Report: Nokia gobbles up Dopplr

Dopplr's CEO, Marko Ahtisaari

(Credit: Dopplr)

TechCrunch is reporting that Nokia has just acquired social travel start-up Dopplr. The rumored acquisition price is between 10 million and 15 million Euros, which is around $15 million to $22 million.

In an effort to stop the bleeding at the cell phone giant, Nokia has been acquiring a string of smaller companies. With intense competition from Apple's iPhone and RIM's Blackberry, Nokia has been struggling to keep pace in the mobile industry. Om Malik compares the acquisition spree at Nokia to what we have seen at Yahoo in the last few years.

It will be interesting to see how Dopplr as a service fits into Nokia's strategy. It's unclear at this point if it wants the business as it exists, its technology, or its talent. Dopplr has a fairly small, but hardcore user base and has intense competition from companies like TripIt, so it is a curious acquisition choice. If it keeps the service intact at all, look for Nokia to roll out a mobile version of Dopplr out as an exclusive app on their devices.

[qooldude]

You make it sound like Nokia is teetering on the edge of disaster. Nokia still dominates the smartphone market, and makes, for example, the world's smallest smartphone, the E51, which is my phone of choice over the bulky iPhone and its ilk. Nokia is also beginning to roll out its high end Maemo Linux range.

[Rolker]

Nokia still is the biggest cellular company. Nokia maybe another player in the US, but around the world it still is a huge player.
Most people don't need or use a smartphone (yet), and most people buy the "standard" cell phones. Smartphones may be getting a bigger share of the market, but I think that it is still small in the cellular market.