Nokia plans to cut its research and development (R&D) operations in Finland and Denmark . It will lay off up to 230 employees at Nokia’s Oulu site in Finland and approximately 100 employees at Nokia’s Copenhagen site. The total number would represent approximately 2 % of Nokia’s R&D personnel globally.

Nokia aims to support the employees with alternative solutions, such as finding new positions within the company for as many employees as possible. Nokia will begin consultations with employee representatives about these plans where voluntary severance packages among other topics will be discussed.

Nokia maintains a strong R&D presence in both sites; the company has over 2 000 employees in Oulu and over 1 000 employees in Copenhagen. Overall, Nokia has more than 17 000 people employed in its research and development activities.

Nokia has announced a mobile TV edition of its 5330 mobile phone. The key of the announcement is the price: EUR 155 before taxes and subsidies. The price qualifies the phone as a mass market 3G device.

Nokia is playing up the new mobile TV phone in its press release, which contain information about existing and upcoming DVB-H mobile TV networks that Nokia Siemens Networks is setting up for TV operators.

The Nokia 5330 has also been configured as a social networking phone. Besides Nokia’s Ovi service, it supports several key social network services.

Mobile TV consumption is on the rise. According to the Nokia press release by 2012 there will be over 300 million people worldwide watching TV on their mobile phones.

Africa takes the lead

Nokia and Nokia Siemens Networks work with more than 30 operators worldwide on Mobile TV implementations. Commercial launches with Mobile TV services based on DVB-H and OMA BCAST standards include Austria, Finland, Ghana, Kenya, India, Italy, Namibia, Nigeria, Netherland, Philippines and Switzerland. Additional commercial launches can be expected during the next 12–18 months in more than 20 countries.

Francois Theron, CEO at DStv Mobile comments: “DStv Mobile has rolled out DVB-H networks in Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana and Namibia, and we are currently rolling out a number of new networks in other African countries. Our success has been built around offering innovative and premium television content at an affordable price while facilitating access to inexpensive handsets which suit the requirements of consumers in Africa.

The Nokia press release also includes statements from Mobile TV TDF, France, Hutch 3G, Italy and DNA, Finland.

The growth rate of HSPA Mobile Broadband connections has increased by nearly two thirds in the last year, according to figures released by Wireless Intelligence. There are now more than 9 million new HSPA connections being added globally every month, compared to 5.5 million a year ago. Europe and Asia Pacific each account for an estimated 3 million of these new connections, with North America contributing 1.3 million.

The rise in demand for Mobile Broadband will continue to accelerate, with a further 27 million HSPA connections forecast to be added by the end of 2009, with Africa, Eastern Europe and the Americas set to experience the strongest growth. There are currently 321 HSPA networks across 120 countries worldwide – 285 of these networks are commercially live, supporting more than 167.5 million connections.

These networks are being served by more than 1,600 HSPA-enabled devices, such as smartphones, netbook and notebook PCs and dongles, for example, delivering Mobile Broadband connectivity to users around the world.

“These next generation network technologies will continue to deliver increased data speeds and enable mobile operators to constantly improve service experience by delivering the latest, feature rich multimedia applications to their customers,” said Dan Warren, Director of Technology at the GSMA. “This expanding ecosystem also encompasses the next generation of GSM technologies, HSPA+ and LTE.”

Mozilla Mobile team announced the release of Firefox for mobile beta 5, available for the Maemo OS2008 and Maemo 5 software platforms running on the Nokia N810 and N900 Internet Tablets.

The release offers new features including Firefox official branding, with Firefox name and logo: support for multiple locales, currently including Spanish, German, French, Italian, Dutch, and Russian; enabled plugins; viewport meta tag support; new form assistant to make filling forms easier; improved panning and zooming performance and behavior. In addition numerous bugs have been fixed.

For more information on Firefox for mobile beta 5 for Maemo.

Firefox just celebrated its 5-year anniversary. During these years Internet Explorer browser market share has gone from 99 percent to 65 percent. Firefox has 25 percent of the browser market.

