With the planned acquisition of mobile software maker Symbian, Nokia has decided to grab its future and run with it.
Nokia's decision to acquire the remaining stake in Symbian that it doesn't already own is designed to accelerate the mobile phone giant's product development--and serve as an open-source operating system platform to other handset makers, wireless carriers, software developers, and chipmakers, analysts say.
As a result, Nokia and other industry players hope to create a stronger defense against Apple's popular iPhone, Google's pending Android phone, and Microsoft's mobile operating system, analysts say.
"Nokia realized that under the current structure (where they owned only a minority stake), they could only hope Symbian would unlock their operating system and open it up to developers, handset makers, chipmakers, and carriers," said Jim Kelleher, an analyst with Argus Research.
Nokia and other electronics makers have formed the Symbian Foundation, a nonprofit that aims to create an ecosystem. The foundation is backed by carriers AT&T, Vodafone, and NTT DoCoMo and hardware competitors LG Electronics, Motorola, Samsung Electronics, and Sony Ericsson. Also joining the foundation are STMicroelectronics and Texas Instruments.
"By being a 100 percent owner, Nokia can push the Symbian Foundation initiative forward without the potential of dissenting stakeholders," said James Faucette, an analyst with Pacific Crest Securities. "Nokia wants to attract more development input from other sources and develop a reasonably good alternative to other operating systems that are being developed."
Of course, Nokia is also looking to bolster its own performance with the Symbian acquisition.
"Nokia is trying to accelerate its product development by acquiring Symbian and bringing development in-house," said Mark Sue, an analyst with RBC Capital Markets.
Nokia has seen its worldwide market share steadily erode over the recent quarters from roughly 50 percent of the handset market to around 45 percent, Sue noted.
Three to four years ago, Nokia faced a steep challenge as its competitors launched spiffy, colorful slider cell phones, Kelleher said. Nokia had no such offerings in the works.
"Nokia was guilty of having hardware with no slick, no color. It was just a lump...Nokia was caught short," Kelleher said. "But Nokia has since come back fast and fierce, with new changes to their phones."
He added that the cell phone maker has come to the realization it needs more than just hardware to keep customers interested and up-to-date.
This year, for example, Nokia launched such products as its Xpress Music Phones, the Nokia Tube, in response to Apple's iPhone, and its Prism clamshell phone with triangular buttons.
I have to admit that during the past year I've been gloating to my CNET Asia colleagues over the iPhone. I just had to savor the fact that at long last the United States got a hot tech gadget before they did. At least with high-end cell phones, that almost never happens.
But in just a few weeks my bragging days will be over. On July 11, the new iPhone 3G lands not only in the United States with AT&T, but also in 21 19 other countries. In his WWDC keynote address, Apple CEO Steve Jobs included France and Belgium in the initial release list, but Orange has confirmed that French customers will have to wait until July 17. And across the border, Belgium's Mobistar has yet to set a date.
Then, later this year, Apple will ship to an additional 48 nations in every continent except Antarctica. That's 70 countries, kids--a far cry from the six nations in which the current iPhone is available today.
Interestingly, countries such as Australia and Italy will have two supporting carriers. Mainland China and Russia are two big places missing from the list, along with Taiwan, Korea, most of Southeast Asia, and almost the entire Middle East. So for those who missed the rapid-fire map shown during the at the keynote, here's a full list with supporting carriers.
July 11 releases
- Australia - Optus, Telstra and Vodafone
- Austria - Orange and T-Mobile
- Belgium - Mobistar
- Canada - Rogers
- Denmark - Telia
- Finland - Sonera
- Germany - T-Mobile
- Hong Kong - Hutchinson Telecom
- Ireland - O2
- Italy - Telecom Italia and Vodafone
- Japan - Softbank
- Mexico - America Movil
- Netherlands - T-Mobile
- New Zealand - Vodafone
- Norway - NetCom
- Portugal - Orange and Vodafone
- Spain - Telefonica
- Sweden - Telia
- United Kingdom - O2
- Switzerland - Swisscom and Orange
Later releases
- Argentina - America Movil
- Botswana - Orange
- Brazil - America Movil
- Cameroon - Orange
- Central African Republic - Orange
- Chile - America Movil
- Colombia - America Movil
- Croatia - T-Mobile
- Czech Republic - Vodafone and T-Mobile
- Dominican Republic - Orange and America Movil
- Ecuador - America Movil
- Egypt - Orange and Vodafone
- El Salvador - America Movil
- Equatorial Guinea - Orange
- Estonia - Eesti Mobii Telefon
- France - Orange (July 17)
- Guatemala - America Movil
- Guinea - Orange
- Guinea-Bissau - Orange
- Greece - Vodafone
- Honduras - America Movil
- Hungary - T-Mobile
- India - Bharti Airtel
- Ivory Coast - Orange
- Jamaica - America Movil
- Jordan - Orange
- Kenya - Orange
- Latvia - LMT
- Liechtenstein - Swisscom
- Lithuania - OmniTel
- Macau - Hutchinson Telecom
- Madagascar - Orange
- Mali - Orange
- Malta - Vodafone
- Mauritius - Orange
- Nicaragua - America Movil
- Niger - Orange
- Paraguay - America Movil
- Peru - America Movil
- Philippines - GlobeTelecom
- Poland - Orange and Era
- Romania - Orange
- Senegal - Orange
- Singapore - SingTel
- Qatar - Vodafone
- Slovakia - Orange and T-Mobile
- South Africa - Vodacom
- Turkey - Vodafone
- Uruguay - America Movil
Updated June 11, 1 p.m. PDT to reflect French and Belgian developments and additional carrier information.
