Intel x Nokia
Didn’t see this one coming. But then again, Intel the world’s biggest chipslinger was always looking to make a major push into the mobile arena. In a press release titled “Intel and Nokia Announce Strategic Relationship to Shape the Next Era of Mobile Computing Innovation” (read it here), Intel outlines their plans to move forward with Nokia to work on the future of mobile computing and translate the two corporations joint research into action. Intel also announces that they will license Nokia’s HSPA/3G modem technologies. This was an excellent scoop on Intels part and will also allow Nokia to leverage their existing technologies in more strategic ways.
Kai Öistämö (Executive Vice President of Devices at Nokia) says…
“We will explore new ideas in designs, materials and displays that will go far beyond devices and services on the market today. This collaboration will be compelling not only for our companies, but also for our industries, our partners and, of course, for consumers.”
This isn’t a partnership that we will see immediate products and technolgies from, but in the long term this collaboration will pay dividends. Another major aspect of this teamup is the collaboration on open source software and coordinating their open source investments. This includes moblin and maemo. Although symbian wasn’t explicitly mentioned, I’m personally hoping to see Intel contribute to that project as well.
So what does this mean for the future devices that will be hitting the streets? I would definitely expect to see a wider array of chips in Nokia phones. Possibly even faster and more specialized processors in their smartphone lines and most definitely a Nokia tablet with an Intel processor in it.
Read the press release at Nokia here.
Photos in photo by stefan, james nash, and somewhat frank.
Nokia Siemens buying pieces of Nortel
Nokia Siemens the telecom equivalent of ultrazord is looking to gain traction in the North American market. Nortel, a company that has been taking massive hits in the current economy needed to make something happen in order to stay in existence and has sold its LTE and CDMA assets to Nokia Siemens Networks. All things considered, this was a good move on both companies parts as Nortel was operating under bankruptcy protection (they had a net loss of $507 million in the first quarter of this year) and the newly acquired cellular assets give Nokia Siemens a very strategic position to operate in within the North American market.
The acquisition was described by Nokia Siemens as “a significant step towards strengthening its leadership in LTE wireless technology.” If you don’t know what LTE wireless technology is, think about the 3G speeds you’re getting on your smartphone, then think about the next level up from that.
Nokia also said that “The acquisition of Nortel’s profitable CDMA business would significantly improve Nokia Siemens Networks’ presence in North America and make it a leading supplier of wireless infrastructure products in the region”. So what we have here is Nokia making a major push into the North American wireless infrastructure market. Although its very early to make such calls, I would definitely expect to start seeing more speced out Nokia mobile devices to appear in the U.S. Phones like the Nokia N97 are begging to take advantage of the next generation wireless technology that Nokia is acquiring. I think that in the not too distant future Nokia will make a push into the states like nothing we’ve ever seen before. I would also keep an eye on symbian, as the OS that these devices will run on is a key component as well.
*Read the welcome letter and watch the welcome video here.
