Chaz,
<< on WAP, Nokia seems to be ahead of everyone not only in using its own WAP expertise but in getting WAP compliant phones out into the marketplace >>
Back on topic which I think is Nokia, eh? <g>
biz.yahoo.com
>> NOKIA SAYS 2000 IS WAP'S YEAR
By Roland Moller
HELSINKI, Jan 13 (Reuters) - The world's biggest mobile phone maker, Nokia , said this year would see a breakthough for WAP phones -- mobile phones that give access to Internet services with the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP).
Last year Nokia could not produce enough WAP phones to meet soaring demand, but the technology will really take off this year, Nokia Vice President of global product line management Soren Petersen told Reuters in an interview on Thursday.
''This year, the rubber hits the road,'' said Petersen, whose firm produced the first handset with WAP functions. This year will be 'steady' for the booming mobile phone industry, he added -- which means frantic growth.
''It's the fastest and most aggressively growing industry on this planet and I don't think this is going to change,'' he said. WAP technology gives mobile phone users access to the Internet and to services such as electronic mail and remote banking.
Petersen declined to give details of last year's market growth or Nokia's market share because the group reports fourth quarter and full-year earnings on February 1.
According to forecasts compiled by Reuters late last year, Nokia's 1999 group net sales are expected to have surged over 46 percent and earnings per share are seen up 41 percent.
This year, forecasts put net sales up 30 percent and EPS up 22 percent, but Nokia said after the forecasts were compiled that its net sales growth this year would be 30 to 40 percent.
In 1998, Nokia captured 23 percent of a market of 163 million phones sold, but its strong interim reports last year suggested an even larger market share.
WAP PHONES TO FIGURE STRONGLY AT CEBIT
Petersen said Nokia's first WAP phone, the 7110 model, had met huge demand which Nokia was unable to supply, although its production increase was going according to plan.
He said consumers had to queue to get the phone because so many had been delivered to the WAP development community. ''We have had over 50,000 WAP development kit downloads on Nokia's site alone,'' he said.
He said the increase in Nokia's output and the market entry of rivals' models would in a few weeks help supply meet demand, and added that he expected the leading GSM handset players to show their cards at the CeBit technology fair in Hanover in February.
Nokia presented the 7110 at the CeBit fair last year, but did not start deliveries until six months later, at the end of September, instead of a planned second quarter launch.
Petersen gave no figure for WAP phone deliveries so far, but said the 100,000-unit mark had been passed long ago.
Strong growth in sales of mobile phones and other new digital equipment like personal digital assistants, digital cameras amd MP3 music players has caused a shortage of supply of some components like flash memory chips.
Petersen said Nokia was doing well in getting the components it needed but declined to comment further. <<
- Eric - |
