Valleywag: Nokia

skwash

Owen Thomas — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 16:40:00 PDT

In a post about Google's agricultural-mapping expeditions, commenter skwash suggests that Google's snapping shots of business-free rural roads so it can create its own geographical database, shutting out map providers TeleAtlas and Nokia's Navteq:

You have to consider the fact that Google has to pay to license all of their street data from NAVTEQ and TeleAtlas. By essentially photographing the view from the street, Google has access to nearly everything they need to re-create the data set. Street names, mileposts, exit numbers, etc can all be pulled from the images. Combine this with their recently announced Map Maker and Google has their own data set with accuracy as good or better than their current sources, and they don't have to pay ridiculous licensing fees. This doesn't even account for the fact that Google is striking deals with local government to publish geo data as well, or that Google is using Street View cars to collect 3D data on buildings.)

Nokia acquires mobile OS-maker Symbian

Nicholas Carlson — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 09:40:00 PDT

Finland mobile device maker Nokia will acquire the 52 percent of mobile operating system-maker Symbian it didn't already own from private investors Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB, Sweden's Telefon AB L.M. Ericsson, Panasonic Mobile Communications Co. and Siemens AG for $410 million. Nokia plans to turn the Symbian operating system into an open source software platform to rival Google's Android and Apple's iPhone OS X software. Symbian's 1,000 developers will join Nokia as employees and Symbian itself will continue as a non-profit foundation responsible for marketing the OS.

Gamers annoyed at Nokia

Owen Thomas — Thu, 22 May 2008 09:40:00 PDT

Videogames which run on Nokia's N-Gage cell-phone gaming platform are locked to a specific phone, requiring a new purchase when the phone is replaced. Cell-phone users typically buy a new phone every 18 months. [BBC News]

Who's going to TechTalk Menorca, the Balearic boondoggle?

Owen Thomas — Fri, 09 May 2008 15:20:00 PDT

Martin Varsavsky, the founder of Wi-Fi startup Fon, has concocted another excuse for Web 2.0's jet set to rack up frequent-flier miles and buy carbon offsets: It's called Menorca TechTalk, held on Varsavsky's ranch on the Mediterranean island this weekend. The website is password-protected, but Valleywag got a list of who's going. It's a curious mix of professional conference attendees, like Rapleaf's Auren Hoffman, Loïc Le Meur of Seesmic, TechCrunch's Michael Arrington, and David Sifry of Technorati, mixed in with a few people who have day jobs. There are even Googlers on the list — and when have you known those lot to leave the protective bubble of Mountain View? Oddly, Jimmy Wales did not seem to make the cut, though his New York patroness, Louise Blouin MacBain, is listed. In the comments, sort the TechTalkers into your preferred categories.

Alan Levy (BlogTalkRadio)
Alec Oxenford (OLX, DineroMail)
Alejandro Estrada (DineroMail)
Alexis Bonte (Erepublik.com)
Andrew McLaughlin (Google)
Anil de Mello (Mobuzz)
Arturo J. Paniagua (Hipertextual)
Auren Hoffman (Rapleaf)
Axel Schmiegelow (Sevenload, Denkwerk Group)
Benjamí Villoslada (Menèame)
Brent Hoberman (Mydeco)
Carlos Martìn (IG Expansiòn)
Cedric Maloux
Christophe F. Maire (Nokia gate5, investor)
Claudia Gisiger-Gonzalez (UNHCR)
Dan Dubno (Blowing Things Up)
David Sifry (Technorati)
Demian M. Bellumio (Cyloop)
Eduardo Arcos (Hipertextual)
Efe Cakarel (The Auteurs)
Ehssan Dariani (studiVZ)
Esteban Sosnik
Esther Dyson (EDventure)
Felix Petersen (Plazes)
Hans Peter Brøndmo (Plum)
Ibrahim Evsan (Sevenload)
Ivan Communod (Vpod.tv)
Jacob Hsu (Symbio)
James Gutierrez (Progress Financial)
Jennifer L. Schenker (BusinessWeek)
John Markoff (The New York Times)
Joichi Ito (Creative Commons, Six Apart Japan, investor)
Jon Berrojalbiz (Trading Motion)
Jonas Birgersson (Labs2)
Jörg Rohleder (Vanity Fair)
José María Figueres (Grupo Felipe IV)
Jose Marin (IG Expansion)
Julio Alonso (Weblogs SL)
Lars Hinrichs (XING)
Loïc Le Meur (Seesmic)
Louise T Blouin MacBain (Louise Blouin Media)
Lukasz Gadowski (Spreadshirt.com, investor)
Lukasz Wejchert (Onet.pl)
Marc Samwer (European Founders Fund)
Marcelo Claure (Brightstar Corp.)
Marko Ahtisaari (Blyk, Dopplr, FON)
Mathias Entenmann (Betfair)
Matt Biddulph (Dopplr)
Megan Smith (Google)
Michael Arrington (Techcrunch)
Michael Jackson (Mangrove Capital Partners)
Michael Wolf (Farallon Point)
Nikesh Arora (Google)
Ola Ahlvarsson (Result, FON)
Om Malik (Giga Omni Media)
R.J. Friedlander (Grupo Planeta)
Ricardo Galli (Menéame)
Rodrigo Sepúlveda Schulz (Vpod.tv)
Rupert Schäfer (DLD, Hubert Burda Media)
Scott Rafer (Lookery, Mashery, Winksite)
Tariq Krim (Netvibes)
Thomas Crampton (Next Media)

