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

To: Maurice Winn who wrote (726)	7/2/1998 11:29:00 PM
From: tcd	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 34857

on another note -- for those living in the United States, the big blockbuster movie of the summer, "Armageddon," Guess whose cell phone is emblazoned on the screen for a full four seconds? What a beauty. The Nasa chief picks up the futuristic Nokia and... I thought at first that why hadn't Motorola or Ericsson or Qualcomm outbid Nokia but then realized none of these companies have a great design like this Nokia one. The movie's fun but guess how many millions will see this movie worldwide? And for years to come, Nokia will be memory etched into the viewers. Subliminal sales. Cool.

To: Maurice Winn who wrote (726)	7/4/1998 9:26:00 AM
From: tero kuittinen	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 34857

Maurice, Maurice... you ought to know that ETSI representatives come from all European mobile operators and telecom companies. When the Nokia/Ericsson W-CDMA received an overwhelming vote of support it meant that practically all European operators endorsed the concept. These are companies that are only interested in making money, not toadying Nokia. Votes can't be bought. On the other hand, having a minion of Lucent heading a committee that decides what America's stance on 3G will be sounds kind of inbred. Couldn't they really find anyone at least formally objective? Nokia's IPR strategy is built on maximizing GSM's reach, not maximizing Nokia's IPR revenue (which is modest). Just look at Bluetooth and Symbian. These are very reasonable new standards initiatives that are open to all companies; the licensing fees are very modest and Symbian is actually offering stock to companies that endorse it! A far cry from a strategy of "gimme 5% or I'll sue you". I think the fact that Qualcomm has managed so thoroughly to alienate the Japanese government and NTT-Docomo is a good indicator of problems in cooperating. BTW, when did Qualcomm develop a CDMA breakthrough that it is willing to give to competing firms for free, like Nokia did with its EFR technology that revolutionarized GSM voice quality? Sometimes protecting the future of a standard means forgoing short term profit... smart CEO's understand this. This worldphones introduced by Ericsson and shortly to be unveiled by Nokia will give the satellite companies some food for thought, BTW. Why buy an expensive, heavy satellite phone, when a 130-gram land-based digital phone will work in cities in USA, Latin America, Asia, Australia, Africa and Europe? After all, most business people do their foreign assignments in urban areas that are already covered by digital networks. If CDMA gets caught outside these new mobile phones (and just how willing would Qualcomm be to make GSM/CDMA phones?) it's bad news. I still find it hard to believe that more than two or three companies would be truly profitable at phone manufacturing. In every other high tech industry the end result has been one or two giants and a lot of has-beens. I think that Nokia is keenly aware of this and I haven't seen any signs of arrogance yet. They have seen the results of that in Motorola's decline and it has been a sobering lesson. Besides, Nokia has shown its willingness to compromise time and again. Like in giving Motorola and Ericsson equal shares in Symbian even though they are not on the same level at handset sales. BTW, Nokia has just broken into Business Week Global top 100 of the most valuable companies! Nokia is now more valuable than the leading German and Japanese high-tech companies, Siemens and Sony Electronics. It also cruised past 3M. Motorola dropped out of 100 and Ericsson moved into number 60. At this rate Nokia and Ericsson can buy the Motorola mobile operations by late 1999 and split it between them. Perhaps they could keep the executives on their payrolls and force them to dance in cages at office parties! On special occasions they could be forced to eat delicacies like "kalakukko" (pig fat mixed with sardines and baked into a rye bread) to boost company morale. Just an idea. Happy Independence Day to American Nokia investors. Can't wait to see "Armageddon". Is the phone a 9000 Communicator derivative? Tero