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yalanand
@hm exactly, I had similar doubts too. Can we compared app business with ...
Sanjib.Acharya
Good point! Do you think Nokia is slowly giving up its hardware business?
Nokia pins app hopes on Boston office
Sylvie Barak
2/17/2012 8:01 PM EST
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--Finnish phone maker Nokia may not have a “plan B” when it comes to operating systems, having put all of its eggs decisively in Microsoft’s Windows 8 basket, but the firm has another sneaky strategy to get back in the game; developing geolocation apps for Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android, as well as its own phones.
Nokia is said to be putting its faith into its $8.1 billion 2007 acquisition, Navteq, which has thus far played almost no part in the company’s overall strategy.
The woman in charge of Nokia’s app efforts is Başak Özer, previously of Quattro Wireless and Tom Tom, now in charge of Nokia’s Social and Location Based Applications division.
In just one year, Nokia has grown the Boston based division from the ground up, going from no employees to 55 and still hiring.
The first tangible fruits of the division’s labor were embodied in the Pulse contextualized multimedia message app, which uses a person’s location to automate messages to small groups of friends.
The app can automatically tag photos and updates with a person’s location, integrate that with maps, pictures, text messages, emails and other notifications, making private group sharing more interactive and easy to use. The beta version was already released last autumn, but Nokia plans to take it to the iPhone and Android platforms soon.
To be social, you have to be on every platform,” Özer told the Boston business journal lately, hinting at future plans for a new type of mobile social network which will make use of a whole suite of new Nokia apps.
“Nokia has been able to rediscover itself at times in the past, and I believe this is another one of those times,” said Özer, though she admitted the difficulty in persuading new employees to join a troubled company still going through reorganizations and laying people off.
“I want to build a Nokia brand in Boston. I want recruiting of high talent people to be a much easier job,” she said, hoping that Nokia’s brand presence and $11.4 billion cash worth will help.
“This is a great place to build a career,” she concluded.
Nokia is said to be putting its faith into its $8.1 billion 2007 acquisition, Navteq, which has thus far played almost no part in the company’s overall strategy.
The woman in charge of Nokia’s app efforts is Başak Özer, previously of Quattro Wireless and Tom Tom, now in charge of Nokia’s Social and Location Based Applications division.
In just one year, Nokia has grown the Boston based division from the ground up, going from no employees to 55 and still hiring.
The first tangible fruits of the division’s labor were embodied in the Pulse contextualized multimedia message app, which uses a person’s location to automate messages to small groups of friends.
The app can automatically tag photos and updates with a person’s location, integrate that with maps, pictures, text messages, emails and other notifications, making private group sharing more interactive and easy to use. The beta version was already released last autumn, but Nokia plans to take it to the iPhone and Android platforms soon.
To be social, you have to be on every platform,” Özer told the Boston business journal lately, hinting at future plans for a new type of mobile social network which will make use of a whole suite of new Nokia apps.
“Nokia has been able to rediscover itself at times in the past, and I believe this is another one of those times,” said Özer, though she admitted the difficulty in persuading new employees to join a troubled company still going through reorganizations and laying people off.
“I want to build a Nokia brand in Boston. I want recruiting of high talent people to be a much easier job,” she said, hoping that Nokia’s brand presence and $11.4 billion cash worth will help.
“This is a great place to build a career,” she concluded.
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elctrnx_lyf
2/18/2012 1:20 AM EST
I think there is no boundaries for the applications just like ones own imagination. I think this is a right strategy for Nokia to invest money into development but at the same time they have to compete with applications like whatsapp mobile messenger.
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goafrit
2/18/2012 12:55 PM EST
Interesting to see how a "$8.1 billion 2007 acquisition, Navteq, " will change the fortune of this company. The best Nokia can do is to start making phones for Android. That way it comes a cost issue and everyone goes down. Nokia can play on cost.
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selinz
2/18/2012 4:13 PM EST
That approach doesn't seem particularly "sneaky." It would be sneakier to write code transformers to facilitate all of the android and iphone apps to go to Windows.
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hm
2/18/2012 7:38 PM EST
Can this app generate so much of revenue? Even if becomes very popular, revenue will be very limited.
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yalanand
3/5/2012 5:17 AM EST
@hm exactly, I had similar doubts too. Can we compared app business with smartphone business ?
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Sanjib.Acharya
2/19/2012 9:02 AM EST
It is great to see that Nokia's Boston division is creating jobs. But I am trying to understand how much this new app would help Nokia to get an edge over Apple, Samsung. I would be interested to know two things:
1. How was the response on the Beta version that was released in last autumn?
2.The apps market is bound to grow at a very fast pace. Currently what is Nokia's share in the apps market (~$3-4billion?) and how much growth can it achieve with this new app? Any numbers prediction yet?
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Bert22306
2/20/2012 1:32 AM EST
It certainly wouldn't be the first time that a hardware company reinvents itself as a services company (I consider writing apps as being a form of services). And this happens for the same reasons as ever. Building the hardware, sooner rather than later, becomes extremely price competitive, with razor thin profit margins.
Look at IBM.
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Sanjib.Acharya
2/20/2012 10:30 PM EST
Good point! Do you think Nokia is slowly giving up its hardware business?
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