potentially our profitability, as we need to price our smartphones competitively. We currently partially address this with our Symbian device offering in specific regions and distribution channels, and we plan to introduce and bring to markets new and more affordable Nokia products with Windows Phone in 2012, such as the Nokia Lumia 610 announced in February 2012. Second, lower-priced smartphones put pressure on our higher-end feature phone offering from our Mobile Phones unit. We are addressing this with our planned introductions in 2012 of smarter, competitively priced feature phones with more modern user experiences, including software, services and application experiences. In support of our Mobile Phones business, we also plan to drive third party innovation through working with our partners to engage in building strong, local ecosystems.

There’s something about Mary… [Conversations by Nokia, Jan 3, 2012]

Mary McDowell has what might be quaintly called Midwestern values. That’s usually a mixture of what people like most about Americans, including friendliness, honesty, hard work – and not getting too big for your britches.

As Nokia’s Executive Vice President in charge of Mobile Phones she’s been responsible for transforming a core division of the company into a remarkable success story, and leading her team through some tough discussions and decisions:

“One of the tests of a leader is whether you can give enough space to give smart people to be creative and to drive things – and not have it be all about yourself.

I like to have diverse teams with different mindsets, and I like to have robust and challenging conversations because that’s how you get to the heart of issues.”

Last year, while media attention focused on the launch of the new Nokia Lumia phones, McDowell was laying the groundwork for the expansion of Nokia’s next billion strategy.

A major part of McDowell’s strategy has been moving away from the idea that Series 40 devices were a “low-end business cash cow” towards smarter, aspirational, phones for everyone:

“We’ve planted the seeds for Series 40. These are not the dumb phones…they are as smart as possible. In reality, the distinction between a smart phone and a feature phone is fairly technical, and when a consumer thinks about a smart phone they think about accessing the internet, downloading apps, a nice display… and these are all things we can, and do, deliver with Series 40,” says McDowell.

If Nokia was somewhat slow to appreciate the demands for Dual SIM, McDowell rectified this – and boosted market share – by introducing a wide range of Dual SIM phones with added features like Easy Swap that means people can swap SIM cards without turning off their handset.

Understanding the importance of Dual SIM came about, partly, by going out into the field and listening to consumers. She understands that, “it’s all very well making decisions in headquarters, but when you’re really talking with someone it sticks with you.”

mary mcdowell sitting

Last year, McDowell visited all five continents and took all her managers to India. In the first three months of 2012 she is due to visit China, Russia and Vietnam. These trips, and in-depth research, have had a profound impact on Nokia’s mobile phone unit:

“Look at the Asha 200, McDowell says. “Those came about because we spent time in Jakarta – and they were telling us ‘This region is mad for qwerty – everyone texts and IMs’. So they said, ‘What can you do that makes something colourful and compelling that responds to this need?’ These phones were really designed with those guys in mind….”

Research in India led to the development of loud speakers for better music performance, while meeting a beautician in Nairobi confirmed McDowell’s belief in in the importance of social networking and internet access for everyone:

“She told me she had 1,000 friends on Facebook. I thought, oh ok – I only have about 200. But it’s such an important part of how they live their lives, it’s how they connect – they have no access to computers, phones are their life line.”

Providing those services in an affordable and accessible way for people in growing markets is a key part of what makes Nokia different, and gives added value beyond the phones themselves:

“We’re ramping up the Nokia Browser, which provides great data compression. We’re hoping to do even more with that capabilitybecause the cost saving and access it can bring to consumers is huge.”

Nokia Browser compresses and downloads information from the internet by up to 90%, making it a highly cost-effective option for people in developing markets.

“We’re also ramping up Life Tools, and what started as focused on rural markets is now going to be focused on urban markets as well.”

Nokia Browser, Life Tools and Maps for Series 40 have become hugely popular, with Nokia Browser becoming the fastest growing Nokia service ever and Series 40 products accounting for a third of downloads from the Nokia Store (up from 13% in January 2011)

“One of the things were looking at is how do we embed ourselves more with partners, how do we support local internet services – and is there more we could do to tap into local tastes and preferences. We’ve been doing a lot of work to make applications supported better on Series 40.”

You’ll be able to get Facebook and other global services, she says, but in addition, “There are things that are peculiar to local markets, and were looking at how that to give that to people.”

As a member of the Nokia Board since 2004, McDowell is passionate about this emphasis on product.

“It’s been quite a journey,” she admits, “but I think it’s been very healthy in terms of distilling things down to the business essence. Nokia got so consumed with process and detail that we lost sight of products, and the process became the product and so if you ticked all the boxes that was a job well done, even if it wasn’t that great.

“Now what matters is what we create, and I think that’s really the right focus.”

Nokia’s next billion: Antti Vasara looks to the future for Series 40 [Conversations by Nokia, Jan 26, 2012]

GLOBAL – Nokia is celebrating selling 1.5 billion phonesby looking to the future.

Antti Vasara

“It’s a fun number,” said Antti Vasara, Nokia’s Senior Vice President of Mobile Devices, “and when you start thinking about the impact of 1.5 billion it’s a pretty awesome achievement.”

After the toasts were finished, however, Vasara went back to work on how Series 40 could connect another billion people to mobile technology and the internet:

What we are trying to do is a radical thing. We sometimes forget that half the world’s population does not have a phone. So, celebrating 1.5 billion is great, but it’s backward looking. What we want to say is – we are only half way to where we are going.”

A dozen Series 40 and Series 30 phones are sold every second around the world, and 3.5 million apps are downloaded every day.

“For a lot of people Series 40 is the first time they’ve ever had access to the internet or a computer. And the story of connecting those people is a huge story, because it will change the world.”

Series 40 began in the late 1990s in flagship devices [first was the Nokia 7110, developed in 1999], sold at fairly high prices to western customers, Vasara said. That has now been transformed into a range that is now selling in huge numbers in high growth economies, at a fraction of the cost.

“The people who buy these phones – and who will be buying these phones – are ambitious, and very aware of technology. They’re young, urban and what we call ‘hyper-social’. In other words, they know what the best of the best is – and we have to deliver a product that is state of the art and affordable.”

 the amazing Asha

The Nokia Browser exemplifies Nokia’s drive to build smarter phones for everyone, in Vasara’s opinion.

“In Europe and the US we download data without thinking very much about the cost, but in growing economies it is a huge issue. With the Nokia Browser you can get a full internet experience, with very clever cloud compression technology to make that experience affordable.”

Vasara, and his team, have also been concentrating on making Series 40 feel like “phones that are speaking your language.”

The future of Series 40 will be more about the services that you want in your “neighbourhood” – in your own language, delivering information that “feels very local.” Part of that will be working with developers to develop more Series 40 apps.

Even though selling 1.5 billion Series 40 phones is a wonderful milestone, it is the development of the platform and the product that gives Antti Vasara a sense of achievement:

“My proudest moment was actually producing the first Dual SIM device,” he says. “We were getting a lot of heat about it, and it was a huge priority – but the timing was so tight and we had many moments when we thought we couldn’t make it. But we did – on time and with great quality. Now that was a milestone for Series 40.”

Comments

Vikas Patidar

I don’t know why Nokia is touting the the words phones for “Next Billion” people for using internet when this all phones are not able to play videos from internet compared to same old devices which are doing far better job.

I just want know the genuine answers from Antti Vasara that is Nokia is making superior products compared to older generation devices?

Antti Vasara

Vikas,
Good points! You are listing some of the things that we indeed plan on fixing.

Making affordable phones that give smartphone-LIKE experiences involves making sometimes even painful trade-offs between different features and cost. We can do anything but not everything at the same timethat’s the essence of product making.

What we offer in the current Nokia Asha products is a nice combo of applications, Internet experience and contemporary services. Through our Store, people all over the world are downloading more than 3.5 million apps per day. We have put lot of emphasis on providing locally relevant apps so that you can find what is meaningful in your part of the world.

However, we also have some of the global phenomenons like Angry Birds available on Asha as well. On the Internet experience side we are very proud of the Nokia Browser. It gives people access to the full web yet doing that in a cost-effective way. The browser can compress data traffic by upto 90% ensuring that your phone bill doesn’t explode. And the specific services we offer like Facebook, Twitter, QQ, Foursquare, Maps, email, etc. give people the tools that most of us are using on a regular basis.

We hear you loud and clear on your request for more. Rest assured that we are working very hard to bring many new experiences and cool stuff to Asha throughout this year!

The SoCs

Nokia reportedly to release 2.5G, 2.75G chip orders to Taiwan firms [Feb 14, 2012]

Nokia reportedly has begun design-in with Taiwan-based MediaTek and MStar Semiconductor for chipset solutions used in 2.5G and 2.75G handsets, with one or both of them expected to land orders for the vendor’s new models scheduled for launch in the second half of 2012, according to industry sources.

In response, MediaTek and MStar both said they are constantly contacted by contract makers of the international vendor, without elaborating further.

Nokia is actively seeking chip partners who can help significantly lower its production costs, the sources pointed out. Both MediaTek and MStar, which specialize in the design and development of low-cost handset solutions, and have expertise in making end products differentiated from others, are pinpointed as Nokia’s new potential partners.

MediaTek and MStar had been approached by Nokia since 2010, but failed to work out ways to cooperate due to the low ROI considered by both IC firms, the sources indicated. Nokia had previously requested the two chip firms to develop software and firmware solutions for its operating system, while requiring very low quotes from them.

The sources identify MediaTek as the most likely supplier for Nokia’s upcoming models. MediaTek has thus far shipped more than one billion chip solutions for 2.5G and 2.75G devices, and can better utilize its existing well-built distribution channels in China and other emerging markets as well as sufficient R&D resources, the sources said.

China market: Chip demand for 2.5G/2.75G handsets falling [Feb 1, 2012]

Demand for 2.5G and 2.75G handset solutions is falling in China due to growth in the penetration rates for 3G and smartphones in the region, according to sources at white-box handset companies. Thanks to subsidies offered by local telecom carriers, sales of 3G models in China have grown substantially, the sources said.

Sources at Taiwan-based IC designers which mostly target China’s white-box handset suppliers have also indicated that many customers decide to promote 3G phones by discontinuing development projects for 2.5G/2.75G models ahead of schedule. Reducing orders for feature phones are likely to affect their sales performance during the first quarter of 2012.

Companies that might see impact from the fall in 2.5G/2.75G handset demand include MediaTek, MStar Semiconductor, Sitronix Technology, ILI Technology and Novatek Microelectronics, industry sources in Taiwan said. The firms’ revenues are expected to register sequential decreases of 5-15% in the first quarter of 2012, according to the sources.

Despite the shrinking feature phone market in China, Africa, Eastern Europe, Middle East and South America have been identified as the major markets for 2.5G/2.75G handsets in 2012, the sources pointed out.

MediaTek posts over 30% sales drop in January [Feb 6, 2012]

Fabless IC firm MediaTek has announced consolidated revenues of NT$5.16 billion (US$174 million) for January 2012, down 30.9% on month and 31.5% on year. The figure also hit the lowest monthly level since February 2011.

MediaTek president Hsieh Ching-chiang said at the company’s recent investors meeting that first-quarter sales would be affected by slow demand for feature phonesas well as fewer working days and seasonality. However, Hsieh expressed optimism about the company’s smartphone-chip shipments during the first quarter.

MediaTek has guided consolidated sales would be between NT$19.2 billion and NT$20.4 billion in the first quarter, down 10-15% on quarter.

MediaTek sees 10-15% sequential drop in 1Q12 sales [Feb 4, 2012]

IC design house MediaTek expects its consolidated revenues to decrease 10-15% sequentially in the first quarter of 2012 with gross margin slipping to 42-44% from 44.2% in the fourth quarter. A continued slowdown in feature phone demand as well as fewer working days and seasonality will cause the sales drop during the quarter, according to company president Hsieh Ching-chiang.