Nokia has started the shipments of the Nokia N900. This is Nokia’s first computer phone based on open source Maemo 5 software. The device has created a lot of attention. The reviews have been mainly positive.

The Nokia N900 will be available in retail stores in November with an estimated retail price of EUR 500, excluding sales taxes and subsidies.

“Maemo software, which takes its cues from the desktop computer , offers a full browsing experience like no other handset. We believe the Nokia N900 will be a very compelling device for people who are passionate about technology,” says Luis Martinez, Vice President, Nseries.

The Nokia N900 uses ARM Cortex-A8 processor and it has up to 1GB of total application memory. Users can browse the internet the way they would on any computer and keep dozens of application windows open simultaneously on the dashboard.

The panoramic desktops in the Nokia N900 can be personalized with widgets, contacts and shortcuts. The device has 5Mpx Carl Zeiss camera. It shows automatically where they were taken, and users can add their own description tags to make searching the photos even easier.

SMS and instant messages are organized as chat flow and people can conveniently switch between the multiple conversation windows. There is built-in 32 GB storage. It it can be expanded up to 48GB with an external microSD card.

Nokia says it its press release that its work with the developer community has recently created significant innovation with Maemo. “As a result, people will be able to discover a wide range of games, utilities, themes, panoramic wallpapers and service plug-ins for photo-sharing and messaging for the Nokia N900 through Ovi Store and Maemo Select, starting later in the year.”

In October Nokia announced official Qt port to Maemo 5. This means developers can use Qt software to target the Nokia N900 and that applications can be easily ported to all Qt’s supported platforms including the next Maemo 6 release as well as Symbian.

The Nokia N900 will initially be available in Europe, Middle-East, Russia and North America. It is also possible to order the device from the Nokia Online Store.

Mobile Monday Buenos Aires will focus the second event in Tech Talk on the Android platform and state-of-the-art Android devices.

The event will take place Monday, November 16th at 7 PM at the Aula Magna at the Facultad Regional Buenos Aires de la Universidad Tecnológica Nacional (UTN), Medrano 951, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires.

This event will be fully dedicated to Android, the new operating system built by Google, with the aim to provide professionals with the latest news and information about this exciting development platform.

James Yum, team member of the Android Development Program team at Google, USA, and German Greco, Regional Product Manager at Motorola will be the3 main speakers for the event. Yum will offer his talk: “Inside the Android Application Framework”. Greco, on the other hand, will discuss “The next generation of Android phones”.

Moreover, a selected group of local developers will showcase their Android-based projects.

You can register for the free event by completing the registration form at Mobile Monday Buenos Aires website or at MOMO TechTalks.

Smartphones reached a record number of shipments for a single quarter, reports IDC. The shipments were up 4.2 percent.

During the last reporting period, 43.3 million smartphones shipped worldwide, up 4.2 percent from 41.5 million in the same period a year ago, and up 3.2 percent from shipments of 41.9 million in the second quarter of this year, according to IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker report.

Though the relative ranking of the top players in the space remains the same, analysts predict that the new Android-powered handsets will soon have a significant impact.

Infonetic also bullish on smartphone

“Smartphones are on track to post a 14.5 percent increase in the number of units sold worldwide in 2009, and a 21 percent compound annual growth rate from 2008 to 2013, significantly better than other mobile phone segments,” Richard Webb, mobile analyst director at Infonetics, said in a statement.

Webb sees a dip in smartphone fortunes this year, but the future is bright: “While smartphone revenue is expected to dip in 2009 mainly due to price erosion and lower-ARPU units coming to market, we expect it to pick up in 2010 and continue growing, easily outstripping the combined revenue of standard mobile phones by 2012.

Canalys counts 41,4 million devices

Global smart phone shipments in Q3 2009 rose 4% year on year, slower than the 13% annual growth seen last quarter, and held back primarily by a 6% fall in EMEA. Shipments in North America were up 5%, but the APAC region saw a remarkable 26% rise after several flat quarters.

