The changing face of Nokia
Tom Gara

 The company is no longer the cool, cutting-edge firm that first captivated the mobile phone business. Brendan McDermid / Reuters
The company that has done more than any other to shape the evolution of the mobile phone is facing a midlife crisis.

Like a married, middle-aged professional watching enviously as a younger, better-looking crowd live carefree and in the moment, Nokia has lost its cool, and it knows it.

Finland’s best-known business has grown from a pulp mill on the banks of the Nokianvirta river to selling almost 40 per cent of the world’s mobile phones, with detours along the way into the manufacturing of everything from rubber boots to electrical cables and televisions.
Today, despite its dominance of a lucrative hi-tech market, the company risks being relegated to the role of a commodity manufacturer. Where it once pioneered technologies and concepts, it now finds itself racing to catch up with fresh new competitors. Apple’s iPhone has it desperate to make a successful touch-screen handset, while the BlackBerry, by Research in Motion (RIM), has inspired a flurry of look-alike devices.
And in its push into the internet services business, it is entering a well-developed market with tough, fast competitors. From mobile e-mail to mapping, social networking and media downloads, the company faces the most challenging and competitive period in its history.

“The complexity is huge,” says Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, the chief executive of Nokia. “The industry is changing, your competitors are new – suddenly you have the mightiest companies in the world as your competitors. The complexities there are big.”
But while it may be playing catch-up, few companies are in a better position to reinvent themselves and win difficult battles. More than a billion people around the world use a Nokia phone every day, and the company is one of the world’s most trusted, with a reputation for reliability and quality.

In its survey this year of the world’s most-valuable brands, Business Week placed Nokia at number five, making particular mention of its reputation in emerging markets, where its products are often people’s first significant technology purchase. Nokia is the most-respected brand in India, according to the study.
To build on a base of broad global trust and recognition, the company is an engineering powerhouse, with an unmatched ability to turn out hundreds of millions of complex, high-quality units every year. When Apple bragged of selling five million iPhones, a Nokia executive replied that the company had sold as many devices in a weekend. While its trendier competitors push out leading-edge innovations, it is Nokia that will bring them to the truly mass market.
And in the push to become a serious seller of services as well as handsets, Nokia has the deep pockets needed to hire and acquire, two big ways to bring an engineering business into the internet age.

“We have hired a lot of people from different industries,” Mr Kallasvuo says. “New people are needed, and it is my job as CEO to set the balance between the hardware and engineering culture, and the internet culture. I’m happy with the progress, but it will continue to be something we need to focus on.”
As the company began its annual Nokia World event in Barcelona last week, it was this transition, to an internet-style company focused on the whole experience of its users, that had most journalists and onlookers talking.

“This is the week when Nokia either keeps its seat at the cell-phone-thought-leadership table or it will give up its spot to Apple and RIM alone,” wrote the influential technology journalist Robert Scoble. “This is the week that Nokia either shines or moves to the B-list of the cell-phone market”
At Nokia World, the company outlined several new products and services that it hopes will help it retain the thought leadership position that Mr Scoble said was in jeopardy. One “point and find” service will combine global positioning system (GPS) location information with pictures taken by the iPhone camera to identify buildings and landmarks and provide users with useful information. The new mobile e-mail system requires nothing more than an e-mail address and password to synchronise e-mail between most mail services and the handset, and will be available on the company’s most common phones, not just high-end devices.
Nokia also launched its new flagship device, the N97, in the clearest move yet to regain leadership of the high end of the market. With a large touch screen that flips up to reveal a full keyboard, it has the iPhone and BlackBerry clearly in its sights.

While the device may be expensive (the company projects a price tag of €550 [Dh2,610]), and not available until the middle of next year, it is likely to be produced and distributed in the volume for which Nokia is famous, hitting millions of small stores on streets from Shanghai to Dubai, unlike the limited availability of other high-end devices such as the iPhone and HTC’s G1, known as the Google Phone.
Only time will tell if the company can regain its 1990s cool in the second decade of the 21st century, and if it can compete not just with Google, Apple, Microsoft and Yahoo, but with the new competitors, and new technologies, that will inevitably emerge. Mr Kallasvuo already has his eyes on a future where phones will be radically different from what they are today.

“Nanotechnology will give the possibility to experiment with new form factors. Imagine different types of screens, like foldable screens,” he says, mimicking the motion of opening a newspaper. “They will give the benefit of a big screen in a small form factor. Personalisation of the phone will be a big thing: in 2020, no two phones will be alike.”
With imposing challenges matched only in scale by big new opportunities, few can imagine how the Nokia of 2020 will resemble the company we see today. But a move back into rubber-boot manufacturing does seem unlikely.