MediaTek’s consolidated revenues for the fourth quarter of 2011 slid 3.2% on quarter to NT$22.63 billion (US$768.5 million), slightly below its targeted NT$22.9-24.5 billion. The company attributed the sequential drop to low seasonal demand. Net profits for the quarter declined 28.3% sequentially to NT$2.92 billion, or NT$2.64 a share compared to NT$3.69 in the prior quarter.

Demand for 2.5G handset chips and other solutions used in TV, optical storage, and DVD and Blu-ray disc products will be slow during the off-season, MediaTek pointed out. In the fourth quarter, sales of handset chips accounted for 60-65% of company revenues while those of other non-handset use product lines made up the remainder.

However, sales of MediaTek’s smartphone 3G chips will climb to 8-10 million units in the first quarter, up more than 10% from the six million shipped in the fourth quarter of 2011. The company projects its total smartphone-chip shipments will top 50 million units in 2012, compared to about 10 million units in 2011.

Meanwhile, MediaTek expects its 2.5G chip shipments to stay similar to the level of about 550 million units in 2011.

MStar breaks into Nokia supply chain, says report [Feb 8, 2012]

IC design house MStar Semiconductor reportedly has entered the supply chain of Nokia with its 2G baseband chips, according to a Chinese-language Commercial Times report. Shipments are expected to kick off as early as mid-2012, said the report, without citing its sources.

Nokia demands about 100 million 2G handset solutions per year, the report indicated. Orders from the handset vendor will significantly boost MStar’s sales generated from its handset-chip business, which currently accounts for less than 10% of company revenues, the report said.

MStar shares rose 3.4% to close at NT$197 (US$6.68) on the Taiwan Stock Exchange on February 7. The price continued its rally to US$203 during the morning session of February 8.

MStar sees 8-13% sales drop in 1Q12 [Feb 10, 2012]

MStar Semiconductor expects its consolidated revenues to decrease 8-13% sequentially in the first quarter of 2012, citing low seasonal demand. But sales for all of the year should see another positive growth driven by brisk shipments to the TV and wireless sectors, according to company chairman Wayne Liang.

MStar generated consolidated revenues of NT$9.8 billion (US$325 million) in the fourth quarter of 2011, up 5.1% on month and 20.6% from a year ago. Net profits for the quarter grew 2.8% sequentially and 6% on year to NT$1.66 billion. EPS for the quarter came to NT$3.14.

MStar’s consolidated sales for all of 2011grew 6.2%, while fellow company MediaTek posted a sales drop of 23.5% on year. MStar saw its net profits slip 4.8% from a year earlier while net profits at MediaTek registered a larger 56% decline from 2010 levels.

MStar is looking to grab a larger share of the global TV chip market in 2012, said Liang, adding that it held a 55-56% share in 2011 with shipments reaching 128 million units. Though the worldwide flat-panel TV market for 2012 will enjoy a slower growth of less than 10%, the number of TV chip suppliers is expected to reduce allowing MStar to further maintain its leading position, Liang stated.

MStar disclosed that sales of TV chips accounted for 65-70% of company revenues in 2011, followed by handset products with 10-15%.

Handset chips played as the fast-growing product line for MStar in 2011, Liang noted. The company shipped a total of 50 million handset solutions in 2011, which should have boosted its 2G market share to 15%, according to Liang.

MStar is gearing up for mass production of its 3G solutions for smartphones in the second half of 2012, Liang said. With the China market set to enter its transition to 3G in 2012, MStar’s handset chip business will continue to expand, Liang added.

In addition, MStar expects to receive increasing orders for set-top box (STB) chips in 2012, thanks to growing demand in emerging markets, according to Liang.

The web software

Nokia sharpens focus to connect next billion to the Internet [Nokia press release, Sept 15, 2010]


Ovi Mail

Ovi Browser in Beta
Through its recent acquisition of Novarra, Nokia brings new browser technology and the power of cloud services to Series 40, enabling more Internet users in emerging markets to get more out of what the Web has to offer. Ovi Browser is now in beta release and makes Series 40 browsing faster, more affordable, easier to use, and more personalized.

Ovi Music

Ovi Store on Series 40

Nokia completes acquisition of Novarra [Nokia press release, April 9, 2010]

Espoo, Finland – Nokia today announced that it has completed the acquisition of Novarra, Inc., initially announced on March 26, 2010.

Novarra’s mobile browser and services platform will be used by Nokia to deliver enhanced Internet experiences on Nokia Series 40 mobile phones.

Nokia acquires Novarra [Nokia press release, March 26, 2010]

Browser service technology will provide improved mobile web experience on mainstream mobile phones

Espoo, Finland – Nokia today announced it has signed an agreement to acquire 100% of the outstanding shares of Novarra, Inc., a privately-held company based in Chicago, IL. Novarra is a provider of a mobile browser and service platform and has more than 100 employees. Novarra’s mobile browser and services platform will be used by Nokia to deliver enhanced Internet experiences on Nokia mobile devices. Novarra has deployed their solution with leading mobile operator and internet services customers globally.

Connecting the next billion consumers to the Internet will happen primarily on mobile devices,” said Niklas Savander, Executive Vice President, Services, Nokia, “and delivering an optimized internet experience on our devices is core to our mission. By driving innovation in all segments of our portfolio, we are building one of the largest consumer audiences for web services and content. Novarra’s Internet services technology delivered on the world’s most widely-used mobile platform, Nokia’s Series 40, will help us achieve this.”

Nokia expects a new service offering utilizing the Novarra technology platform to be available later this year. The acquisition is expected to close in the second quarter of 2010, and is subject to the customary closing conditions, including regulatory reviews. Following the acquisition, Novarra will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Nokia.

About Nokia
At Nokia, we are committed to connecting people. We combine advanced technology with personalized services that enable people to stay close to what matters to them. Every day, more than 1.2 billion people connect to one another with a Nokia device – from mobile phones to advanced smartphones and high-performance mobile computers. Today, Nokia is integrating its devices with innovative services through Ovi (www.ovi.com), including music, maps, apps, email and more. Nokia’s NAVTEQ is a leader in comprehensive digital mapping and navigation services, while Nokia Siemens Networks provides equipment, services and solutions for communications networks globally.

About Novarra
Novarra, the Internet Mobility company, provides high performance mobile internet browsers and platforms for operators, handset manufacturers and internet brands to create new services and revenue streams for smartphones, features phones and mobile broadband devices. The solutions deliver a high quality mobile user experience for services including full rich web browsing, search, widgets, apps, video and advertising. Global, commercial deployments over eight years have proven consumer satisfaction, uptake and increased data service revenues. http://www.novarra.com/

Novarra Inc. [Wikipedia article, exerpted on Feb 14, 2012]

Novarra is a mobile internet software company founded in 2000 and based in Itasca, IL, USA.

Mobile internet access services based upon the Novarra Vision mobile internet and multimedia platform have been deployed in the US, Europe and Asia by service providers including Yahoo, Vodafone, Verizon Wireless, Turkcell, Hutchison 3G, Sprint Nextel, US Cellular and others on mobile phones, smartphones and PDAs from Nokia, LG Group, Samsung Mobile, Motorola Mobile Devices, Palm (PDA), Research In Motion, ZTE Corporation, Sony Ericsson, Kyocera Wireless, and other manufacturers.

How Nokia Turbocharges Web Browsing on Its Phones [PC Magazine, Oct 26, 2011]

LONDON—Amazon Silk? Opera Mini? Pshaw, says Nokia’s Randy Cavaiani. We’ve been doing that for years.

Amazon Silk is effectively the technology we’ve had for a couple of years now,” said Cavaiani, the director of market solutions for Nokia Browser Services. “And we can more closely couple the experience to hardware.”

Cavaiani is talking about technology Nokia bought from his former firm, Novarra, and is now using in the browsers of the company’s four new Series 40 (S40) Asha phones. The new S40 browser, like Silk and Opera Mini, is a proxy browser: it uses servers around the world to download content and compress it before the content gets sent to your phone.

That results in up to a 90 percent reduction in data usage and much faster page loads, especially over slow networks, Cavaiani said. What’s more, Nokia could bring the technology to its Windows Phones, too—though Cavaiani made sure to note that the company isn’t currently working on doing so. That could make Nokia Windows Phones faster at Web browsing on slow networks, like Sprint’s currently struggling 3G network.

“It’s technically possible, because our server can assist any native browser,” he said.

How Nokia’s Browser Works
Nokia’s approach is a bit different from both Opera’s and Amazon’s. Opera’s servers ingest entire Web pages and send them to phones as static documents in Opera’s own markup language, OBML.v

From what we know of Amazon Silk, the browser on Amazon’s as-yet-unreleased Kindle Fire tablet, it combines a full browser on the Fire with algorithms that pre-fetch pages on Amazon’s cloud servers, and also compresses images and stores them at Amazon.

Nokia’s new browser starts with a basic HTML browser on the Series 40 phones. Nokia’s servers look at desktop Web pages and boil down or remove more complex content, for instance parsing and executing JavaScript and resolving CSS into more basic HTML, Cavaiani said. They also reduce the quality (and the size) of images. There’s no Flash support.

The browser is able to handle dynamic pages that only reload part of the page at a time when the user presses a button. The browser also has deep access to the phone’s hardware, which is different from Opera Mini.

“We can also inject services into the browser. The latest browser introduces a geo-location API, so now that’s open to developers to create geo-location apps,” he said.

The browser even supports widgets, dynamic overlays that can perform actions on Web pages like sharing them on Twitter or translating them into a different language.

Brilliant browsing on the new Nokia Asha [Conversations by Nokia, Nov 21, 2011]

Nokia Browser for Series 40 is the engine behind an improved internet experience on Nokia’s new Asha 200, 201, 300 and 303 mobile phones announced October 2011. The Browser uses cloud technology to speed page loads, reduce data transfer while providing access to more and richer web pages and web apps. Consumers in emerging markets can stay connected using Nokia Browser on Asha phones, sharing on social networks and enjoying videos and other media. Learn more at http://browser.nokia.com/Series40

GLOBALGood news for anyone planning to surf the Web using the brand new Nokia Asha phones for Series 40 – they’ve been designed to give you a better all-round internet experience with more of what you want, faster and cheaper.

Nokia have designed the new Asha family specifically for people in emerging markets where expensive and time consuming downloading has been limiting everyone’s internet use for years. For many, the phones will provide their owners with their only access to the Internet.

We know people want to get online fast, whether you’re looking for a shoe store in Caracas, meeting a friend in Mumbai or checking out your friend’s baby pictures from Taiwan.

The Nokia Browser uses cloud-based servers with high speed internet connections to collect the data and then transform it to the best version for a mobile phone, compressing the data by up to 90%.

But what you really need to know is that it will take seconds, not minutes, to check out what your friends are doing on social networking, and start sharing links, photos and videos. While you’re online the browser will show you how much data is being used, so there shouldn’t be any nasty shocks when your bill arrives. Then you can save your money for the things you’d really like to spend it on (like the shoes).

Nokia Asha phones with browser

Getting online is important, but so is what you see when you get there. No one wants to look at an anonymous landing page or – even worse – a homepage from a country you’ve never been to.

The new Nokia Browser comes in 87 different languagesand, wherever you are in the world, you’ll see the news and content that’s relevant to you.

These Asha phones are “smart”.Web sites and web apps that might not otherwise be accessible are easy and enjoyable to use on Asha. And for many web content providers, web apps provide an even more elegant experience using swipe touch gestures for fluid page transitions and enhanced with location, SMS or social sharing functionality made possible by the browser’s cloud architecture.

