http://www.reuters.com/article/earni...5AR08220091128

I started wonderintg about this possibility 2 years ago. If it happened, I would expect mobile computers (including netbooks) to stay. They serve the internet services business.

(originally twittered by my friend silpol)

Allready refuted officially.
http://www.mobiletoday.co.uk/Mobile_..._business.aspx





EDIT reading the original text in german:
http://www.wiwo.de/unternehmen-maerk...tellen-415295/

Wonder what idiot did the german to english translation. The english article on Reuters is horrible. They only talk about outsourcing manufacturing not dropping mobilephone production. Even there the "Never say never" is answer to a leading question.

It's just sensationalism. When he said "never say never", it was obvious he really meant it, rather than "we're considering it, but I can't admit it". Slow news day, maybe?

But it kind of makes sense in the distant future. Eventually basic hardware will be so cheap it'll become a real death race to the bottom, and by then they'd better have a better source of income than S40-devices.

I was about to say that one of the main advantages (if not the main one) Nokia has are their factories. Would be crazy to sell them.

There's been more and more outsourcing over the years, so who knows.

Doesn't seem likely, but who thought IBM would divest itself of all personal computers?

Cant it be that instead of being a OS developer Nokia is actually building a content delivery platform with Maemo?

If so, and I truly hope since this is where the money will come from, they better catch up quick...

One of the quickies would be buying some known content providers? Spotify anyone?

Makes me question the competency of Mr.Anssi Vanjoki as an executive within the ranks of Nokia. Nokia playing catch up in the online solutions area? Google is the only entity that has a broader portfolio then Nokia and that is solely because that is Googles core business – mining and selling its users data. Apple has an App store and a music store. RIM, Messaging and (Ha!) an app store.

Nokia's current portfolio includes:
Maps/Navigation
File sharing
Image sharing
E-mail/Messaging
App store
Cloud synchronization

All this available from a PC or a handset – many of these services sync between the PC and handset.

A gaggle of toddlers with crayons could market the brand better then Nokia. Instead of cowering in the corner whimpering " we got to do better", Nokia should grow a backbone and start a Verizon /Droid iDon't campaign.

Remember Vine? FriendView? Sport Tracker? Mobile Chat? Nokia has been there, done that… and they aren't raping your privacy to sell data and ad space. I hope they keep the core business hardware - that way they don't get ideas about monetizing my data.

(Head in hands)…what losers –can't get out of their own way!

Don't forget Nokia Money-- a potentially huge service if successful...

The Ovi Store is the center of their plans. Once Qt is ready, and Maemo and Symbian are ready for the masses, they'll move onto porting Qt to more platforms, like Android and Blackberry. Once they do that, they can use their carrier relations to leverage Ovi-based carrier-branded app stores on all devices and platforms. They'll control the app world, as well as have a great mechanism for content delivery. Imagine this: Would you rather, as a carrier, have to worry about Android Market, OPhone Market, App Store, and Blackberry Market, or CarrierX-branded Store based on Qt based Ovi Store? Which is easier to manage and addresses more OSes, and has payment pipes already installed, along with Nokia Money implementation? Who else can offer anything similar?

Nokia's strategy is one of the greatest moves I've seen in mobiles. I just think they're moving too slowly on making it happen. I hope they don't sell the entire manufacturing wing, but if they only focus on the high end and get out of the mass market business, I won't be upset. There will be plenty of devices out there. But Nokia is the only one with rights to Carl Zeiss hardware for mobiles.