Nokia, RIM, Apple and HTC command over 80% of the market between them, says Canalys report that breaks up the data by manufacturer, operating system and geographic region.

Market shares according to Canalys: Nokia retained its worldwide smart phone lead, with a share of 40% – slightly up on its year-ago position, but down almost 5% sequentially. RIM held onto second place with a largely unchanged (compared to Q2) share of 21%, while Apple reached a new high of 18% share in third, significantly up from the 14% it held in Q2 as supply of the iPhone 3GS improved in many countries. HTC retained its fourth-place position with 5% share.

Looking at the market by operating system, Symbian’s overall lead shrank as its share fell to 46%, ahead of RIM and Apple. Microsoft remained in fourth with its share dipping slightly below last quarter’s previous low point of 9%. The proportion of smart phones running Google’s Android OS climbed to almost 4%, from just under 3% in Q2.

Market shares according to Canalys: Nokia maintained its position as the overall leader in the converged mobile device market. Driving shipments forward were its popular flagship device, the N97, and an improving enterprise-focused portfolio led by the E71. Nokia also announced its first Maemo-powered device, the N900, targeting high-end users. While its worldwide leadership position is clear, Nokia still struggles in North America.

Research In Motion continued on its upward path with BlackBerry devices available for first-time users and returning users alike. Although most of its volumes remained within its home region of North America, the company also posted significant improvement internationally, with some regions recording triple digit growth year over year. Research In Motion launched two new devices during the quarter; the BlackBerry Tour for CDMA networks and the BlackBerry Curve 8520 for GSM networks.

Apple reached its highest volume yet in a single quarter. The nearly global availability of the iPhone 3G S sparked another round of annual replacements for Apple loyalists, while the lower price on the iPhone 3G put the device well within reach of customers wary of the price. Although the iPhone has struggled within emerging markets, its arrival at China Unicom this year could foreshadow greater shipment volumes.

HTC finished the quarter in fourth place (with HTC shipment data excluding phones sold under another company’s brand). HTC remains the largest provider of Windows Mobile-powered devices, with several new devices shipping the new Windows 6.5 operating system. These include the HD2, Imagio, Tilt2, Pure, and Touch2. Not to be overlooked is its quickly growing Android-powered volumes with the Dream, Hero, and Magic.

Samsung returned to the top five vendors during 3Q09. Although volumes were flat from a year ago, the company saw marked improvement in Asia/Pacific, Latin America, and EMEA. The company has been a big supporter of Windows Mobile on its devices, and features Windows 6.5 on its Intrepid device. Samsung also plans to launch its Android-powered offering with the Moment and Behold II.

MobileMonday’s Jari Tammisto has received an international Brand Leadership Award. Openness and internationalization of the MobileMonday movement were the merits that won Tammisto the award.

MobileMonday is an open community that brings together the mobile industry professionals in nearly 50 countries globally. The successful internationalization of the concept based on the open operating model brought the CEO Jari Tammisto the international Brand Leadership Award this year.

MobileMonday is a global open community that brings together decision makers, developers, researchers and funders of the mobile industry through monthly happenings, international summits, an online community, and a news service. Thanks to the openness that is in the heart of the MobileMonday operating model, mobile developers and influencers can adopt and modify the concept to develop the industry further and enhance collaboration among its various players on a local level.

Starting off five years ago, the same openness enabled the CEO Jari Tammisto to elevate the concept successfully from Finland to an international scene. Today MobileMonday operates actively nearly in 50 countries and 80 regions, including Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, India, Japan, and the U.S.

Says Jari Tammisto:

• I am delighted to see that our open operating model is recognized now as the hottest trend in brand building. Already five years ago we identified that as the most effective way to globalize our operations, and now companies, communities and universities throughout the world are exploring and analyzing our model and its applicability to various companies and industries.