Using the new full-screen mode you won’t be squinting at it on a tiny screen, either. You can get rid of background information, like the browser button control bar, and add some extra mm to your screen size – and on a mobile phone that’s going to make being online feel a whole lot better.

The Nokia Browser is available on the Asha phones, and up to 40 of the Series 40 phones. You can find out which ones on the product pages.

Now everyone can have a fuller, faster – and more affordable – internet experience.

Nokia Maps on Series 40 [Conversations by Nokia, Nov 8, 2011]

Nokia maps on a Nokia Asha 303
GLOBAL – Do you want to go shopping in Warsaw, meet a friend in Jakarta or find the nearest basketball court in Beijing? Or do you just want to show your friends your route home? Nokia Maps on the Series 40, including the new Nokia Asha 303, brings together all of the experiences you need for your life – and it’s preloaded and free.

Millions of us are out and about around the world – and we want more than a simple route, we want a full experience.

Nokia Maps on the Series 40 has a global range, aimed at local needs – and that’s why it brings free maps covering more than 180 countries, and free turn-by-turn visual routing in more than 100 countries.

Using the maps on the new Asha 303 you can find more than 3 million offline points of interest including tourist information centres, sights and museums, restaurants, hotels and shopping.

There’s no GPS: The service is specifically designed to use network-based positioning, and offers a lot of features offline to save on data costs and downloading. You can look at a map, or plan your route, offline as the map data is stored on the device itself.

Even if you want to go online, we’ve chosen the lowest cost options: The average cost of using the positioning service is the equivalent of sending a standard SMS in India.

Maps of your country and region come already loaded, so there’s no need to spend time installing. If you’re planning to go abroad you can add extra maps of the world through Nokia Suite – it’s free, and easy.

That’s one of the best things about Nokia Maps: It’s not just about finding out where you are, it’s about giving millions more people the opportunity to discover the world, and share locations with friends and family.

We’ve covered 31 million km of roads, and 73 million points of interest – giving Series 40 users exactly the same level of coverage as smartphone users.

Let’s just say, we don’t think you’re going to miss much.

Series 40 web apps: UI Improvements [nokiadevforum, Dec 2, 2012]

Houman Forood, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Nokia provides a guide to the UI improvements that have been introduced in the latest Series 40 web apps environment. You will see many improvements since the initial release. Houman also explains that new UI guidelines are available to assist you in designing web apps for Nokia Series 40 phones.

Series 40 web apps technical how to: Geolocation & Maps from Nokia Developer [nokiadevforum, Feb 2, 2012]

The Nokia development team shares technical tips on coding interactive map and geolocation services for the Series 40 platform. Using the Nokia web tools development environment, Andrew Knight gives you a quick and informative look at the map-based application possibilities available to you when developing for Nokia Series 40 phones, including the new Asha range. Learn more here: http://developer.nokia.com/Develop/Maps/

NOKIA Developer > Develop > Highlights > Web experiences for Series 40 are now even better [Nov 2, 2011]

Nokia Browser for Series 40 has been updated, with several new features that will enable you to offer even richer experiences to users of Series 40 phones, on even the lowest bandwidth connections.

Your web apps can now determine the location [HTML5 Geolocation] of their user’s phone and you can offer users the ability to send SMS messages directly from your apps. Performance is improved too: images within your web app are cached on the user’s phone making for faster loading and refreshing of content.

To complement these new web apps features Nokia Web Tools has been updated too. Now you can simulate location while testing web apps on a computer and resolve code issues faster using the newly enabled debugging features of the integrated Web Inspector.

Once you’ve created a web app that differentiates your web content and offers great user engagement, it can be distributed through Nokia Store, exposing it to millions of Series 40 Nokia Store users.

Find out more about Series 40 web apps ›
Traditionally, proxy-based browsing has offered users a very limited experience, because such browsers typically do nothing more than paint content provided by a proxy. This has changed, with Nokia Browser for Series 40 support for Series 40 web apps. Using Mobile Web Library, the Nokia Browser for Series 40 client can execute JavaScript code in web apps. This code makes it possible to create interactive user interfaces and graphical transitions to deliver users beautiful web experiences. Now web designers and developers can deliver compelling application experiences to users at low cost — both in terms of development effort and user data charges.

With the latest version of the Series 40 browser, Series 40 web apps can now go even further by offering users location aware web apps and the ability to send SMS messages. Location features leverage the network-based location capabilities of Series 40 phones for accurate and timely location information. In addition, performance has been enhanced further with images embedded in a web app now cached on the user’s phone for faster page loads and refreshes. ”
Discover the new features in Nokia Web Tools ›
Find out more about distributing through Nokia Store ›
Find out more about Nokia Browser for Series 40 ›

http://browser.nokia.com/s40-browser.html  [Aug 12, 2011]
Nokia Browser for Smartphones & Mobile phones

….

Discover the world of apps
Discover the world of apps
Web apps are small games and applications that you can purchase, or download for free using Ovi Store on your mobile phone. With web apps you can access content from well-known global brands, or the local brands you know and love. Once downloaded, apps are permanently saved within Nokia Browser, so they’re always easy to find and super fast to load. And because web apps are specially optimised for your phone, they provide a beautifully clear and simple way to access your favourite content.

Works great on any deviceWorks great on any device

Nokia Browser has been designed to work brilliantly on both touchscreen and traditional keypad mobile phones. Browse with ease using the large, responsive touch screen controls, and enjoy intuitive, lightening fast navigation and scrolling on keypad devices.

Fast and easy to useFast and easy to use
Search for content or enter Web addresses right from the start page. As you type, the predictive input technologywill provide a list of recently input keywords and URLs, enabling you to type less, and load your content even faster.

If your favourite site isn’t optimised for mobile, Nokia Browser’s smart rendering technology will create a thumbnail overview of each page, enabling you to quickly scan pages on even the most complex web sites. To zoom in, simple tap the content you want to read.

Senior Software Engineer – Java-SWA0000004P [Careers at Nokia, Jan 20, 2012]Software Engineer – Java-SWA00000048 [Careers at Nokia, Jan 21, 2012]

Nokia is a pioneer in mobile telecommunications and the world’s leading maker of mobile devices. Today, we are at the forefront of the mobile internet revolution, fusing advanced mobile technology with personalized services to enable people to stay close to what matters to them.

  • Want to have an immediate impact on a billion people?
  • Interested in creating software for the most widely used mobile phone platform in the world?
  • Widgets, Apps, Social Networking, E-mail, Maps, Video, Browsing on Mobile Phones – we make it possible!

This team at Nokia has enabled millions of mobile phone users worldwide to perform their favorite activities on the web. As part of our plan to reach the next billion consumers, we need to expand our service offerings.

As a proven leader in providing high performance, next generation mobile internet solutions, this team within Nokia is seeking a Software Engineer with Java / C++ experience . You’ll work with highly motivated team members who possess a passion for excellence, developing innovative, creative solutions in a fast-paced environment. Our solutions need to exceed consumer expectations in order to provide the best-in-class possible internet experience in the market.

Responsibilities

  • Work in the Nokia Browser [Novarra] team creating the browsing experience for millions of Nokia S40 devices
  • Be on a team chartered with enabling and growing a mobile app ecosystemfor millions of worldwide users and developers
  • Research, design, and implement complex software solutions
  • Be on the leading edge of integrating internet technologies, cell phones, and wireless networks
  • Be a part of the team creating the next generation user experiencefor cell phones
  • Work with Nokia development teams around the world to extend mobile phone services
  • Utilize location based services and cloud services in your solutions

Qualifications

Required:

  • Java or C++ development experience
  • Experience with internet technologies (ie. web services, HTML, XML, CSS, AJAX, JavaScript, HTTP, xHTML, DHTML, etc.)
  • Ability to be deep and thorough with product code to optimize performance
  • Proven experience writing software for large scale deployments
  • Possess excellent verbal and written English communication skills
  • Minimum 2 years work development experience
  • BS / MS in Computer Science or Computer Engineering

Desirable:

  • Mobile device development background a plus
  • Agile methodology experience a plus
  • Experience creating Web Apps
  • Experience with IDEs and SDKs
  • Interest in pushing the limits on mobile device software
  • Experience working through tradeoffs and constraints during Design and Planning phases

Job
Research & Development

Primary Location
US-Itasca [Novarra]

Organization
Mobile Phones

Schedule
Full-time

Intern Position at Nokia (Itasca, IL) [Careers at Nokia, Feb 8, 2012] [Novarra]

Nokia is seeking software engineering interns to work on a web platform for the Nokia Browser Services [Novarra] organization impacting future Nokia products. You will perform design, development and implementation of our web browser environments for Nokia mobile devices. Your work will be central to Nokia’s objective to connect the next billion to the web via handsets worldwide.

You will work with a team focused on innovation team to design, implement, and test novel solutions to complex problems in the rapidly evolving mobile industry. This role will require understanding an existing code base and leverage external web services from other Nokia divisions as well as 3rd party services. Creative thinking, technical flexibility and a passion for cutting edge web technologies are a must.

Responsibilities:
– Working in a prototype creation project with design, implementation and integration responsibilities
– Collaborating with software developers and design engineers to quickly deliver prototypes
– Work with internal and external APIs

Qualifications:
– Must be enrolled in current accredited graduate or undergraduate program within Computer Science or related field
– Working knowledge of web technologies HTML/JavaScript/CSS/XML
– Experience developing a web service with one or more of the following: Apache, Tomcat, PHP, JSP, Ruby on Rails, or a similar equivalent.
– Working knowledge of Unix operating systems
– Experience with mobile phone environments and application development a plus
– Academic experience with Java and other object oriented design languages
– Proven ability to work within and extend current technology
– Strong team player as well as ability to work independently

Desirable:
Good graphical skills, Adobe Photoshop experience a plus

Job
Research & Development

Primary Location
US-Itasca [Novarra]

Organization
Mobile Phones

Schedule
Part-time

China-based second-tier and white-boxed handset makers targeting the emerging markets

Update: China-based white-box vendors expected to ship 200 million smartphones [DIGITIMES, April 17, 2012]

China-based white-box vendors, mainly due to the availability of inexpensive new chip solutions, have been increasing the production of smartphones, with the total shipment volume expected to reach 200 million units in 2012, according to industry sources in Taiwan.

Taiwan-based MediaTek is offering the makers its MT6575 a chip solution for use in entry-level smartphones in the first quarter of 2012 and will offer the MT6577, a solution for high-level smartphones, in the middle of the third quarter of 2012, the sources indicated. MediaTek will ship 50-70 million chips to China-based white-box vendors to account for nearly 30% of smartphones to be shipped by these vendors in 2012.

In addition, Qualcomm has strengthened its marketing in the China market by offering turn-key solutions to white-box vendors, with prices for a chips lowered to US$6, the sources cited eMedia Asia as indicating.

China-based white-box vendors sell more than 60% of their smartphone output to overseas markets, including 2.5G models for markets where deployment of 3G networks is not mature yet, the sources indicated. White-box vendors are expected to see larger market demand if their production costs for entry-, medium- and high-level smartphones drop to US$60, US$85 and US$130 respectively, the sources pointed out.

China handset makers shifting to smartphones, pushing sales to emerging markets, say sources [Feb 13, 2012]

Demand for 2G feature phones in the China market is expected to subside in the next three years, pushing China-based handset makers to focus on the production of entry-level to mid-range smartphones and also to promote overseas sales, according to industry sources.

Sales of handsets in China grew by 10-15% on year to 260-280 million units in 2011, of which smartphones accounted for 70 million units.