 
 
U.S. Falling Behind in Eco-Friendly Car Electronics, iSuppli Warns
U.S. automakers are falling behind their foreign counterparts in the fast-growing area of providing ecologically oriented features in car navigation and telematics systems, according to iSuppli Corp.

Amid rising fuel costs and higher emissions standards, automakers are developing eco-friendly driving solutions. The solutions range from an indicator on the instrument cluster that gives ecological driving advice, to sophisticated real-time driving pattern comparisons via a car’s telematics system. Furthermore, OEM and aftermarket navigation systems now are providing eco-friendly, fuel-efficient paths as part of route calculation, as opposed to simply presenting the shortest course to a given destination.

Car makers including Audi of Germany, Fiat of Italy, Kia of South Korea and Honda and Nissan of Japan now are offering and developing a variety of such solutions. However, these efforts aren’t being matched by their competitors in Detroit.

“Compared to Europe and Asia, the North American market is behind the curve,” said Phil Magney, vice president, Automotive Research, for iSuppli. “Detroit is largely focused on powertrain technologies, such as hybrids or battery-powered electric vehicles like the Chevrolet Volt, and less interested in putting fuel-saving tips into the infotainment system or gas pedal. North American OEMs have yet to announce an eco-friendly technology that operates through a navigation route or that notifies users of inefficient driving.”

With the rising emphasis on fuel economy and increasing consumer awareness of the environmental impact of their activities, the U.S. auto industry risks being left behind in this key area, Magney warned.

“In a few years, it's entirely possible that telematics systems will give vehicle manufacturers the capability to re-flash powertrain control modules to improve the efficiency of vehicles,” Magney said. “Eco-telematics also plays a role in hybrid vehicles with routing that optimizes charging of the batteries. Because of this, it’s crucial for car makers to stay on top of the eco-friendly telematics and navigation phenomenon.”

“In a few years, it's entirely possible that telematics systems will evolve on the eco-front and give vehicle manufacturers the capability to re-flash powertrain control modules to improve the efficiency of vehicles,” Magney said.
More than MPG
For many years, Miles Per Gallon (MPG) information has been available to drivers via the instrument cluster. However, carmakers now are taking MPG information, along with other data, and repackaging and marketing it to customers under the "eco" label.

The 2009 Kia Lotze is the first domestic vehicle in South Korea to feature an eco-driving system on the instrument cluster that color-codes driving patterns to help drivers get better gas mileage. This system is similar to the solution from Japanese OEMs, such as Nissan and Honda.

For example, the new-generation Honda Accord features an eco-driving system with an eco-lamp on its instrument cluster. The engine's Engine Control Unit (ECU) calculates the Revolutions Per Minute (RPM) information, variable cylinder information and torque-for-MPG information, and the eco-lamp turns on when the vehicle is in its most fuel-efficient mode.

Taking a step further, Nissan in Japan this week debuted a new Eco Drive function called Eco Pedal, the world's first system to actively monitor fuel consumption and encourage more efficient acceleration by adjusting back pressure on the accelerator pedal. Eco Pedal is part of Nissan's Eco Drive initiative, which was launched in February 2008. When connected to Nissan's Carwings telematics service, Eco Drive can rate a driver's fuel efficiency relative to other Carwings users.
Eco driving
Fiat also is pushing economically friendly driving like the Asian OEMs, but using an approach that's more true to the eco-initiative, rather than to fuel efficiency. The Fiat Blue&Me-based system records the consumption and emissions of each trip taken. The data then is recorded on a USB pen drive and can be analyzed on a home PC.

The EcoDrive software presents the driver with detailed environmental performance of the car, including carbon dioxide emission levels. It analyzes the driver's style and then provides tips and recommendations on how to modify that style to achieve carbon reductions.

Meanwhile, Audi announced the availability of a new application that allows drivers to choose not only the fastest or shortest route but also the most fuel-efficient path. By avoiding upward slopes, city streets and stoplights as much as possible, overall gas consumption can be lowered by up to 5 percent, according to Audi officials. Audi recently announced that this feature first will be built into the navigation system of its next-generation Multimedia Interface (MMI) slated for the A8, A6, and Q5. Audi also has a study, named Travolution, that represents the next step toward cleaner driving. In the ongoing study, the German OEM is testing new eco driving solutions by improving the surrounding traffic infrastructure.

For more information, please contact:

Jonathan Cassell
Editorial Director and Manager, Public Relations
iSuppli Corporation
Office: 408.654.1714
Mobile: 408.921.3754
www.isuppli.com

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