The Brand Leadership Award was presented to Jari Tammisto in the annual World Brand Congress in Mumbai, India in the first week of November 2009. The award is the most important personal recognition granted in the congress, the congress organizers state. The decision upon a person receiving the award was made by a jury consisting of seasoned industry professionals. Criteria include person’s merits, personal values, business ethics and a contribution to the development of the marketing industry.

Prior to Jari Tammisto the Brand Leadership Award has been presented to numerous marketing industry professionals ranging from Mohammad Al Mulla, Executive Director, Dubai Media City; Prof. Renee Mauborgne, author of “Blue Ocean Strategy”; Kevin Roberts, CEO Worldwide, Saatchi & Saatchi; to David Jones, Global CEO, Euro RSCG.

Nokia Siemens Networks today announced plans to cut its workforce by 7-9 percent of its 64,000 employees. The top percentage would mean cutting 5760 people in effort to lower the operating cost by EUR 500 million by the end of 2011. The reorganization is expected cost the company EUR 550 million.

At the same time the company announced changes in top positions corresponding to cutting its operating units from five to three.

Nokia Siemens today issued the following press release:

Nokia Siemens Networks today announced its plan to improve financial performance and return to growth. The plan includes reorganizing the company’s business units to better align with customer needs; extensive operating expense and production overhead reduction, including a global personnel review; ongoing purchasing savings; expanded partnering to ensure a full portfolio of world-class products and services; and potential acquisitions where assets would add scale to existing product areas or customer relationships.

“As our customers make purchasing decisions, they want a partner who engages in issues well beyond a traditional discussion of technology,” said Rajeev Suri, chief executive officer of Nokia Siemens Networks. “Business models, innovation, growth and transformation are now very much front and center when it comes to the selection of a technology partner - and our planned new structure will position us well in this changing market.”

Reorganization

The Company’s five business units are planned to be realigned into three, each targeting a specific customer focus area. The planned new business units, which are expected to come into effect on January 1, 2010, are:

• Business Solutions, which will focus on helping customers generate new revenue and differentiate from the competition by providing a faster time to market for end-user services; enhancing billing and charging capability; automating and simplifying processes; addressing the challenges of convergence; and tapping into rich subscriber data to deliver a unique customer experience. Jürgen Walter, currently head of the company’s Converged Core business unit, will assume leadership of the Business Solutions organization.

• Network Systems, which will focus on providing both fixed and mobile network infrastructure, including the company’s innovative Flexi base stations, core products, optical transport systems, and broadband access equipment. Marc Rouanne, currently head of the company’s Radio Access business unit, will assume leadership of the Network Systems organization.

• Global Services, which will focus on helping customers improve operational efficiency through outsourcing of their non-core activities; supporting and managing their networks with robust customer care offerings; and ensuring fast and cost-effective implementation of new networks and network upgrades. Ashish Chowdhary, currently head of the company’s Services business, will assume leadership of the Global Services organization.

Rouanne and Walter will join the Company’s Executive Board, effective January 1, 2010. Chowdhary is already a member of the Executive Board and will remain so in his new role.

Cost reductions

Despite having fully achieved the original merger integration savings objectives of Nokia Siemens Networks, changes in the global economy and competitive environment make further cost reductions necessary. As a result, Nokia Siemens Networks will target a reduction of annualized operating expenses and production overheads of EUR 500 million by the end of 2011 compared to the end of 2009. The company estimates that total charges associated with these reductions will be in the range of EUR 550 million over the course of 2010-2011.

The operating expense and production overhead savings are expected to come from a wide range of areas, including real estate, information technology, site optimization, strategic workforce rebalancing, and overall general and administrative expenses. As part of this effort, the company will also conduct a global personnel review which may lead to headcount reductions in the range of about 7-9 percent of its current approximately 64,000 employees.

Specific country impact may be higher or lower than the now estimated global 7-9 percent range and the company will only provide further details related to this intended action when the review and planning process has progressed and employee representatives have been involved where required. As the stability of customer relationships is a key priority, disruption to key customer-facing sales positions as a result of this review is expected to be limited.