Nokia's earnings soar, shares tumble

Owen Thomas — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 09:00:00 PDT

It's the most puzzling thing about the stock market to investing newbies: How can a company like Nokia see its earnings rise 25 percent, but its shares tumble 10 percent? That's because for most tech stocks, Wall Street doesn't care what you've done for it lately; they care more what you're going to do. And Nokia has given a depressing forecast for U.S. sales. The rational response, of course, is to push off all deals as far into the future as possible, and then announce glistening expectations for what's to come. That seems easier than actually running one's business in a rational manner. [WSJ]

Press release like it's 1999

Paul Boutin — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 19:00:00 PDT

"The next big thing in consumer gadgets will be the 'Internet in your pocket,'" according to Intel's announcement reported in the New York Times today. Where did I read that line nine years ago? Oh, right.

Eurocrats to review Nokia's Navteq deal

Jordan Golson — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 14:00:00 PDT

The EU will review Nokia's $8.1 billion buyout of digital mapmaker Navteq. The Commission believes the deal could hurt competition. Navteq only has one large rival, Tele Atlas, which is being acquired by GPS maker TomTom. The EU is already examining that transaction. [FT]

Why Steve Jobs wants to sell you a music subscription

Jordan Golson — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 13:40:00 PDT

Why is Apple suddenly in talks with record labels about bundling an unlimited music plan with new iPods, after resisting such a move for years? Steve Jobs has scoffed at music subscriptions in the past, saying customers want to "own their music." Never take Steve at his word: For years, he shot down the idea of iPods with video or an Apple-branded cell phone — until he made them happen. The same is about to happen for music subscriptions, I suspect — but not because Jobs has suddenly changed his mind about consumers' tastes.

No, this is about the twisted dynamics of the music industry. Selling unprotected MP3s is all the rage now, even though label executives have insisted for years on copy-protected formats, like the kind Apple sells through iTunes. Forget Jobs's propaganda about Apple wanting to "free" music from copy protection. He doesn't care one bit about the digital-rights management software, or DRM, that record labels insist on. And he knows that most consumers don't care about the issue. He just wants to sell iPods, and his customers just want to buy them.

What Jobs does care about is other music stores having something Apple doesn't. The labels have been favoring competitors like Amazon.com with licenses for MP3 files — because they now fear Apple more than they fear piracy. And Jobs knows that DRM doesn't work to stop piracy, anyway. But what it does do is lock music to devices, because hardware manufacturers can't risk breaking the DMCA's circumvention provisions.

So Apple needs a new hook to win the labels back. Selling subscription music would allow Apple to lock down its music once more. According to reports of the proposals Apple and the labels are considering, iPod buyers would pay anywhere from $20 to $100 to get all the music they can download. Ah, but they'd have to download it from iTunes, onto an iPod.