However, total handset sales in the market are expected to drop to 240-250 million units in 2012, of which smartphone models will top 100-120 million units, increasing 43-70% from the previous year, said the sources, adding that handset sales are likely to remain flat in 2013-2014.

With a shrinking share in the 2G segment in the home market, China-based second-tier and white-boxed handset makers are strengthening their ties with retail chain operators or branded vendors in emerging markets, the sources noted.

China-based maker G’Five currently takes up the third-rank title in the India handset market with 7.5% share, trailing after Nokia’s 37.2% and Samsung’s 14.9%, according to data compiled by ABI.

Other brands in India, including Micromax, Spice, Karbonn, Maxx Mobile, Lava and Zen Mobile, have also maintained close ties with China-based handset makers, the sources added.

Earlier information on Micromax, Maxx, Lava and Videocon

(From: The precursor of 2012 smartphone war: Nokia Lumia vs. Samsung Omnia W in India[Jan 3, 2012])

India Handset Shipments, Vendor Market Share, Strategies and Key Trends Q3’2011 [Research and Markets report release announcement, Jan 4, 2012]

This report provides an in-depth assessment of handset shipments, vendor market share, strategies and key trends in Q3’2011 for the mobile handsets industry in India. Mobile handset shipments in India have been increasing and they were highest in 2010 with 146.93 million units. The shipments in 2011 are expected to reach all time high as the shipment for 3 quarters in 2011 is 125.32 million units. By the end of Q4’2011, a yearly figure of 162 million units is expected.

India has been one of the major players in the Asia Pacific handset shipments and since 2009 India has been able to capture more than 20% of the overall Asia Pacific shipments, with a market share of over There has been quarter on quarter growth in the handset shipments in India barring a few exceptions in two quarters.

Local manufacturing has been very beneficial for mobile handset makers in India and many Indian players are manufacturing the product locally. All the other players, who do not have the local manufacturing, are planning to start the manufacturing to get away with the problems of currency exchange rates and supply side spikes.

Nokia has been the top player in the Indian mobile handset market and it has achieved a market share of 29.44% in 2011 for all the three quarters. Nokia has been losing its share to new entrants and local players in the Indian market. Samsung is coming strongly and it is in the second place with 14.34% market share. The share of Samsung is up by 14.63% from 2010. Though all the players are trying to gain market share but still Nokia is way above all of them and it will take a long time before anyone else can take the lead position. Local players Micromax, Maxx, Lava and Videocon are gaining market share and most of them have launched low cost phones with features such as dual-SIM, long battery life etc. Local players also have the advantage of local manufacturing.

Earlier information on G’Five

(From: Be aware of ZTE et al. and white-box (Shanzhai) vendors: Wake up call now for Nokia, soon for Microsoft, Intel, RIM and even Apple![Feb 21, 2011])

So ZTE and Huawei are not alone. Here is another example, G’Fiveso far known only in India but expanding rapidly both in India and into the other parts of the world:

India Mobile Handset shipments grow 6.7%, to 101 million units in 12 Months ending June 2009 [IDC India, Oct 9, 2009]

Market intelligence firm, IDC’s India Quarterly Mobile Handsets Tracker, 2Q 2009, September 2009 release issued today states that in terms of units shipped Nokia had the largest share of 56.8%, followed by Samsung with a 7.7% share while LG stood third with a 5.4% share in the 12-month period ended June 2009.

New Vendors Make a Mark
A number of new vendors entered the India mobile handsets market in the last 12 to 18 months to carve a niche for themselves by offering feature-rich (dual SIM card, full QWERTY keyboard) and application-rich (IM enabled) mobile handsets at attractive price points. They also introduced entry-level models for the ‘price sensitive’ Indian consumer.

IDC’s India quarterly mobile handsets tracker 2Q 2010 [Sept 28, 2010] (some emphasis is mine):

According to Mr. Anirban Banerjee, Associate Vice President-Research, IDC India,“In the recent quarters several new players successfully launched their own devices at significantly lower Average Selling Values (ASVs) in the price sensitive India market. Such handsets found ready acceptance amongst first time buyers, especially from small towns and villages.”

This influx of new brands led to a spurt in overall market and saw ‘emerging vendors’ corner as much as 33.2% of total India mobile handset shipments in 2Q 2010. The Finnish handset maker Nokia retained its No.1 spot with a market share of 36.3% in terms of units shipped. The Korean electronic giant Samsung retained the No. 2 position, while Chinese brand G’Five emerged as the No. 3 player.

According to IDC’s India Quarterly Mobile Handsets Tracker, 2Q 2010, September 2010 release, the number of emerging vendors in India’s burgeoning mobile handsets market grew to 35 in 2Q 2010 and they together garnered 33.2% of total shipments for the first time during the April-June 2010 quarter. This represented a manifold increase from five (5) new vendors representing a 0.9% combined share of units shipped in the January-March 2008 quarter.

During the last 6 months (January-June 2010) the top five mobile handset vendors in India were Nokia, Samsung, G’Five, Micromax and Spice.

July-September 2010 mobile phone shipments (sales) log 3.6% quarter-on-quarter growth to
cross 40 million units: ‘Emerging Vendors’ capture 41.2% combined share [IDC India, Dec 29, 2010] (emphasis is mine):

… the Finnish handset maker Nokia had the largest share of 31.5%* in terms of units shipped during 3Q 2010.
The Chinese brand G’Five emerged as No. 2 player in terms of unit shipments market share and Korean handset manufacturer Samsung stood at No. 3 in 3Q 2010.

The India mobile handsets market continued to grow in 3Q 2010 as well to record a quarter-on-quarter (3Q 2010 over 2Q 2010) growth of 3.6%* to touch 40.08 million units in the quarter, according to IDC India. The year is expected to end with total mobile handset sales of 155.9 million units.

The number of emerging vendors in India’s burgeoning mobile handsets market grew to 68 and they together garnered 41.2%* of total shipments (sales) for the first time during the July-Sep 2010 quarter.

Smartphone prices continued to drop through the year and as competition increased, devices were made available by vendors at successively lower price points. So, while 80%* of total India smartphone sales were below the ASV (Average Sales Value) of Rs. 18,000 in 2Q 2010, this proportion increased to 90%* in 3Q 2010.

Top G’Five mobile phones in India [Jan 13, 2011] (emphasis is mine)

Which are the top two cell phone brands today in India in terms of shipment volumes? Nokia and Samsung, many of us would like to think, right? Or maybe Sony…or LG…or Micromax which has been advertising quite a bit.

Not quite, folks. A recent report from leading market intelligence firm IDC India reaffirms the Finnish telecom giant’s status as the leading cell-phone player in the country, with Nokia accounting for 31.5% of the domestic cell-phone market during the July-September period last year. But, surprisingly, a little known Chinese brand called G’Five has made it to the second spot by capturing a 10.6% market share–with Samsung coming in third at 8.2%!

Sounds shocking, right? How can a Chinese player, without any big-ticket advertising campaign or any celebrity as its brand ambassador, manage to create such a big impact in the cut-throat Indian cell phone industry–without any fanfare? Well, the answer lies in G’Five’s strategy of rolling out a bevy of feature-rich phones at competitive prices (in the Rs.1,400-Rs.7,000 range), targeted exclusively at urban first-time buyers and those in semi-urban and rural areas looking to upgrade from basic phones.

So if you are looking to buy a G’Five mobile phone, here is a list of eight affordable (costing not more than Rs.5,000) models from around 26 G’Five phones currently available in India (in the order of ascending prices)– with each of them having their own USPs.

G’Five D10 Price: Rs.1,820 [US$40.4] … G’Five X5 Price: Rs.1,899 [US$42.1] … G’Five N92 Price: Rs.2,249 [US$49.9] … G’Five i310 Price: Rs. 2,400 [US$53.2] … G’Five M33 Price: Rs.2,499 [US$55.4] … G’Five L600 Price: Rs 2,700 [US$59.9] … G’Five X33+ Price: Rs.3,786 [US$83.9] … G’Five V60 Price: Rs. 4,490 [US$99.6] …

And these phones are not crap as you can even see from their pictures (for features info it is worth to go into the article).

G'Five D10 - i310 - V60

Note that to target the upper part of this range Social networking is Nokia’s latest mobile strategy [Feb 17, 2010] (which the above phones do not have):

The company’s latest launch on Nokia X2-01 mobile, at Rs 4,459 [US$99.2] is one such product. “QWERTY is one of the fastest growing mobile phone category in the world due to the rise in messaging and social networking. The Nokia X2-01 makes it easy to set up chat and email direct from the mobile phone,” said Nokia India General Manager-South T S Sridhar. “This means superfast access to your favourite Ovi Mail, Ovi Chat or other popular accounts.”

As young users want to stay connected with friends on the move, instant messaging is rapidly on the rise. With messaging devices like Nokia X2- 01, we are empowering the youth, he said. The handset also provides live updates from social networks such as Facebook, Orkut and Twitter directly from home screen. The Nokia X2-01 is Series 40 2G phone with VGA camera and FM radio. It has one click access the music player and has 3.5mm AV connector ideal for headphones or speakers. It also has Bluetooth and can support up to an 8GB micro SD memory card and has a standby battery time of up to 20 days, he claimed. For affordable access to internet, Nokia has also tied up with country’s largest mobile service provider Airtel which allows 100 mb of free data download per month for 12 months to its subscribers on this phone. Under this scheme one can access Face Book, and OVI Chat and Ovi Mail free of charges.

Gfive Mobile Phones (by Devika Rajpali)

The company of GFive is from China. The investors of the company are a syndicate named Zerone group that of the most esteemed OEM factories that boost of producing around 100 million mobile phones. The GFive mobile phones are the hottest running brand in indisputable imei china mobiles. The company has now established itself completely in the field of tech support, repairing and software installation. You will find the GFive mobile phone to be very stylish with large number of mobile phones to offer to its consumers. The company claims to have experience, confidence and data along with the in-depth insight of their Chinese mobile phones.

The KingTech Telecom (Shenzhen) Co Ltd. is behind the brand with KingTech Telecom (HK) Limited behind the export activities. As far as India is concerned the arrangement will be developed into a stronger local representation as Victor Infotech ties up with King Tech Telecom [Nov 11, 2010] (emphasis is mine):

Victor Infotech Ltd has tied up with King Tech Telecom Ltd (a Hong Kong-based telecom company) to form a joint venture company — Asian Telecom Ltd. The majority stake of 51% in the new company will be held by King Tech Telecom Ltd and the balance 49% equity will be held by Victor Infotech Ltd.

Asian Telecom Ltd., the new joint venture company, will come into being with immediate effect to launch the G’Five brand of mobile phones in the Indian market. The company plans to take the G’Five brand of mobiles to new heights in India and achieve 20% of the market share in the next two years.

As part of the collaboration, Kingtech Telecom shall manufacture the mobile phones and Victor Infotech will be responsible for distribution and marketing of the phone in India. Initially Kingtech Telecom will manufacture the Indian specific mobile phones in Hong Kong [rather in Shenzen] and gradually the same shall be manufactured in India.

The Indian mobile phone market is growing very fast. The company expects the sales of the mobile phones to grow 5 times in the next two years and plans to take advantage of this growth to gain the maximum market share. To achieve this, the company shall introduce many variations in its mobile phones, which shall be specific to the needs of the Indian consumer.

Meanwhile for other parts of the world a new sales and marketing operation has been set up: GLX mobile – G’FIVE Mobile’s Brother Company [Dec 14, 2010] (emphasis is mine)

A new member of Zerone Group called GLX mobile has been founded. With its full name as GLX International Limited, GLX mobile is dedicated in global distribution of GLX mobile phone.

