Pulse2 Technology and Social Media News » Nokia Corporation

Skype Has Been An Issue For Windows Phone

Amit Chowdhry — Tue, 08 May 2012 16:59:07 +0000

When Microsoft acquired Skype for $8.5 billion this past October, people have been wondering how the software giant would integrate the VoIP giant. This issue has been extended to Nokia. Mobility blogger Tomi Ahonen wrote a report about the Nokia shareholders meeting in Finland and it sounded like Nokia CEO Stephen Elop had to answer some tough questions. Ahonen said “Elop had explained that Nokia, together with Microsoft, is now attempting to convince carriers/operators to accept Skype against their wills, by marketing/pricing/sales gimmicks. This admission says to me that the carriers are truly hostile towards Nokia about the matter and this negotiation attempt is futile.”

None of the Windows Phone devices have Skype pre-installed. Microsoft recently released Skype for Windows Phone 1.0 recently on the Windows Phone Marketplace. Elop even admitted at the meeting that in most countries where the Lumia launched has been poor. In the U.S. and Finland, Nokia sales have been stronger. In Europe, Lumia sales are not doing too hot though.

When Elop was asked by a shareholder about channel issues due to Skype, Elop said “If the operator doesn’t want us, it doesn’t want us. We will appeal to them with other arguments. We have more to offer to them. It is a good point to start the discussion from Skype.”

“This admission says to me that the carriers are truly hostile towards Nokia about the matter and this negotiation attempt is futile,” said Ahonen.

T-Mobile Says iPhone Network Compatibility Coming This Year

Amit Chowdhry — Tue, 08 May 2012 16:23:22 +0000

T-Mobile’s network will be compatible with the iPhone later this year even if they are not selling the device. T-Mobile is working with Ericsson and Nokia-Siemens for their $4 billion 4G LTE deployment. This addresses T-Mobile’s lack of the iPhone and a more advanced 4G LTE network. Ericsson and Nokia have experience building 4G LTE when they worked with Verizon Wireless and other telecom companies. T-Mobile also said today that they have secured spectrum from AT&T last week as part of the merger breakup fee.

Between the spectrum from AT&T and their own spectrum, T-Mobile said that they hope to cover 75% of its top 25 markets with LTE. However T-Mobile said that they lack sufficient spectrum for a broader deployment of LTE. On top of LTE, T-Mobile is focusing on HSPA+ technology, which they argue is fast enough to be called 4G. T-Mobile plans to use 1900-megahertz spectrum for their upgraded HSPA+ network and plans to have several of their markets covered by the end of the year.

Nokia Files 11 Patent Lawsuits Against HTC, RIM, and ViewSonic

Amit Chowdhry — Wed, 02 May 2012 16:37:48 +0000

Being number two is not sitting well with Nokia Corporation. Nokia has announced that they have filed 11 lawsuits against HTC, RIM, and ViewSonic across courts in the U.S. and Germany. The lawsuits are in regards to 45 patents Nokia believes are being violated. This is the first time that Nokia has filed cases against any of these companies.

Nokia does have licensing deals with 40 companies covering standards-essential patents, but the patents in these lawsuits are outside of those deals.

“Nokia had to file these actions to end the unauthorized use of our proprietary innovations and technologies, which have not been widely licensed,” stated Nokia chief legal officer Louise Pentland. The patents cover hardware capabilities including dual function antennas, multimode ratios, and power management. Software features include app stores, multitasking, conversational message display, data encryption, etc.

Nokia has about 10,000 patent families, making them one of the largest patent holders of all in the mobile industry.

Below is a statement from the company:

Nokia takes new steps to protect its innovations and intellectual property

Patent suits filed against HTC, RIM and Viewsonic in the US and Germany

Espoo, Finland – Nokia has filed claims in the United States and Germany alleging that products from HTC, RIM and Viewsonic infringe a number of Nokia patents.

“Nokia is a leader in many technologies needed for great mobile products,” said Louise Pentland, chief legal officer at Nokia. “We have already licensed our standards essential patents to more than 40 companies. Though we’d prefer to avoid litigation, Nokia had to file these actions to end the unauthorized use of our proprietary innovations and technologies, which have not been widely licensed.”

Nokia’s actions include a complaint to the US International Trade Commission (ITC) against HTC, suits against HTC and Viewsonic in the Federal District Court of Delaware, US, against HTC and RIM in the Regional Court in Dusseldorf, Germany and against all three companies in the Regional Courts in Mannheim and Munich, Germany. In total, 45 Nokia patents are in suit in one or more of the actions.

Nokia proprietary innovations protected by these patents are being used by the companies to enable hardware capabilities such as dual function antennas, power management and multimode radios, as well as to enhance software features including application stores, multitasking, navigation, conversational message display, dynamic menus, data encryption and retrieval of email attachments on a mobile device.

“Many of these inventions are fundamental to Nokia products,” Pentland concluded. “We’d rather that other companies respect our intellectual property and compete using their own innovations, but as these actions show, we will not tolerate the unauthorized use of our inventions.”

About Nokia
Nokia is a global leader in mobile communications whose products have become an integral part of the lives of people around the world. Every day, more than 1.3 billion people use their Nokia to capture and share experiences, access information, find their way or simply to speak to one another. Nokia’s technological and design innovations have made its brand one of the most recognized in the world.

During the last two decades, Nokia has invested over EUR 45 billion in research and development and built the wireless industry’s strongest and broadest IPR portfolio, with around 10,000 patent families. Nokia is a world leader in the development of handheld device and mobile communications technologies, which is also demonstrated by Nokia’s strong patent position.