Bundling music would give Apple a huge edge over the competition. Nokia's also proposing an all-you-can-hear music plan. But for all of Nokia's talk about cell phones replacing MP3 players, only 7 percent of cell-phone owners listen to music on their handsets. Amazon.com could try a subscription plan, but it's hard to see how it would make money, since it doesn't have the iPod's hefty profit margins.

Jobs comes out on top, again. Apple sells more iPods by giving the record labels what they want — copy protection and revenue — without having to share the iPod's profits. The compliant tech press corps will hail his plan as genius, forgetting he ever said anything about consumers wanting to own their music. The losers here are the musicians. Apple and the labels will divvy up subscription revenues, and the artists' cut will likely be smaller than what they'd make off of by-the-song sales. But since when has anyone asked their opinion about how to run the music business?

(Photo by AP/Paul Sakuma)

We're not buying Apple's new unlimited music plan

Jackson West — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 21:48:54 PDT

Apple has opened negotiations with the major record labels by offering only $20 per customer for a proposed unlimited plan at the iTunes music store, according to the Financial Times. Nokia is offering $80, but then cell-phone manufacturers have the price of phones subsidized by carriers who've gotten used to paying hundreds of dollars to acquire new customers. Apple has traditionally made its profits on the devices themselves, since iTunes margins are paltry, and are already slashing prices on units in order to meet sales forecasts. Labels are looking to get as much as $100 from iPod buyers and $8 a month from iPhone subscribers. Both sides are really fighting over how much of the profit from music they'll keep. Me, I'll stick with vinyl. (Illustration by Gizmodo)

Nokia is buying Trolltech, a small Norwegian ...

Jordan Golson — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 13:14:17 PST

Nokia is buying Trolltech, a small Norwegian mobile software company, for $153 million. The purchase is yet another in a series of acquisitions Nokia is making as it rolls out a new software and services strategy. Nokia purchased digital mapmaker Navteq for more than $8 billion last fall. [Reuters]

Nokia jealous of Apple, wants cut of the action

Jordan Golson — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 13:17:51 PST

Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo said in an interview with a German paper that Nokia will pursue a cut of subscriber revenues for some future data-based devices. As we've previously noted, Apple has set up a triple whammy with the iPhone: the company gets paid when it sells the phone, gets a kickback from service providers, and gets a cut of content sold through the iTunes store. In October, Nokia rolled out an unimpressive social network and partnered with Universal Music to start its own music store. Apple has shown the rest of the industry that there is money to be made in more than just handsets, and Nokia wants in on the action.

The New York Times writes that although Nokia has had significant success worldwide — almost 40 percent global market share in cell phones — the company has had a tough time adapting to the U.S. market's "idiosyncrasies."

"We felt we could teach the U.S. market how we do business elsewhere ... and ... that failed," says Nokia's Kalla... — screw it, we'll just call him OPK. "Now we just want to act, based on the needs and requirements of the market." If the Finns can roll out a viable services plan — Nokia's $8.1 billion acquisition of mapping provider Navteq may help here — they could redirect revenue from cell providers back to themselves.

The move would have a cost. Why would AT&T or Sprint want to do business with Nokia when Nokia is trying, in effect, to steal their customers? They wouldn't, and Nokia may screw itself over if it presses the issue. OPK was insightful when he said, "Convergence is a nice, dandy word, but it means industries colliding." Good for Nokia shareholders that he is aware of that, but can he act on it? Don't hold your breath. No wonder Nokia wants to encourage "openness" — that's just a fancy label for its free-for-all profit-grabbing services strategy. Good luck screwing over your partners in an industry that requires partnerships to function.

Universal Music Group has partnered with ...