Since G’FIVE is a member of Zerone Group, G’FIVE and GLX are brother companies. The new-founded GLX focuses on international markets, especially emerging markets. GLX mobile covers the whole range of mobile phone user market, from low-end to high-end with stylish and unique handsets.

GLX is aiming to create golden life for worldwide consumers with all ranges of mobile phones.

And the GLX company’s website indicates that it has taken over (almost all) the rest of the existing G’Five business network:

GLX Mobile initial business network

Marvell SoCs to win both Microsoft and Nokia for Windows Phone and Windows 8 platforms (after the Kinect success)

Update: – Marvell licenses VeriSilicon DSP cores [Feb 13, 2012]

SAN FRANCISCO—Marvell Technology Group Ltd. has signed a licensing agreement for VeriSilicon Holdings Co. Ltd.’s ZSP G3 intellectual property cores, including the dual-MAC ZSP800M and ZSP880M synthesizable DSP cores, VeriSilicon said Monday (Feb. 13). Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Marvell is also using VeriSilicon’s quad-MAC ZSP800 core and suite of HD-audio software solutions in the ARMADA 1000 HD media processor SoC and the recently introduced Marvell ARMADA 1500 media processor SoC, VeriSilicon (Santa Clara, Calif.) said. These chips are designed for applications such as Blu-ray players, digital media adapters, HD-STB and HDTVs.

According to VeriSilion, the dual-MAC ZSP architecture offers a balance of high performance, power efficiency and lower cost to support the increasing feature convergence in mobile and digital entertainment products and enable prolonged battery life. The company claims its products offer ease of use and strong customer support.

“We are quite impressed with the area and power efficiency of the dual-MAC ZSP800M core, combined with the ease of programming on the ZSP architecture,” said Ivan Lee, vice president of mobile products at Marvell, in a statement. “VeriSilicon’s ZSP-based HD-audio and voice software solutions will provide us with faster time-to-market advantages necessary to meet the growing demands of the mobile platform solutions for use in tablets and smartphones.”

Marvell’s Cutting-Edge Application Processors [Jan 10, 2012]

Marvell’s Allen Leibovitch talks about the cutting-edge PXA [also called ARMADA] family of application processors, which enable Marvell customers to build high performance systems at a very low cost.
From [2:45] the so-called hybrid multiprocessing technology is mentioned with showing the above architecture. It was introduced back in September 2010 with ARMADA 628 (see: Marvell ARMADA beats Qualcomm Snapdragon, NVIDIA Tegra and Samsung/Apple Hummingbird in the SoC market [again] [Sept 23, 2010 – Jan 17, 2011]) at the time when Marvell was working on the earlier ARMADA 610 (see also in the indicated post) for the RIM Blackberry Playbook. Six month into the project RIM dumped the 610 for a TI SoC, but even with that was only able to deliver the stable version of its new QNX software on version 2, missing the crucial 2010 Holiday season. While rumors of that time blamed Marvell for that, according to a current view: “It appears that the failures are largely RIM’s, and often software related. The Marvell processors, when used, seem to work well.
The first larger scale win for ARMADA 610 was the VIZIO VTAB1008 8″ tablet operating with Android, made available in August 2011 (see: Innovative entertainment class [Android] tablet from VIZIO plus a unified UX for all cloud based CE devices, from TVs to smartphones [Aug 21, 2011 – Jan 7, 2012]). This tablet is shown earlier in the above video (from [0:19] to [1:24]). The ARMADA 628 still has to arrive in a tablet which probably will happen only late in 2012 on Android (as “The company looks at the tablets market as ‘saturated’ and is avoiding it for the next couple quarters“, see below) and might happen in Q4 as the earliest on Windows 8 as hinted explicitly below by Marvell. This is just a possibility (but a very big opportunity for OEMs considering the obvious maturity of 628), nothing more, as any OEM engagement currently under way might end up in a market relased product, or not (as in the case of Playbook with ARMADA 610).
Note: in the above video instead of ARMADA the earlier PXA branding is used by Marvell’s Allen Leibovitch. Jack Kang in charge of the Application Processors business is also using the PXA branding, as you could read below.

After the First real chances for Marvell on the tablet and smartphone fronts [Aug 21, 2011 – Jan 19, 2012], so far in the Android, Google TV, educational (more edu) and OPhone spaces, here is the next large scale opportunity for the company. With the young and entrepreneurial Jack Kang in charge since H2CY2010, who has an excellent earlier track record with Microsoft via the hugely successfull Microsoft Kinect application SoC effort, there is a real chance for the company to conclude with platform wins the reported below new engagements with both Microsoft and Nokia in 2012:

Exclusive: Marvell Says it Will Find a Home in Chinese Windows Phones [DailyTech, Jan 31, 2012]

Marvell also hints at possible Windows 8 tablets/laptops

We had an interesting chat with the Marvell Technology Group, Ltd. (MRVL).

Marvell is perhaps best known as the company that took the Xscale ARM division off of Intel Corp.’s (INTC) hands in 2006.  During the modern smartphone era, Marvell has been a quiet competitor, overshadowed by companies like Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM) and Samsung Electronics Comp., Ltd. (KS:005930) which have pushed the smartphone processing power envelope more aggressively.

By contrast Marvell has focused on budget smartphones.  It is in most of Research in Motion, Ltd.’s (TSE:RIM) BlackBerry smartphones.  These budget smartphones have led it to strong sales in Indonesia and China.

Blackberry 8910 China
Marvell has done well in China, thanks to close ties with RIM and Nokia.
[Image Source: BlackBerry Rocks]

Interestingly, the American company sees China as perhaps its most valuable market.  Jack Kang, director of Marvell’s applications processor business unit states, “China was a very strategic investment.”

With Windows Phones set to land in China later this year in budget smartphones, Mr. Kang is making a bold prediction — “If there’s Windows Phones in China, there will probably be Windows Phones with Marvell in China.”

That would be a major market event as thus far Qualcomm has been the exclusive ARM chipmaker partner of Windows Phone.  While Windows Phone has struggled in the U.S. where key Windows Phone partner Nokia Oyj. (HEL:NOK1V) has virtually no market share, in China Nokia is the top smartphone maker, so a switch to Marvell ARM cores would be quite a coup.


Nokia is the top phonemaker in China, thus it’s crucial that Marvell gets in Nokia’s new Chinese Windows Phones when it makes the shift later this year. [Image Source: M.I.C. Gadget]

Mr. Kang feels his firm’s biggest strength is providing “quality low-cost devices”.  While it doesn’t bake discrete Wi-Fi circuitry into some of its system-on-a-chip devices, it says this approach works in markets like Indonesia or rural China where there’s plentiful 3G but sparse Wi-Fi coverage.

Marvell current produces single and dual-core chips, with the smartphone-aimed ARMADA family.  Despite competitors like Qualcomm and NVIDIA Corp. (NVDA) jumping to quad core, Marvell says that approach doesn’t make sense.  Mr. Kang comments, “We don’t think quad core makes sense at 40 [nm] from a power perspective, from a price perspective.”

OLPC Marvell chip
Marvell’s ARMADA series ARM CPUs power smartphones and mobile devices like the ARM OLPC variant. [Image Source: OLPC.tv]

He says that Marvell is tentatively slotted to release quad-core designs when it hits 28 nm in mid-2013.  The chipmaker uses Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Comp., Ltd.’s (TPE:2330) third-party fabrication services.  TSMC has struggled at the 28 nm node, delivering low yields and in turn higher costs — a combination that doesn’t work with Marvell’s business model — hence the delay.

Marvell feels that the fact that it takes its ARM license and build a unique core from the ground up using the ARM instruction set gives it an advantage over competitors like NVIDIA that simply take the core licensed from ARM Holdings plc (LON:ARM), but don’t do a complete redesign.

The company looks at the tablets market as “saturated” and is avoiding it for the next couple quarters, although it did seem distraught at losing RIM’s PlayBook to Texas Instruments Inc. (TXN), another U.S. chipmaker.

Mr. Kang hinted Marvell may jump on the tablet bandwagon or even release budget ARM laptops in Q4 2012 when Windows 8 arrives — and with it the first-ever ARM CPU support for a Windows main line operating system.  He comments, “Microsoft already said Windows 8 will run on ARM.  And we build ARM devices, so….”

Windows 8 tablet

Marvell hints it may be cooking up ARM Windows 8 tablets/laptops, too.

This move would make sense because Marvell has been involved with the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project in producing an ARM (Marvell) powered design.  It has also played with low cost Linux laptops for years.

The company also showed off a (Android 3.2) “Honeycomb” television set, which it plans to target as an introduction to Internet TV in budget markets like China.  This was a reference design, whereas Marvell would partner with a traditional TV maker for production designs.

The Honeycomb set uses Marvell’s latest dual-core chip, which contains an extra low-power core to conserve energy during simpler tasks.  The power savings approach mirrors that found in Tegra 3.  In that sense Marvell’s dual-core is technically a tri-core, much as NVIDIA’s quad-core is technically a penta-core.

There could indeed be a real 2012 opportunity for Marvell as Nokia CEO Stephen Elop highlighted in an answer to questions about the Quarter 4 results last week (Nokia Quarter 4 results 2011 webcast [Nokia, Jan 26, 2012]):

on China dynamics:

… The Chinese operators are increasingly, on accellerated basis entering into structures where there’s effectively retail rate plan bundling is going on at the store. The operators are driving very hard for the volume of 3G data subscribers. And this is not necessary an economic measure as it is driving volume on certain networks for certain technologies. I think those targets are probably set more broadly for all of the operators [he could mean: by the state, as all three operators are majority owned by the state]. And the impact of that is that they are discovering that with very low priced devices on certain radio technologies they can drive a lot of volume at those levels. And so we are seeing, for example, a very significant uptake in a number of low-priced devices that are on CDMA, there’s also a very significant focus on the Chinese technology TD-SCDMA, again all of the low levels ought to drive those volumes. My comment in the prepared remarks is that Symbian is not well positioned today against that. We do not have Symbian CDMA products at all, so we are not participating in that part of the market. So as that part of the market grows our addressable market has gone down because of that. In TD-SCDMA we do have some products in that space but not at the price points and configurations that is the real focus of this market. …

… We have not yet announced our specific products for the Chinese market but I will say that when we first announced our launch plans, I think all the way back in October, we did highlight that we would have CDMA based Windows Phone products and TD-SCDMA Windows Phone products. That thing said it is the case that we have work to do to successively drive the prices down further and further and further. That will take a bit of time but this is clearly the pattern you are going to see us on the months ahead. …

[I have a couple of deep and current analysis on that:
The new, high-volume market in China is ready to define the 2012 smartphone war [Jan 6, 2012]
China TD-SCDMA and W-CDMA 3G subscribers by the end of 2011: China Mobile lost its original growth momentum [Jan 21, 2012]
China becoming the lead market for mobile Internet in 2012/13 [Dec 1, 2011]]

High performance SOC handles HD media [Jan 6, 2012]

The ARMADA 1500 HD media SOC decodes high-definition advanced multi-format video and audio using it’s dual ARMv7 compatible PJ4B 1.2 GHz processors with symmetric multi-processing and DSP accelerators. The chip targets IP/cable/satellite set-top boxes, advanced Blu-Ray players, digital media adapters, Google TV, and DTV applications.

The SOCs processors yield 6,000 DMIPS. It includes a secure boot ROM and USB, Fast Ethernet, HDMI, SATA, and SDIO interfaces, plus a 32-bit DDR3 at 800 MHz interface. The chips security engine handles OTP, RNG, AES/(3), DES, RSA, SHA-1, and MD5 and a comprehensive software development kit is available. (No price given – available now.)