Rural cell phone carriers want to put an end to exclusive deals between carriers and handset makers.
On Tuesday, the Rural Cellular Association, a group of more than 80 small and rural wireless providers, filed a petition with the Federal Communications Commission to investigate and adopt rules that would prohibit exclusivity arrangements between wireless carriers and cell phone manufacturers. In its petition the group said that these arrangements were unfair and stifled customer choice. The group also believes these deals decrease competition and violate the 1996 Telecommunications Act.
(Credit:
Apple)
The most prominent example of such a deal is the Apple iPhone. AT&T has the exclusive right to sell the iPhone, which was introduced first in the U.S. market in June. Neither Apple nor AT&T has publicly said how long the exclusivity arrangement will last, but it's been reported to be at least five years. Verizon Wireless also has an exclusive deal to sell the LG Voyager, another popular smartphone.
The RCA says that some people living in rural areas can't subscribe to service from a big carrier like AT&T or Verizon and are therefore locked out of getting these cool phones.
"It is important that all Americans have equal access to the latest technology, including wireless devices, regardless of where they live or which carrier provides the service," David Nace, counsel to RCA, said in a statement. "RCA is standing up for consumers' rights and putting an end to exclusivity arrangements that create another 'digital divide' between urban and rural America."
That said, RCA isn't just looking out for consumers. The truth is that smaller rural carriers are hardly ever offered exclusive handset deals because they have far fewer subscribers than the big four: AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel, and T-Mobile. And this makes it hard for them to compete.
But getting rid of exclusive deals won't be easy. These deals are an integral part of the U.S. wireless industry that helps both manufacturers and mobile operators make a lot of money. Manufacturers shop hot new handsets around to different operators searching for the carrier that will pay the most for exclusivity. Mobile operators benefit because having access to the hottest, new handset can draw new customers and keep existing customers who might have looked elsewhere.
So unless the FCC or Congress steps in, exclusive deals for hot handsets won't likely go away anytime soon. That said, some operators, such as Verizon Wireless, are moving toward open networks. And as networks become more open, handsets from one carrier could be used on a network of another carrier. If that happens, the days of exclusive deals could really be over.
Together no more?
Rumors are swirling today over the future of Sprint. First off, Seeking Alpha is reporting that Sprint has hired Morgan Stanley for a possible spin-off of its Nextel brand. Sprint's ongoing troubles have been widely reported over the last few months and many analysts have named the 2006 merger between Sprint and Nextel as a key cause of the carrier's ongoing troubles. With that in mind, a spin-off of Nextel may be surprising, but it wouldn't be so shocking.
But that's not the only Sprint dish going around today. The Kansas City Star said that Merrill Lynch analysts are predicting that Deutsche Telekom, owner of T-Mobile USA, is considering buying Sprint. The joining of a CDMA and a GSM carrier seems a bit unlikely, but after Sprint scooped up Nextel I can believe just about anything. Yet what would seem more probable is a Verizon Wireless acquisition of Sprint. But as the Wall Street Journal points out, Verizon should just concentrate on sucking away Sprint's customers. Verizon already decided in 2004 not to buy Sprint so the Journal can't find a reason why it should try again.
In any case, Sprint needs to do something to revive its business. But what exactly should it be? What do you think? Do any of the above options sound like a good idea?
IBM and Cisco Systems are sitting down at the table again. And this time the table is bigger.
The two technology behemoths are expanding their near-decade-old alliance, enhancing the focus on telecom carriers and their customers. As part of the expanded alliance, announced Thursday, the duo will offer a centralized service to identify, manage and reroute network traffic when trouble arises.
Cisco will combine its Network Management Platform with IBM's Tivoli Software for Service Assurance and Fault Management. That, in essence, strives to help carriers manage IP-based services and reduce implementation and maintenance costs.
Next month, Cisco plans to dish up a new offering that's a result of this expanded relationship with IBM. The Cisco Assurance Management Solution is designed to aid carriers with deploying and managing a range of network equipment for existing and advanced services. Carriers, for example, will receive a single view of multivendor, multiservice networks.
The alliance between the two tech giants has spanned nearly a decade and has included industries such as emergency services.
And for their next trick...
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