Enlightening the strategy
Nokia CEO talks to
Stephen Elop
Nokia CEO does not usually attend the annual Nokia Connection event that takes place on the sidelines of CommunicAsia, the largest technology show in Asia, but this year he decided to do so, and this correspondent was lucky enough to get the opportunity to interview him. Stephen Elop, who is also the president and a board member of Nokia, joined the company in September last year and took some major decisions in February this year, which may shape the mobile giant's fate. One of the Nokia strategies that involve markets like Bangladesh is 'Connecting the Next Billion' and Elop elaborated further on that. "When we talk about the next billion, we try to identify who those people are, who are not using the internet, and who have never used a PC. Those people tend to be in a wide range of emerging countries including Vietnam, China, India, Bangladesh and so on, and they tend to be more than half of that next billion," he said. Most of them are young people between the ages of 17 and 25, but they have not that economic capability or the access to technology, but soon they will have that capability. "Now part of our strategy for the next billion is not only to have devices at lower prices but also to deliver services that help people in that environment," he added. He talked on a complete range of services called LifeTools and mentioned that these tools in some countries help farmers get the best crop prices. In other cases it is helping young women get help to take care of themselves as they go through pregnancy -- information they cannot get from anywhere else because they do not have access to it, but it is something they can subscribe to by using a Nokia mobile phone. "So when you see us in the next billion, we know who the people are we are trying to reach and what services and capabilities are important for them," he said. As the new Nokia N9 that runs on MeeGo operating system was unveiled at the Nokia Connection 2011, Elop explained the brand strategy on multiple operating systems such as native Symbian and upcoming Windows Phone. "There are essentially two broad development platforms at Nokia for our mobile phones on Series 40, and the other is a combination of Symbian and developments on these devices are done using something called Qt." "Tomorrow for the smartphone strategy from the highest price points to well down the price curve, Windows Phone will be the target development platform. Below the price point curve where we have our mobile phones, Qt will be the answer," he added. "Windows Phone will be the broad portion of it and Qt being the focal point for mobile phone, we are in two right now and shifting to two; so the important connecting tissue is that -- Qt is something that people can build today and reach Symbian users and so forth and will be able to reach a very large number of mobile phone users in the future." Regarding compatibility with future devices, Elop said when they launched N9 the word MeeGo was mentioned only once, because "it is actually not important that it is Meego, what's really important is that it is QT, which is sitting on top." So if a developer develops an app for the N9 on Qt, they will be able to take that and immediately put on Symbian devices and moving across can be seamlessly done or might take some minor tweaking. When asked about Nokia competitors who have already launched Windows enabled smartphones and if Nokia would lose its brand identity in the process, he said, "When someone walks into a shop they are going to look at the Nokia experience because they have used Nokia for years." The brand that they will experience will be very heavily about Nokia, he said. "Yes it is using Windows Phone; it happens to be doing that but at the same time what you see in Windows Phone will be what you see from others but also with some unique differentiation from Nokia as well," he added. "So you will see this combined experience. But we will market it first and foremost as a Nokia experience." Elop said their most important competitors are not Samsung Windows Phone or HTC Windows Phone. "Our most important competitor is Android and so if you think about HTC or Samsung, I will talk to them and say that I want to beat you at Android versus Windows Phone, but I want to work with you on Windows Phone to make it successful," the Nokia CEO said. "We have a unique relationship with Microsoft. We made a very deliberate commitment to make our best work for the Windows Phone. I have talked about the structure of our deal with Microsoft; we essentially at the same time said that we are not going Android, we are going Windows Phone." While talking about building the Windows Phone ecosystem and transferring of apps, he highlighted a couple of things. "What's interesting is the very news that we are going Windows Phone has greatly stimulated the Windows Phone development environment. The developers are not waiting for the first devices," Elop said. "When we announced on February that we are going Windows Phone, already there were about 6,000 applications, now there are over 20,000. Windows Phone is now number 3 -- Apple, Android and Windows Phone," he added. In any environment including the competitive environments, there is a point below which the technology is so limited that at any point and time there has to be a seam, he said. While talking on his new leadership team, Elop said: "One of the things that have been very clear to my leadership team is that I take accountability very seriously." He said some people from the past who were challenged will thrive, while some people who were successful in the past may fail. But in any event, they will all be held in a high standard of accountability as they go forward. "As I have demonstrated already as some people have left or are leaving, I am not shy about dealing with those issues directly," he said. He also announced that Nokia is in process of establishing a manufacturing plant in Vietnam soon. While talking about the pricing of the recently launched Nokia dual SIM phones compared to Android dual SIMs, he said price is always one of the considerations but Nokia has actually been successful for many years by having a differentiated experience and that is why for example, the dual SIM swap in capability is different than what anyone else is capable of doing. Also they have put their Maps on these devices, which are remarkably low in price points. When asked about the Schengen ecosystem, which is affecting markets like Bangladesh, he said, "I won't say precisely how our pricing's going to be exactly next to theirs but we think when the value is compared we'll be very competitive." "We are a proud Finnish company and a global company that knows how to take advantage of local innovation. So we'll be very competitive," Elop said.
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