See also my other posts regarding the other high volume opportunities for Marvell:
Marvell® ARMADA® PXA168 based XO laptops and tablets from OLPC with $185 and target $100 list prices respectively [Jan 8, 2012]
Google’s revitalization of its Android-based TV effort via Marvell SoC and reference design [Jan 5, 2012]
(the VIZIO VAP430 Stream Player, introduced below, is likely based on that)
VIZIO’s two pronged strategy: Android based V.I.A. Plus device ecosystem + Windows based premium PC entertainment [Jan 11, 2012]

Background on Marvell’s relationship with Microsoft

A Cal ‘Kinect-ion’ [Innovations by UC Berkeley College of Engineering, Nov 9, 2011]

Some engineers wait a lifetime for a project like the one that Jack Kang (B.S.’04 EECS) landed when he was barely 26.

In the fall of 2008, Kang was settling into a new marketing position [Technical Marketing Manager] at Marvell, a Santa Clara-based semiconductor company, when Microsoft came knocking with a mysterious assignmentfor the company. Working on an undisclosed product, the computing giant needed a team to design a complex chip for manufacture on a massive scale.

“This project was very secretive,” recalls Kang, who had shifted from hands-on chip design to marketing management at Marvell. Marvell got the Microsoft contract, but “we didn’t really know what it was for,” says Kang. Many months into the development of a specialized microprocessor—often touted as a system’s “brains”—he got his answer. The mystery chip was destined for Kinect, Microsoft’s controller-free and immensely popular electronic game sensor device.

Introduced last November, Kinect uses sophisticated visual and voice recognition to run electronic games, movies and other entertainment. A companion to Microsoft’s Xbox 360 video gaming system, it became the fastest-selling consumer electronics gadget in history, selling 8 million devices in 60 days.

Kinect’s appeal came as no surprise to Kang. “It was a giant leap,” he says of the technology that lets users interact with media through body motions and voice commands. In fact, when Kang first learned about Kinect, he was so dazzled by the concept that he wondered if it could actually be pulled off.

His work on the Kinect chip spanned two years. Acting as the project champion in a “do-whatever-it-takes” capacity, Kang managed the effort from the earliest negotiations through a series of designs to manufacturing. In all, more than 100 Marvell chip designers, marketing representatives, software engineers and othersparticipated in a process that witnessed its share of evolutionary curveballs.

For the first six months, the Marvell team focused on what Kang believes would have been one of the most powerful mobile or consumer chips on the market. Shortly after the chip was completed, Microsoft asked for an even higher performing version. But the company soon switched course, deciding to put more of the computing functions into the Xbox instead of Kinect, Kang says.

Ultimately, Marvell engineers were asked to build a general purpose chip capable of controlling voice recognition and sending data to the Xbox. The team wound up modifying a chip already in development. That chip, as it turned out, was one that Kang had helped design in his earlier capacity as a Marvell engineer.

Jack Kang at Marvell

PHOTO BY ABBY COHN

Excited by his role in unleashing Kinect, Kang sees many possibilities for human-machine interaction. “We’re just at the tip of the iceberg of what this device can do,” he says, envisioning future Kinect systems that help the disabled and the elderly, and play a role in medical treatment and procedures.

Beyond Kinect’s intended use for home entertainment, the $150 system has already triggered a flood of creative applications for its cameras, 3-D sensing and other features. At UC Berkeley, graduate student Patrick Bouffard installed a Kinect on a small four-rotor robotic helicopter to enable it to sense its height above the floor and detect objects in its way. Other concepts have included video-conferencing, surveillance and a navigational aid for the blind.

With his boyish smile and animated personality, Kang, now 29, is at least a decade younger than most of his professional peers. He has developed 11 patents, mostly in the field of CPU (central processing unit) technology. “Everything I needed to know I learned in CS152!” he quips. Kang took that computer architecture and engineering class at Berkeley Engineering and became a teaching assistant his senior year.

Born in Taiwan and raised in the South Bay, Kang was drawn to a career at the intersection of engineering and business. “I felt you could have more of an impact,” he says. At Berkeley, he minored in business administration and was powerfully influenced by his experience as a TA. Hired as a Marvell engineer in February 2006, he was increasingly tapped to showcase company products in technical presentations for clients. “I had the mindset of marketing,” says Kang, who also enjoyed the social interaction that came with it.

Twice promoted since 2008, Kang now serves as director of Marvell’s application processor business unit. Today, with a 12-member staff, Kang manages Marvell product lines for e-readers, gaming, education, tabletsand other devices. Long gone is a work schedule with room for lunchtime volleyball and soccer games. “There’s always someone up in some time zone,” Kang observes.

Kang is eager for the next project of Kinect-like proportions to come his way. “Technology is always evolving,” he says. “I certainly hope I have something that beats it.”

Marvell: Lazard Says Buy On Kinect, TD-SCDMA Opportunities [Tech Trader Daily, June 20, 2011]

Lazard Capital Markets analyst Daniel Amirraised the stock to Buy from Neutral …

Marvell’s sales of chips into China’s home-brewed TD-SCDMA cellular network standard, which is being developed by China Mobile (CHL), and backed by the government, is perhaps underestimated by the Street.

Marvell could produce $90 million in revenue this year from those chip sales, and $151 million next year, but it could actually go as high as $202 million next year, he thinks. The Street has just $80 million modeled for this year, on average.

Moreover, the company’s sales into Microsoft’s (MSFT) “Kinect” gaming accessory are “opening new doors” for Marvell in the mobile and wireless business, he thinks, which may help Marvell catch up after missing earlier tablet and smartphone bids. Kinect will probably produce $104 million in revenue for Marvell this year, up from $64 million last year, on Kinect units of 16 million, Amir thinks.

[Microsoft Reports Record Revenue of $20.9 Billion in Second Quarter [Microsoft press release, Jan 19, 2012]: “The Xbox 360 installed base now totals approximately 66 million consoles and 18 million Kinect sensors”]

Teardown: Kinect has processor after all [EE Times, Nov 15, 2010]

Despite Microsoft Corp.’s claims to the contrary, its new Kinect motion-gaming ad-on for the Xbox 360 uses a standalone applications processor marketed by Marvell Technology Group Ltd. , according to a teardown analysis of the Kinect performed by UBM TechInsights.

TechInsights’ teardown uncovered within Kinect a Marvell PXA 168 applications processor, a part usually found in notebook computers. In September, Microsoft reportedly said it decided not to use a dedicated processor in Kinect. Instead, the company reportedly said the peripheral would harness the power of the processor within the Xbox.

Microsoft (Redmond, Wash.) did not immediately respond to request for comment about the discrepancy.

TechInsights analysts concluded that Microsoft’s head fake means the company has bigger plans to make Kinect more of a platform for applications beyond gaming, or that the company was simply trying to prevent the device from being hacked. The Kinect has reportedly already been hacked multiple times.

The analysts also believe that Microsoft may have underestimated the resource demand on the 360 console processor and was forced into using a laptop-equivalent processor to integrate the imaging, sensing, motor-drive and control functions and orchestrate I/O and communications between the Kinect and Xbox 360. It’s also possible that the processor was required to support the spatial aspects of Kinect’s multiple microphones, they said.

“It’s difficult to identify exactly what the Marvell processor accomplishes on the Kinect as investigation on how the firmware and software manage all control and processing functions and how they could be localized/virtualized to the Xbox haven’t been investigated yet,” said Allan Yogasingam, a technical marketing manager at TechInsights. “Regardless, Microsoft has created a product that takes full advantage of all its components to provide an innovative gaming experience. The existence of this Marvell processor just opens the door for further innovation down the line and an extension of the Kinect from more than just a sensor-based gaming accessory.”

TechInsights also conducted further study on the sensor unit that works with Kinect’s image processor, made by PrimeSense Ltd. The firm discovered that the CMOS image sensors used were provided by Aptina Imaging (the die markings on the sensors still refer to Micron Imaging, which was spun off into Aptina in 2008). The infrared camera uses the MT9M001 sensor and RGB input from the color camera features the MT9M112 sensor, TechInsights said.

Close up of the Marvell PXA 168 applications processor found inside Kinect.
Source: UBM TechInsights.

TechInsights’ recent teardown of Kinect found chips made by PrimeSense, Marvell, Texas Instruments Inc., STMicroelectronics NV and others. The firm estimates that Kinect carries a bill-of-materials of roughly $56 for the components, not including the the price of design, R&D and the $500 million Microsoft plans to spend to market the device.

Teardown of the Microsoft Kinect – Focused on Motion Capture [Chipworks, Dec 23, 2010]

Application processor An Armada Series 800 MHz application processor by Marvell was also inside the Microsoft Kinect. Interestingly, this device is typically aimed at the e-reader market

Marvell-88AP1-BJD2

Why did MS dump Kinect processor? There was ‘no need’ for it  [ComputerAndVideoGames.com, Sept 29, 2010]

Camera tracks fewer points than it did last year

It emerged in January that MS had ditched a standalone processor in the camera – which some have claimed has subsequently affected performance.

Kinect now relies on the processing power of the Xbox itself – although the platform holder has claimed that it uses “less than one per cent” of the 360’s motherboard.

We didn’t know how much processing Kinect was going to take at the start of development,” Kinect creative boss Kudo Tsunoda told the new Xbox World 360.

“Obviously you don’t want to lose any of the things that are important to Xbox customers. Graphic fidelity is something that Xbox has always been known for, and you want to make sure that you still hit that level.

“Forza is a graphical showpiece, and we had Forza with Kinect at E3… the graphic fidelity has actually improved in some areas from what they shipped with Forza 3. It’s still running at 60 FPS and it’s supporting Kinect, so there’s just no need to have that extra processor.”

When asked why Kinect detected less points on the player’s body than it did last year, Tsunoda added:

“As you start building the stuff, you’re like: ‘Wow, to track everything in the human body we can do less points. That’s just normal game development. Anything you do with games, you want the processing power to be used as efficiently as possible to get the experience that you want.”

Kinect launches in the UK on November 10 and the US on November 4.

Microsoft drops internal Natal chip [Jan 7, 2010]

GamesIndustry.biz has learned that Microsoft has dropped a chip from its forthcoming Natal motion control system as the platform holder eyes accessible price points in the build-up to release later this year.

Kinect Downgraded To Save Money, Can’t Read Sign Language [Kotaku, Aug 11, 2010]

The patent for Microsoft’s motion-sensing camera Kinect suggested that the device could understand American Sign Language. Well, it can’t. At least, the version going on sale in November can’t.

Responding to the claims made in the patent, Microsoft has told Kotaku “We are excited about the potential of Kinect and its potential to impact gaming and entertainment. Microsoft files lots of patent applications to protect our intellectual property, not all of which are brought to market right away. Kinect that is shipping this holiday will not support sign language.”

So why did the patent suggest it could? Well, sources close to the evolution of Kinect’s development tell us it’s because the version of the hardware that’ll be available later this year isn’t as capable as was originally intended.

The original Kinect had a much higher resolution (over twice that of the final model’s 320×240), and as such, was able to not only recognise the limbs of a player as the current model version can, but their fingers as well (which the current version can’t). And when the hardware could recognise fingers, it would have been able to read sign language.

But that capability came at a cost, and while Microsoft had always intended Kinect to sell for $150, “dumbing down” the camera would have meant that Microsoft wouldn’t be losing as much money on each unit sold, an important point should Kinect prove to be a failure. So dumb it down they did, reducing the camera’s resolution (which in turn reduced the number of appendages it’d have to track) and placing the burden for some of the device’s processing on the console and not Kinect’s own hardware.

This probably isn’t the first time you’ve heard such a rumour, but this latest time at least explains why Kinect can’t read sign language!

We’ve reached out to Microsoft for comment on the matter, and will update if we hear back.