Mary Jane Irwin — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 16:33:37 PST

Universal Music Group has partnered with Nokia to provide a subscription music service to mobile phones. Unlike PC-based subscription services such as Napster, Nokia's offering will let users keep any music downloaded after their one-year subscription expires. Of course what they don't tell you is how much this will cost, or limits on numbers of downloads. [Digital Music News]

iPhone has 0.09 percent of Web usage -- yes, that's a lot

Jordan Golson — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 16:07:45 PST

The browser wars continue — but no one cares. Unless, that is, you're in the wireless world, where industry observers avidly watch tiny scraps of Web activity, as if they're divining prophecies from the clouds. Computerworld notes an interesting trend. Apple's iPhone browser has grabbed a 0.09 percent share, which might not seem like much until you compare it to the competition. Windows CE, which encompasses every Windows Mobile device shipped, holds a 0.06 percent share; Danger Research's Sidekick product family holds a tiny 0.02 percent share; and the Symbian S60 smartphone platform, favored by Nokia, has 0.01 percent.

Though this could be attributed to the ease of use of the iPhone's browser, it is still significant. A product on the market less than 6 months is used to browse the Web 50 percent more than Windows Mobile which has been around for years. Look for holiday iPhone sales numbers to be announced at Macworld San Francisco in January — and then we'll find out just how well the iPhone really sold. Until then, browser numbers serve as a good proxy for telling us how much it's used. (Photo by AP/Paul Sakuma)

Garmin offers $3.3 billion for Tele Atlas

Jordan Golson — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 14:02:59 PDT

GPS device maker Garmin has offered $3.3 billion for digital mapping service Tele Atlas. Rival TomTom offered $2.5 billion for Tele Atlas in an earlier bid. Currently, Garmin uses maps from Navteq. After that company was acquired by Nokia, Garmin started looking for other options. With $1 billion in cash, Garmin would finance the acquisition through cash and loans from several banks. What's this all mean? With Navteq off the market, expect something of a bidding war for Tele Atlas between Garmin and TomTom — and maybe Google. Garmin has an advantage here, though — it already purchased 5 percent of Tele Atlas on the open market. Shares in Garmin fell 11 percent after the bid was announced as investors worried that the purchase price could rise significantly. (Photo by AP/Reed Hoffmann)

First Apple, now Nokia. We guess opening ...

Jordan Golson — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 13:18:30 PDT

First Apple, now Nokia. We guess opening a store in China is the fashionable thing nowadays. Nokia is opening its seventh retail store worldwide in Shanghai. The store will even include some ridiculousness that sounds good in a press release but probably doesn't sell phones: "Consumers will be able to send text messages to change the glass walls in the store to colors of their choice." Ah yes, that really makes me want a craptastic Finnish phone. [WSJ]

How well did the iPhone really sell?

Tim Faulkner — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 05:12:46 PDT

Apple's third quarter was a blowout all around, but the real question is how the iPhone is faring. Now that we've got a quarter's worth of data, we can compare it to the competition, and gauge the effect of blogosphere scandals like the recent episode of iPhones "bricking" after a software update — sure, tech pundits got worked up, but did people stop buying iPhones? The bottom line: Steve Jobs & Co. entered a daunting market and performed quite well.

For comparison's sake, I measured the iPhone primarily against offerings from Palm, BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion, and Nokia's full featured N-series mobile phones. With a single, high-priced design sold only for AT&T in the U.S., Apple has already surpassed Palm, which offers its Treo on all major U.S. networks. Sales reached one-third the level of industry stalwart Research In Motion after only four months. Apple has even achieved more than ten percent of the share Nokia enjoys across its entire N-series, the world leader in smartphones. And this simple comparison only looks at units sold. Even at the lowered $399 price, Apple's iPhone tests the upper limits of mobile pricing — and that's not counting the share of service fees Apple gets from AT&T.

Though it may be Mac-fanboy sacrilege to say so, the iPhone lacks some key features. Right now, Apple can brick an iPhone with a software update — but IT administrators can't, which makes them hesitant to buy them for corporations. The BlackBerry is entrenched in that market. And Nokia has unmatched global reach. Against those considerations, Apple has unquestionably performed well.

Data for third quarter:

Finnish handheld-computer designer social-network ...

