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

To: 49thMIMOMander who wrote (13325)	7/3/2001 9:19:01 PM
From: S100	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 34857

<Verizon got fed up with Q?> Well, looks like they have a new Verizon phone from Kyocera. 2135, with little tiny QCOM asic. svartifoss2.fcc.gov Wonder what the "1" means? Why does the Samsung SCH-I355 have 4 QCOM asics? One too many? What happens to the Nok Buildings in SD?

To: 49thMIMOMander who wrote (13325)	7/3/2001 10:03:58 PM
From: S100	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 34857

snip One upshot: Wireless operators and Nokia are now raiding each other's turf in a mad scramble for new sources of revenue. Aided by Sendo and similar handset makers, operators such as Vodafone and British Telecommunications PLC are increasingly designing their own phones. These are not only stamped with the carriers' own brand names, but also run software that leads customers to services on the operators' own Web sites. It's all an effort to establish brand loyalty -- an especially high priority for Vodafone, which says it aims to make its name as ubiquitous as Coca-Cola's by 2004. Vodafone is co-developing handsets with Casio Computer Co. and is in advanced discussions with Sendo, according to people familiar with the situation. Making Waves World-wide mobile phone sell-through sales estimates for first quarter 2001, in thousands of units. For now, Sendo is among the "others." Company Unit Sales Market Share Nokia 34,094 35.3% Motorola 12,773 13.2 Siemens 6,664 6.9 Ericsson 6,542 6.8 Samsung 6,120 6.3 Others 30,496 31.5 Total Market 96,689 100.0 Source: Gartner Dataquest Nokia, for its part, is now selling advanced wireless services, such as downloadable games, graphics and music in competition with sites run by BT and other operators. Nokia sells these services through its ClubNokia Web site (www.nokia.com/phones/clubnokia/index.html), which is easily reached through the software built into Nokia handsets. ClubNokia already has five million members, and Nokia isn't stopping there: The Helsinki-based giant recently launched a television advertising campaign in 26 countries aimed at swelling ClubNokia's ranks. One ad shows a young man sitting in a bathtub composing his own ring tone by squeezing squeaky animals. The stakes are enormous. If Nokia wins the war, its brand could end up dominating Europe's market for advanced services such as wireless games and ring tones -- a market expected to be worth more than $5 billion (5.9 billion euros) a year by 2005, according to U.S. research firm International Data Corp. If Nokia loses, it risks being relegated to the subservient role of supplying commodity products to consumers whose loyalties lie elsewhere. That's exactly where wireless operators want to keep Nokia. "We need to make sure they don't get too far outside of their box," says Kent Thexton, the president of British Telecom's mobile Internet unit. As the battle heats up, Sendo and other made-to-order manufacturers are feeding ammunition to the wireless operators. In Britain, Virgin Mobile sells a customized Sendo handset that features a button marked "VX" -- short for Virgin Extras. The button gives users easy access to Virgin's sport, music, travel and other wireless services. Vodafone's British unit, meanwhile, sells its own handheld computer with a built-in camera co-developed with Casio. And British Telecom has teamed up with Japan's Sharp Electronics Corp. to develop a handset with a built-in camera. Japanese Influence In designing their own devices, British Telecom, Vodafone and others are borrowing an idea from Japan, where the major operators, particularly NTT DoCoMo Inc., tailor handsets to their services. In early 1999, DoCoMo launched wireless Internet service iMode, which has since become the world's most popular and lucrative. British Telecom's Mr. Thexton has watched with envy. "They have color screens, high-quality sound cards and packet data," he says. "We could market that and blow the doors off, but we don't have the devices" -- at least not yet. Although DoCoMo's iMode phones aren't compatible with European network standards, British Telecom is now aiming to adapt Japanese technology for Europe through its partnership with Sharp. DoCoMo's custom-built success has been bad news for Nokia. Despite its 35% share of the global handset market, Nokia's slice of the Japanese market is less than 1%, according to the Yano Research Institute in Tokyo. That's because the Japanese market is dominated by local consumer-electronics makers, such as Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., which pump out own-brand phones for domestic wireless operators. If the Japanese model prevails in Europe, it would likely eat into Nokia's 20% profit margins. snip