Background on Jack Kang

Jack Kang, Director, Application Processors at Marvell [LinkedIn profile, excerpted, Feb 1, 2012]

Current

Past

Education

  • University of California, Berkeley
  • University of California, Berkeley – Walter A. Haas School of Business

Jack is currently director of Marvell’s Application Processor Business Unit. He has been in the semiconductor business for more than seven years, holding previous positions in design engineering at several leading technology vendors. At Marvell, Mr. Kang manages multiple product lines from design conception to mass market implementation and adoption. These include the industry-leading PXA168, PXA618 and PXA510 processors, which are fueling today’s premier consumer devices.

Additionally, he oversees various market segments, including education, eReaders, gaming, tablets and other connected consumer and embeddeddevices. Most recently, Mr. Kang was responsible for the processor design powering Microsoft’s gaming console, Microsoft Kinect. This gaming console shattered sales records and was named the fastest-selling tech gadget of all time by the Guinness Book of World Records – totaling more than 10 million units since its launch in November, 2010.

[Steve Ballmer, Houston Technology Forum, March 10, 2011: “We shipped those in November. We just announced that we’re over 10 million sold, in what amounts to about two-and-a-half months.”]

Outside of his work at Marvell, Mr. Kang also serves as a technical expert on CPU technology and has more than 11 patents pending in the field of CPU technology. He holds a degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley, with an emphasis in Computer Architecture.

Jack Kang, Patents and Publications [LinkedIn page, excerpted, Feb 1, 2012]

Jack Kang’s Patents

Interrupt Handling

  • United States Patent 7,870,372
  • Issued January 11, 2011

Inventors: Jack Kang, Hsi-Cheng Chu, Rich, Yu-Chi Chuang

Method and apparatus for idling and waking threads by a multithread processor

  • United States Patent 7,904,703
  • Issued March 8, 2011

Inventors: Jack Kang, Rich, Yu-Chi Chuang

MULTI-THREAD PROCESSOR WITH MULTIPLE PROGRAM COUNTERS

  • United States Patent 7,941,643
  • Issued May 10, 2011

Inventors: Jack Kang, Rich, Yu-Chi Chuang

Methods, apparatuses, and system for facilitating control of multiple instruction threads

  • United States Patent 7,757,070
  • Issued July 13, 2010

Inventors: Jack Kang, Hsi-Cheng Chu, Rich, Yu-Chi Chuang

Multithread processor with thread based throttling

  • United States Patent 7,886,131
  • Issued February 8, 2011

Inventors: Jack Kang

Instruction dispatching method and apparatus

  • United States Patent 7,904,704
  • Issued March 8, 2011

Inventors: Jack Kang, Rich, Yu-Chi Chuang

Methods and apparatus for handling switching among threads within a multithread processor

  • United States Patent 8,032,737
  • Issued October 4, 2011

Inventors: Jack Kang, Hsi-Cheng Chu

Event-based bandwidth allocation mode switching method and apparatus

  • United States Patent 8,046,775
  • Issued October 25, 2011

Inventors: Jack Kang, Rich, Yu-Chi Chuang

Jack Kang’s Publications

A Cal ‘Kinect-ion’

  • Berkeley Innovations
  • November 28, 2011

Authors: Jack Kang, Abby Cohn

Marvell’s processors for embedded systems – Discussion of the PXA510 processor and the D2Plug developer kit

Mr. Jack Kang of Marvell discusses the PXA510 ARM V7 based 800 MHz application processor with with 512 Kbytes of level 2 cache and it’s associated developer kit.

From Dewey to Digital [HigherEdTECH, Jan 6, 2011]

No more pencils?! No more books? No more teachers? On-demand digital content, do-it-yourself learning, new generation learning platforms, and new modes of assessment are disrupting traditional textbooks, grading, courses, and degrees. Is technology really a catalyst for change? Let us count the ways.

Moderator:
Kenneth C. Green, Founding Director, The Campus Computing Project

Panel:

  • Sean Devine, Chief Executive Officer, CourseSmart
  • Felice Nudelman, Executive Director, Education, The New York Times Company
  • William D. Rieders, Executive Vice President of Global New Media, Cengage Learning
  • Jack Kang, Director, Application Processor Business Unit, Marvell

Video Records (~10 min each) of the From Dewey to Digital (Jan 6, 2011) panel discussion:

Nokia CEO: salespeople to deliver true WP7 retail experience supported by improved product management, marketing and accelerated global coverage with a full breadth of products

Nokia Quarter 4 results 2011 webcast [Nokia, Jan 26, 2012]:

prepared remarks by Stephen Elop, President & CEO

[02:00] … Lumia

In Q4 2012 Lumia was introduced to:

  • a number of European countries
  • Hong Kong, India, Russia, Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea

… [remarks on January US introduction already covered by me in detail: Nokia’s Lumia strategy is capitalizing on platform enhancement opportunities with location-based services, better photographic experience etc. [Jan 12, 2012]]

  • China and Latin America in this half

Current situation:

  • to date well over 1 million Lumia devices sold
  • since mid November from zero markets to 15 markets, from zero devices to well over a million devices, from no presence in the US to being in lead in the AT&T’s LTE launch

From this beachhead you will see us to push forward with the sales, marketing and successive product introductions necessary to be successfull.

Our performance with Lumia on a country by country basis varies. Often [it] is a combination of relative brand strength and retail execution capabilities.

  • For example, in the United Kingdom, where competitive ecosystems are firmly entrenched, we have seen mixed retail execution around Lumia devices with a range of results among different locations, different chains, different stores and so on.
  • Contrarily in Germany and Spain we have seen steady, weak on weak improvement in Lumia device activations up to the Holiday season followed by a small expected dip in the last week of the year, and then a continued weak on weak growth in January.

.. we are in the heart of our transition, which means as we bring the first of our new devices to market there are areas we are learning and areas where we must adjust:

  1. We are learning more about the variations in our store by store retail execution related to Lumia. Our consumer research indicates and response at CES validates that once a consumers use a Lumia device their responses are positive. Where we’ve secured strong support from the operators we need to increase the engagement of the retail sales associates in the stores, because it is the retail associate who speaks with our consumersand puts the Lumia device in their hands. As a result we are adjusting, we are adjusting our retail tactics by increasing the quantity and quality of our retail associate traning programs, seeding more Lumia devices into the market, and increasing point of sales activities.
  2. With the continued focus on consumer net promoter scores we are also learning about the areas where consumers are most favorable towards the specific capabilities of Lumia and those areas upon which we need to focus. For example, we’ve received very positive feedback on the elegance of design, ease of use, and absolute performance of the products. On the other hand, consumers initially reported that battery performance needed focus. Thus we immediately adjusted to improve battery performance with software updates which are now in the market. This rapid cycle of consumer learning and Nokia response is a critical part of our improved approach to product management.
  3. We are learning that awareness of Lumia is steadily growing, assisted by each of the successive product and country launches that continue. As awareness grows we are adjusting the focus of our marketing efforts from an aspirational aspect of a new launch towards an emphasis on a differentiated experiences and capabilitiesof the Lumia products.
  4. We are learning about the importance of truly breaking through. Thus we are adjusting our plans to increase the rate at which we enter new markets during the course of 2012. We also are increasing the focus of our corporate resources on continued marketing campaigns, and we are working to accelerate the introduction of a full breadth of products.

Overall we’re pursuing this pattern. We’ll take each step up the ladder one running at a time recognizing that the competitive dynamics vary country by country. This underscores the large amount of work immidiately ahead of us to break through as the third ecosystem, to capture the attention of retail sales associates, to convert the increasing awareness around Lumia and the purchase intent, and ultimately to delight our consumers. [09:12]

the essence of the answers to some questions:

on carriers’ motivation:

… motivation on third ecosystem is very strong … consistency on user experience on behalf of Microsoft … it is in our favor but we need earn their respect …

on Lumia sell-through:

… different [retail] experiences and so forth … focus on when and how those [retail] experiences are different … we do see different [retail] experiences and patterns in different countries … some are related to competitive dynamics, brand strengths, retail capabilities and so forth … for example, a lot of those reports tend to focus on UK, which in the context of Europe is the hardest market in terms of breaking through the strength of the competing ecosystems and so forth … you’ll see a lot of ballance in that direction … what’s really interesting is, and this is we’re so much in very early days that you have to really dig into the details … even when you’re in the UK. I was there a couple of days ago, and as you can imagine, I went to store, to store, to store, and asking: tell me about smartphones, what’s new and all that type of thing. You’ll see a great variability of in-store performance in terms of retail experience. .. in certain stores the retail presentation is great, the associates are well trained, everything is right, and of course it correlates very closely with the success that we’re seeing in certain chains of stores, in certain areas and so forth. Very good performance. … In other areas we are not as far along as we need to be. We need better retail execution, associates are not as well prepared, or there are other dynamics that are at play. The reason I tell you about this variability is because, first of all, how people report depend very much on the experience they have, this mix from location to location in some countries. But also as you assess, OK, as we apply more resource, as we make sure that we are very focussed on getting everyone upto the base level, if not the excellent level of retail execution, we can clearly see our way through the work that need to be done in order to deliver the results that we want to continue to deliver. …       

on China dynamics:

… The Chinese operators are increasingly, on accellerated basis entering into structures where there’s effectively retail rate plan bundling is going on at the store. The operators are driving very hard for the volume of 3G data subscribers. And this is not necessary an economic measure as it is driving volume on certain networks for certain technologies. I think those targets are probably set more broadly for all of the operators [he could mean: by the state, as all three operators are majority owned by the state]. And the impact of that is that they are discovering that with very low priced devices on certain radio technologies they can drive a lot of volume at those levels. And so we are seeing, for example, a very significant uptake in a number of low-priced devices that are on CDMA, there’s also a very significant focus on the Chinese technology TD-SCDMA, again all of the low levels ought to drive those volumes. My comment in the prepared remarks is that Symbian is not well positioned today against that. We do not have Symbian CDMA products at all, so we are not participating in that part of the market. So as that part of the market grows our addressable market has gone down because of that. In TD-SCDMA we do have some products in that space but not at the price points and configurations that is the real focus of this market. …

… We have not yet announced our specific products for the Chinese market but I will say that when we first announced our launch plans, I think all the way back in October, we did highlight that we would have CDMA based Windows Phone products and TD-SCDMA Windows Phone products. That thing said it is the case that we have work to do to successively drive the prices down further and further and further. That will take a bit of time but this is clearly the pattern you are going to see us on the months ahead. …

[I have a couple of deep and current analysis on that:
The new, high-volume market in China is ready to define the 2012 smartphone war [Jan 6, 2012]
China TD-SCDMA and W-CDMA 3G subscribers by the end of 2011: China Mobile lost its original growth momentum [Jan 21, 2012]
China becoming the lead market for mobile Internet in 2012/13 [Dec 1, 2011]]

on differentiating the Windows Phone:

… the overall user experience is differentiated against Android … good response from the customers on Music service included, location services (Map and Drive) … partnerships: e.g. ESPN … in addition we have to ensure that the retail experience is differentiated … even price, e.g. in US/T-Mobile case already …

[I have a couple of deep and current analysis on that:
Nokia’s Lumia strategy is capitalizing on platform enhancement opportunities with location-based services, better photographic experience etc. [Jan 12, 2012]
The precursor of 2012 smartphone war: Nokia Lumia vs. Samsung Omnia W in India [Jan 3, 2012]
The leading ClearBlack display technology from Nokia [Dec 18, 2011]
Nokia Lumia (Windows Phone 7) value proposition [Oct 26, 2011]]

on rapid scalability for lower prices of Chinese market:

… a critical consideration for us … work is under way with Microsoft … you will see a stepwise progress in that direction in the periods ahead.

on the mobile phones business:

… feature phones and how that market is perceived is less about the collection of features and what it does and doesn’t do, but it is more about the price span, the opportunity to drive, increase sales in that area, to serve consumers who don’t want to spend the money, or don’t have the money to spend on what we would today consider smartphone and so forth. …

[I have a deep and more current information on that:
Smarterphone end-to-end software solution for “the next billion” Nokia users [Jan 9, 2012]]

Nokia Lumia Momentum Map [Nokia Maps Blog, Jan 15, 2012]

If a picture is worth a thousand words, an interactive map is at least worth ten thousand words! To coincide with the launch of Nokia Lumia in USA; we launched the Nokia Lumia Momentum Map – an interactive way to check out the countries where Nokia Lumia smart phones are either available or will be coming soon. You can also check out the tweets, videos and photos from users about the Lumia series.