In addition to the operating expense and production overhead savings, Nokia Siemens Networks will target an annual reduction in product and service procurement costs related to cost of goods sold that is substantially larger than the targeted EUR 500 million in operating expenses and production overhead reductions. This targeted reduction is expected to position the company to meet ongoing customer requirements for competitive pricing.

Partnerships and acquisitions

Nokia Siemens Networks will seek to further strengthen its business through partnerships and acquisitions. The Company already has a range of partnerships, including with Juniper Networks in the Carrier Ethernet transport arena.

Nokia Siemens Networks will also pursue acquisitions when assets are available and the associated purchase price of those assets provides the appropriate value. In particular, the Company will target assets that enhance the scale of existing product and service business lines and that deepen relationships with key customers.

“We recognize that we are operating in a market where customer needs are evolving fast,” said Mika Vehvilainen, chief operating officer of Nokia Siemens Networks. “We see acquisitions and expanded partnering as important tools to help meet these needs in the fastest, most efficient way possible.”

38 percent Europeans say that a finger-based touchscreen would be the preferred main user interface on their next mobile phone, with a further 16 precent opting for a stylus-based touchscreen. These result from a recent survey conducted by Canalys with more than 3,000 mobile phone users across France, Germany and the UK suggest a continuing market shift toward touch-centric devices.

But the results also raise questions about how well users are coping with the finger-based touchscreen UIs currently on the market and how good a design job vendors have done so far. Of those for whom this was already their primary method of interacting with the phone, only 47% said they would choose the same type of UI on their next model. While higher than the mean across all users it does suggest disappointment with current UIs. Looking at the results by handset brand, HTC and Apple stood out as having a much higher proportion of users wanting to stick with the same type of UI, while Sony Ericsson had the lowest proportion among the major handset vendors, at just 29%.

“The results suggest that consumer awareness of touchscreen UIs is very high, driven by the marketing of Apple, Samsung and others, and there is no doubt that the changes in device design we have seen over the past couple of years have produced some very exciting products,” said Pete Cunningham, senior analyst at Canalys, “But it is also apparent that, with experience, a significant proportion of users have not been totally won over by some of these devices. This is to be expected, as it is quite a big shift for many users to make, but a poor experience with one touchscreen device may dissuade users from trying another one in the future and it is imperative that vendors focus on usability and practicality as well as visual appeal, and continue to enhance their interfaces. There has always been a question mark over how well touchscreens would work among an SMS-centric audience and the results indicate the transition has not been totally smooth.”

The group with the least desire for finger-centric touchscreen products was, interestingly, those that currently use a stylus-based device. “This is another example of how strongly current user experience sets future expectations,” Cunningham added. “It is likely that many of those users perceive moving from stylus to finger as a loss of precision that would degrade usability, hence the underlying resistance. However, within this group there was notably less push back by current HTC and Samsung owners – two vendors that put their own finger-driven UI on top of Windows Mobile – which suggests they may be more successful in migrating customers in this segment.”

Overall, future interest in finger-centric touchscreens varied little across demographic groups, tariff types and countries, reinforcing the view that they have mass-market appeal. Men showed a slightly higher preference than women – 40% versus 35%. Those aged between 22 and 45 were more positive than those in younger and older age groups, but again the differences were not dramatic.

“We are at a critical time in the mobile industry,” commented Canalys VP Mike Welch. “The user awareness and interest is clearly there, and the opportunity to drive a mass change in user interaction, and hence device capabilities and the opening up of new application and service revenue streams, is tantalisingly close. But only if users continue to embrace these new UIs once they have tried them. This is the new arena in which mobile vendors must differentiate themselves, and the user experience battle will spread to other product categories, such as netbooks.”

Changing mobile user behaviour will be one of the many important topics discussed at the Canalys is organizing Mobility Forum in London on November 17. Even the venue reflects mobility. The event takes palace in Heathrow Hilton. Among other things the Forum discuss the threat that mobile devices and operating systems are presenting to Intel and Microsoft.