Nokia Ups Profits And Looks To Asia For Good News To Come
Up 8+ today! Seems like people are getting excited about Asia. cdmaOne needs to establish footholds ASAP.
Caxton
By Jeremy Scott-Joynt
12-FEB-98
Nokia will continue to focus on Southeast Asia's mobile market, despite the turmoils the region is undergoing, according to its chief executive.
ÿÿÿÿÿÿ Nokia "intends to continue to invest in (Southeast Asian) markets with the aim of securing and strengthening our future market position," said Jorma Ollila. "It is our firm belief that these countries, as they emerge from the present financial crisis, will pay an increasingly important role in the global telecommunications market."
ÿÿÿÿÿÿ Ollila was speaking as the Finnish vendor was reporting higher-than-expected profits, up 23% on the year before. Profits rose from 1.645 billion markka ($299 million) last year to 2.018 billion markkaa ($367 million).
ÿÿÿÿÿÿ The Nokia chief's upbeat view of the so-called Asian contagion reflects the company's prediction of continued mobile growth, led from the front by Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan and increasingly China, which has yet to be seriously affected by the currency crisis in the rest of the region.
ÿÿÿÿÿÿ The exception is Korea all of whose digital operators are using the CDMAOne standard, which Nokia has so far refused to support.
ÿÿÿÿÿÿ More importantly, though, Nokia - and its Scandinavian neighbor Ericsson - are looking forward to next generation systems, which in Japan at least are due to begin commercial operation in 2000. Both companies are working with NTT DoCoMo on wideband CDMA, which - with some recent alterations - is now the standard of choice for both Europe and at least 17 GSM operators across the Asia-Pacific area.
ÿÿÿÿÿÿ And Nokia's optimism is supported by a report from Massachusetts-based consultants Pyramid Research, which says that Southeast Asian cellular ownership will continue to accelerate into the next decade.
ÿÿÿÿÿÿ According to Pyramid, current subscriber levels for Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines will nearly triple over the five years from 1997 to 2002, from 7.4 million users to 21.6 million. |