Jordan Golson — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 13:41:32 PDT

Finnish ~~handheld-computer designer~~ ~~social-network operator~~ cell-phone company Nokia reports that its market share rose to almost 40 percent in the third quarter as international markets bought tons of cheap phones. Whatever. The iPhone has a 100 percent market share in my pants. [IHT]

Nokia can't decide who it wants to be

Owen Thomas — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 16:27:57 PDT

WEB 2.0 SUMMIT — Does Nokia wish it were Facebook? Or Apple? Anssi Vanjoki, an executive at the Finnish phonemaker, can't seem to make up his mind. Nokia's introducing Ovi, a "context-sensitive" social network. Oh, and the N810, with which Nokia hopes to horn in on the iPhone's computer-in-your-pocket market. This is, surely, the ultimate bitches-just-jealous corporate strategy. We can only think that Motorola CEO Ed Zander is delighted to hear his rival's getting out of the phone business.

Motorola CEO finds software confusing, dull

Owen Thomas — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 08:44:59 PDT

Motorola CEO Ed Zander claimed that his company considered buying Navteq, the mapping-services company rival Nokia snapped up last week, but decided to pass. "We are not in the applications business," said Zander. Right. That explains, of course, why Motorola bought Good Technology, an email software company, last year. We have another theory: Bitches just jealous.

Are smartphones driving GOOG, AAPL, and RIMM higher?

Jordan Golson — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 15:08:04 PDT

It's been a banner day for Apple, Google, and Research In Motion, as shares of all three companies hit all-time highs.

Apple closed at $161.45 with a market cap of $140.4 billion. That's just short of Nokia's $143.77 billion .
Google shares ended the day at $594.05.
Research In Motion rocketed up almost 13 percent to $113.37 after solidly beating expectations.

Apple and RIM already build smartphones; Google is widely rumored to be entering the market. Is there, so to speak, a wireless connection here? Tell us your thoughts in the comments.

Finnish mobile phone giant Nokia is buying ...

Jordan Golson — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 10:17:28 PDT

Finnish mobile phone giant Nokia is buying Navteq for $8.1 billion. The company's mapping service powers Google Maps, among others — including the Google Maps application for Apple's iPhone, a competitor to Nokia's handsets. (That's an exceedingly roundabout attack on a rival, but it's so obscure it just may work.) Nokia also says it will provide many more phones with GPS capabilities in 2008. [GigaOM]

Nokia snaps up mobile advertising firm

Mary Jane Irwin — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 12:29:24 PDT

Nokia is leaping into the mobile advertising arena with its plans to acquire Enpocket, which sprinkles mobile Web pages with video and banner ads. With mobile phones seen as one of the great unmapped frontiers of advertising, Nokia is preparing to battle with other prospectors like AOL's Third Screen Media and Google, which just announced AdSense for Mobile. Of course the big problem, as Advertising Age points out, is that consumers are hardly begging for ads on their phones' cramped screens. But advertisers are attached to the long-held vision of location-based advertising, stalking their customers through the streets, pinging them with coupons for nearby stores.

Apple's retaliatory Google ad, countering ...

Owen Thomas — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 11:29:40 PDT

Apple's retaliatory Google ad, countering a Nokia ad and congratulating "late adopters" on getting a lower price for the iPhone? A fake. [Gizmodo]

Nokia, Apple spar via Google ads

Owen Thomas — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 11:32:25 PDT

Early adopter? Late adopter? Surly adopter? Nokia and Apple (or rather, an opportunistic Apple retailer) are vying for your affections. When you Googled "iPhone" earlier today, targeted ads for Nokia's Mosh social network showed up, taunting iPhone buyers for having overpaid. In response, ~~Apple~~ an Apple e-commerce affiliate placed ads telling "late adopters" that they could get "all the iPhone" for two-thirds the price. The ads no longer appear on Google, but we suspect this was more of a competitive tweak than a long-term marketing strategy. Update: Turns out the Apple ad was a fake, placed by a third-party affiliate. (Screenshot by Search Engine Land)

Scoop: Nokia buys Ryze business networking

Nick Douglas — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 14:26:49 PST

Nokia is buying (or investing in) business networking site Ryze, a LinkedIn competitor that started around the same time as Friendster.

This was mentioned to me earlier this week as fact, but until someone confirms this deal, the details are sketchy. If you know more, e-mail tips@valleywag.com.