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Technology Stocks : Nokia (NOK) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: 49thMIMOMander who wrote (12426)	6/11/2001 12:49:06 PM
From: S100	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 34857

Nokia Galoscher Finland's Nokia Warmed to "National Company" Role By Peter Benesh Investor's Business Daily How's this for evolution? From wood products to rubber boots to cable to cell phones. That's the migration path of Nokia Corp. The Finnish powerhouse of the wireless industry has been reinventing itself for 140 years. The story is told in a new book, "The Nokia Revolution," from Amacom Books, the publishing arm or the American Management Association. "The preconditions for Nokia's current success were created long ago, " said Dan Steinbock, the book's author, in an interview. He's a researcher at the Columbia Institute for Tele-Information in New York City and a teacher at the Helsinki School of Economics. With almost 40% of the world handset market, Nokia is the world's largest seller of mobile phones. But, says the book, due for release on June 29, Nokia seemed to emerge from nowhere as an industry leader." Nokia is unique, agrees Mark Roberts, an analyst with First Union Securities in San Francisco. "I don't know how a company can make those types of radical. Transitions over the course of a century and succeed. But Nokia has," he said. "It's the biggest thing in Finland. There's a sense that this is the national company." The modern Nokia has done two things well. "They focus on manufacturing efficiency," Roberts said. " And they recognized that handsets are a mass-market consumer electronics item." Another part of Nokia's success is its humility, Roberts says. "If you look at the history of Finland, they have always had to be accommodating to others. They were dominated by Russia, Sweden and Germany. They've been like the bird that lives with the elephants. They had to learn to live with the elephants without being stepped on. And the elephants came to like the birds. "In his book, with which the company Cooperated, Steinbock reviews the long history of the world's No. 1 maker of wireless phones. Ruled at various times by Sweden, Czarist Russia, Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany, the Finns had to find a path through minefields of oppression and ideology. The leaders who built Nokia adopted and adapted foreign business models and seized the opportunities new technology presented. Sometimes they led troops against the invaders of their country. Drawing on the land's resources, Nokia transformed itself at the turn of the 20th century from a lumber company to an electrical generating industry. It acquired a footwear business and moved into rubber products in the 1920s when that miracle product revolutionized shoemaking. Snow tires followed. Rubber and electricity led to electric cable. While those transitions seem logical, some parts or the Nokia story are odd. After World War II, Finland had to pay reparations. It had allowed Nazi Germany to stage attacks on Soviet Russia from Finnish soil. But war reparations turned out to be good for Nokia. "The Soviets demanded twice the cable the Finns thought they could produce. The only way to increase productivity was to increase efficiency. This theme, to achieve more with less, resurfaces again and again in the history of Nokia," Steinbock wrote. Then there's the misimpression many people have about Nokia's roots. It's named after a region. Many people thought it was Japanese. "The Finns did not mind; it certainly was better than being an unknown," Stein- bock wrote. Nokia at times borrowed from Japanese, German and U.S. business practices, Steinbock writes. " At the turn of the century, Nokia demanded its employees speak German. Now Nokia demands English as a recruitment requirement," he wrote. But Finns are starting to worry, Steinbock says. Only 2% of Nokia's revenue comes from Finland, while half its 'production remains in Finland. "The worries are about globalization," he said, ,

To: 49thMIMOMander who wrote (12426)	6/11/2001 5:11:57 PM
From: Eric L	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 34857

re: Test Driving BT Cellnet and Vodafone GPRS on the Motorola Timeport Another Simon Says ... >> Opinion: BT Cellnet and Vodafone GPRS Services Found Lacking Simon Goodley Daily Telegraph London 06/08/01 Unusually for me, I was given the opportunity to be at the cutting edge and test drive the only two contenders in the General Packet Radio Services (GPRS) mobile market. These phones are either the next step after Wireless Application Protocol (WAP), or the stage before third-generation (3G) mobile phones, but it equates to a watered-down version of the Internet on your phone, whatever your opinion. BT Cellnet and Vodafone are the only two offering the service in the U.K., and the choice of handsets -- well, you do not have a choice. It is the Motorola Timeport, or nothing. You may be forgiven for scratching your head when you look at the price of these identical phones in your local shop. The Vodafone model retails at £99.99 ($138), while BT Cellnet has refused to subsidize its pounds £199.99 ($276) model. So what is BT Cellnet offering that Vodafone isn't? It is not cheaper calls as both companies have similar packages. On top of your normal monthly charge, users must also pay a fee of around £7.50 ($10) a month, which covers between 500 and 1,000 free page downloads, or take a £3.99 ($5.50) package which charges around 2 pence (3 cents) to download a page. If BT Cellnet has an advantage, it begins with the fact that it works most of the time. Vodafone's service was unavailable for much of the day that I tested it, which the company blamed on maintenance work. When the phone was working, I got the impression that Vodafone's content was a little less compelling than its rival's. Personally, I like sport and betting. The sports stories on both phones were much the same, just maybe a little slicker on BT Cellnet. Much to my annoyance, I could not locate a bookie on Vodafone and I could not get either Ladbrokes or Coral Eurobet to work on the BT Cellnet phone without calling the helpline. Do these slight advantages for BT Cellnet warrant an extra £100 ($138)? The answer is no, but I would not pay £100 ($138) for the Vodafone model either, even if it was more reliable. The benefits of GPRS over WAP just do not warrant that kind of premium, particularly as most of the frustrations are still lurking in the foreground. << - Eric -