Nokia Dethroned As Biggest Handset Maker By Samsung

Amit Chowdhry — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 15:52:40 +0000

Earlier this month I wrote about how Samsung may overtake Nokia as the largest handset maker. Today we have confirmed that it is true. After 14 years, Nokia is no longer then global leader in handset manufacturing.

Samsung shipped 93.5 million handsets in the first quarter, which is 36% more than a year earlier. Nokia shipped 82.7 million. The demand of Galaxy smartphones helped Samsung post a first quarter net income of $4.5 billion.

Nokia had been the largest mobile phone handset manufacturing company since 1998 after they beat Motorola. Apple is the third largest maker of mobile phones after their shipments rose 89% to 35.1 million last quarter.

Nokia Lumia 900 Data Connection Fix Patch Now Available

Amit Chowdhry — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 04:35:06 +0000

Earlier this month the Nokia Lumia 900 was released and there was some data connection issues with the device. This was caused by memory management issues and the company had promised a firmware update. The firmware update is now available and you should be able to connect to HSPA, LTE, and WiFi just fine now. You will still get a $100 credit if you bought the phone or buy it within the next week.

Here is a statement from Nokia:

Earlier this week, Nokia communicated about a memory management issue with the recently launched Nokia Lumia 900 at AT&T that, in some cases, was leading to a loss of data connectivity.

When this news was issued on Tuesday, Nokia had identified that a software update would be available for consumer download on or around April 16th. Today, we’d like to share with you that the update is now available. Consumers now have the opportunity to update their AT&T version Nokia Lumia 900 software through Zune and Windows Phone 7 Connector for Mac earlier than anticipated.

Consumers are still able to swap out their Lumia 900 for an updated Lumia 900 in an AT&T store if they’d prefer. And, of course, the $100 credit offer will remain in effect through Midnight PST on April 21st.

For additional details, please visit: www.nokiausa.com/lumia900update

As always, we look forward to your questions and feedback.

Samsung Believed To Be The World’s Biggest Phone Maker Now

Amit Chowdhry — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 17:21:23 +0000

Yesterday Nokia reported that they sold only 83 million mobile phones in Q1, which is 27% down compared to their total sales of 113.5 million phones in Q4 2011. Now it is believed that Samsung is the world’s largest phone maker. As Nokia declines, Samsung has been growing.

It is estimated that Samsung shipped between 41 and 44 million smartphones and between 44 and 47 million feature phones, which puts Samsung at about 85 million units for Q1. Even the lowest estimate puts Samsung at a higher number than Nokia.

This means that it will most likely be the first quarter that Samsung overtakes Nokia. Apple and Samsung have been fighting for leader in the smartphone market for a while now, but Nokia had always been the leader of overall total phones because the number of feature phones they sold. This may no longer be the case.

Nokia Lumia 900 Hit With Data Connection Bug

Amit Chowdhry — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 19:37:32 +0000

The Nokia Lumia 900 smartphone has been hit with a bug as reported by people on Nokia, Phone Arena, and WPCentral forums. Windows Phone on the Nokia Lumia 900 loses data connections if the cellular link is restarted at any point. This problem also includes something as simple as airplane mode. You can fix the problem temporarily by booting up the phone without a SIM, shutting down, and then putting the SIM in again. It is believed that the unique phone identifiers (IMEIs) were not registering properly on the data network and AT&T is now taking the defective devices off the shelves.

Lumia 900 Gets Mostly Glowing Reviews

Amit Chowdhry — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 16:50:23 +0000

The Nokia Lumia 900 is going for sale on April 8th at a price of $100. Bloggers and news agencies have been pouring their opinions over the 4G LTE, 4.3-inch ClearBlack AMOLED display, and 8-megapixel Carl Zeiss camera-powered smartphone device running on Windows Phone. Here are some of the reviews in a few sentences.

IntoMobile called the Lumia 900 “the best Windows Phone yet.”

The Verge said “it may be the best looking phone on the market right now.” But they added that the images were not bad, but not particularly good either.

Gizmodo said that a lot of the top-tier apps still need to be polished. They said that “Spotify wouldn’t work on my Lumia at all.”

TechCrunch said “all in all, I think this phone has great potential.”

VentureBeat said that the Lumia 900 is the “best Windows Phone yet.”

Nokia Launches U.S. Ad Campaign For Lumia 900, Mocks iPhone

Amit Chowdhry — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 17:34:29 +0000

Nokia has launched a new website called “Smartphone Beta Test” to promote the AT&T Lumia 900, powered by Windows Phone. The website has a countdown clock that is set to expire on April 6th and there is a video of Chris Parnell sitting in a chair looking bored. Below that video are links to three other videos that features two people convincing another person that his iPhone is working normally despite losing reception for holding it wrong, the screen washing out in the sun, and for being fragile. The ad about the phone being fragile has a date stamp that says 2007 and towards the end of the video he talks about how mortgate-backed securities are a terrific investment too. The guy talking about them has “a friend at Lehman” too.

AT&T Now Accepting Lumia 900 Pre-Orders

Amit Chowdhry — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 18:25:46 +0000

AT&T is now accepting pre-orders of the Lumia 900 ahead of the April 8th release in the U.S. The pre-orders are happening through AT&T retail stores and online stores. You can pre-order matte black or cyan blue right now. However the white version will not be available until April 22nd. The Lumia 900 can be purchased for $100 plus two year agreement. However Walmart is offering the device for only $50 with a two-year agreement.