The content of the Momentum Map as of Jan 15, 2012:

Country Lumia 710 Lumia 800
Germany Now Now
Netherlands Now Now
Italy Now Now
Russia Now Now
India Now Now
Hong Kong Now Now
Taiwan Now Now
Singapore Now Now
Spain Jan 11, 2012 Now
United Kingdom Feb 1, 2012 Now
USA (+ Lumia 900
“in coming months”)
Jan 11, 2012 Coming Soon
France n.a. Now
Austria Coming Soon Now
Hungary Jan 20, 2012 Jan 20, 2012
Greece Jan 21, 2012 Jan 20, 2012
Portugal Feb 2, 2012 Jan 26, 2012
Switzerland n.a. Jan 13, 2012
Denmark n.a. Jan 20, 2012
Sweden n.a. Jan 23, 2012
Norway Feb 1, 2012 Feb 1, 2012
Canada Feb, 2012 Feb, 2012
Belgium Mar 1, 2012 Feb 1, 2012

More information:
Nokia Q4 2011 net sales EUR 10.0 billion, non-IFRS EPS EUR 0.06 (reported EPS EUR -0.29) Nokia 2011 net sales EUR 38.7 billion, non-IFRS EPS EUR 0.29 (reported EPS EUR -0.31) [Nokia press release, Jan 26, 2012]
Quarter 4 report tables in xls [Jan 26, 2012]
Nokia Names Siilasmaa as Chairman to Replace Retiring Ollila – BusinessWeek

… Nokia investors lost more than 60 billion euros ($79 billion) in share value after Apple Inc. leapfrogged it with the iPhone. Siilasmaa will oversee Chief Executive Officer Stephen Elop’s efforts to win customers as Apple and Google Inc. expand into new markets. … An investor in Finnish startups, Siilasmaa may also broker more tie-ups with new companies such as “Angry Birds” maker Rovio Entertainment Ltd.
“I don’t want to leave a fortune to my kids,” Siilasmaa told a panel on startup investment …

Nordic Chairman of the Year 2009: Speech of thanks by Risto Siilasmaa, F-Secure Oyj. [Feb 18, 2010]

Relative to that media reports are very narrow focused as you could even see from the below entries considered the best among them:

Nokia Posts Huge Loss [The Wall Street Journal, Jan 27, 2011]

Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi said Nokia’s shipments were in line with expectations. ‘Overall, what we have been looking for is an improvement over the third quarter, and we got that. But while it seems Nokia is on track, there is still a lot more to do,’ she said.

Nokia CEO taps salesmen to assure Lumia push [SlashGear, Jan 27, 2012]

Over the last year when it came to Windows Phone, we saw a lovely looking user interface fall victim to less than stellar engagement and interest on the part of the public – Stephen Elop this week says that it’s the work of the salesmen, not the manufacturer, to make the final drop of the device into the hands on the consumer. Without a doubt there’s a certain flair to the Lumia line of smartphones being released both here in the USA and abroad this year, but without the folks in the stores actually pointing people to the hands-on equipment, there’s certainly no chance of a big hit in the engagement environment. Elop let the world know in Nokia’s sales call what he expects from store employees in the very near future.

Without that final point-of-sale touch, all else will certainly fail, at least that’s what Nokia’s top minds seem to be saying this week. Though the devices are perfectly legitimate in their build and execution, and the advertisements surrounding them may be lovely, there’s always a third step that must be taken. Elop said thusly this week in Nokia’s sales call:

“We need to increase the engagement of the retail sales associates in the stores, because it is the retail associate who speaks with our consumers and puts the Lumia device in their hands. For example, in the United Kingdom, where competitive ecosystems are firmly entrenched, we have seen mixed retail execution around Lumia devices with a range of results among different locations, different chains, different stores and so on.” – Elop

And the comments were mostly supportive of that:

Joseph ParadisModerator1 day ago

I think he has a good point. I had known about WP7 for quite some time before the launch and had already chosen the phone I wanted. The last step for me was going to the store and getting a little hands-on to seal the deal. I had 3 sales reps (from 3 different stores) tell me to check out the Android phones instead (?!). One told me that the Windows OS is no good because its buggy, the other two were just astounded that I was interested in a WP7. I knew way more about the specs of those phones (and a good count of Android phones) than the sales rep. There are a lot of people who I think would like Nokia WP7 phones and other WP7 phones, but kind of go to the store without much knowledge and get carted around by these reps who may have ulterior motives.

Stephens_ElopedModerator1 day ago

I think anyone who is reading a website like SlashGear is the kind of person who probably knows more than the average salesperson in a mobile phone store. Definitely. I’ve had the experience of being “too knowledgeable” myself on many occasion. You stand there listening to false information and you’re either tempted to let it fly, (poor guy didn’t any training) or if they’re douches, you just say, “No, you’re wrong, the N9/L800/L910 isn’t all aluminum, it’s all poly-carbonate, which is a plastic.”

I think salespeople in the States are the worst – they’re so entrenched with Android and iPhone (and also any OEM + WP that ISN’T Nokia), that unless Nokia say, “ok salesteam, here’s a much, much bigger commission for you if you sell a Lumia”, then they haven’t got much chance of changing the mindset of the average American consumer. It’s not a Nokia friendly world here, so they’ve got to up their game. TV ads ain’t nowhere near enough.

CleverModerator22 hours ago

It’s definitely the salespeople who make it hard for WP7 to take off. Phone carriers make their biggest profits from sales of Android handsets and are able to load the Android phones with their bloatware, therefore the sales staff are trained to push these phones over iPhone and WP7 handsets.
Here in Australia our stores are all Android themed and one store in Melbourne has a whole floor called “Android Land”, where phone shoppers can explore and learn all about the Android ecosystem. Now that there are some decent WP7 handsets coming out, I think Microsoft really needs to do three things to get their OS to take off:

1 – Get some handsets out to carriers and stores. Only 1 carrier out of 4 in Australia even sells WP7 devices and they are outdated and you’d be lucky to even find them on display in stores. I think a lot of people would like to by a Nokia N900 but if it takes another 12 months before they even hit our shelves I’m sure we will have lost interest.

2 – Work with carriers to not only sell WP7 devices but to actually push them. Make the devices resonably priced and give carriers incentives in the way of good subsidies to entice them to get their staff to actually push WP7 devices.

3 – Market WP7 so people actually know it exists and know to look for it when they do walk into a phone store. Apart from us tech heads I would bet that half of the population doesn’t even know that WP7 exists. People who don’t know about something are a lot less likely to purchase it. Where are the TV ads telling us why we should be buying a WP7 device?

Dumb salesmen are hurting us – Nokia CEO [The Register, Jan 27, 2012]

Incentivising the McJobs

Analysis Stephen Elop got a pretty indulgent reception from analysts, and most of the press yesterday, after delivering some shocking results. Nokia turned a profit of €2bn into a loss of €1bn in the new boss’s first full year; volumes are down by 29 per cent; sales of the new Windows phone are unremarkable (to put it generously); and Elop has scrapped guidance for the rest of the year. [Summary] News like this would normally have analysts reaching for the panic button – but not today. Why would this be?

Well, obviously, much can be explained by the appreciation that Nokia is in rapid transition – it isn’t even a full year since the Elopcalypse. Elop got the bad news out of the way in his (still) remarkable Burning Platforms memo. But it’s also because he was quite unexpectedly frank and forthcoming about why Nokia isn’t making more headway with its shiny new platform – the one that isn’t burning. Elop explained that Nokia has a very stiff learning curve ahead of it in consumer retail. He also said that sales staff in the channel weren’t helping. He even detailed this country-by-country. I’m surprised more Nokia-watchers haven’t remarked on this – or why Elop dwelled on retail in such detail.

Nokia staff should be glad he did, because of a forlorn sight I saw last November. Just as the Christmas shopping season was getting underway on London’s Oxford Street, I saw a quite ominous sight. The flagship West End Carphone Warehouse store, next to John Lewis, had large posters in the window announcing the arrival of the Lumia 800. There were two live Lumia 800s available for curious punters to play with – of around half a dozen such working retail models from rivals. Except they weren’t live. They were completely dead. And although Nokia had secured the prime corner spot for its devices, it may as well have hidden them on some remote industrial wasteland. The shop was very busy, but nobody came and asked if they could see the Lumia working.

If Nokia is to claw its way back into contention, this won’t do. Getting one million Lumias stocked really isn’t a terrific achievement considering that the six largest European markets had the 800, and some pretty significant Asian markets had the 710. The needle hasn’t moved.

“There are areas where we are learning and areas where we must adjust. First, we are learning more about the variations in our store-by-store retail execution related to Lumia,” said Elop yesterday.

He then re-emphasised how important it was to show people the Windows UI, and suggested that quality of the sales droids was very variable:

“We need to increase the engagement of the retail sales associates in the stores, because it is the retail associate who speaks with our consumers and puts the Lumia device in their hands,” he added, correctly. And he singled out some of the domestic channel here, suggesting he hadn’t been impressed by what he saw:

“For example, in the United Kingdom, where competitive ecosystems are firmly entrenched, we have seen mixed retail execution around Lumia devices with a range of results among different locations, different chains, different stores and so on.”

I know several first-time smartphone buyers and Windows Phone wasn’t even on the radar. People don’t know it exists. In the UK, Android gained an early and enthusiastic foothold, which two years on translates into a mature and knowledgeable market. The Samsung Galaxy SII was the best-selling phonein the UK at Christmas, by some distance. For the average punter a buying decision begins with a binary choice between Apple and BlackBerry, and if it’s a touchscreen then it’s between the iPhone and “one of the other lot”. The other lot is Android. Sales staff in stores like Carphone aren’t uniquely thick – they’re like all savvy retail staff – they want their commission, and they know there’s a huge appetite for Android out there.

It’s a sign of how things have changed. Nokia can no longer play hardball with its channel partners – today, it really needs their help. Windows has made no impression on the market and gaining people’s attention – which includes aligning the incentives of the channel – is going to be much more expensive than analysts realise.

I’m onto my second Lumia, and I like the UI very much indeed. But I still haven’t seen a civilian – someone who isn’t an analyst, journalist or Nokia industry partner – carrying a Lumia in the wild. Have you?

China TD-SCDMA and W-CDMA 3G subscribers by the end of 2011: China Mobile lost its original growth momentum

While China Unicom (W-CDMA) has been able to maintain an average 9.8% month by month growth of 3G subscribers in Q4 CY2011, China Mobile’s growth performance during the quarter has been significantly lower, 5.9% month by month on average. In fact China Mobile lost its momentum during the last 5 months of the year with only 6.2% average monthly growth while China Unicom’s has been an average 9.2% monthly growth during the same period which is even sligthly better than the average 9.1% during the first 7 months of the year:
 The analysis of this significant trend you can find in The new, high-volume market in China is ready to define the 2012 smartphone war [Jan 6, 2012] which was based on November data.