Nokia To Focus On Maps And Network Equipment After Microsoft Sale

The newly streamlined Nokia that will emerge once the £4.6 billion sale of its handset division to Microsoft is completed will focus on its Here maps, advanced technology and network solutions businesses.

The Finnish manufacturer told the Wall Street Journal it believed most companies did not have a mapping asset and there was a gap in the market for a neutral supplier to compete with the likes of Google Maps and Apple Maps.

Nokia Maps

Here Maps, which covers 190 countries and offers real-time traffic information for 34 nations, already counts Ford, BMW, Audi, Toyota, SAP and Oracle among its clients, while Microsoft will become one of Nokia’s three biggest mapping customers when it signs a four year licensing deal for Windows Phone.

However, Nokia is keen to get the service into more smartphones and cars and is also targeting companies that need to track people or goods as part of their business. Maps contributed just four percent to Nokia’s overall net sales last year, but it was the only division where sales rose, albeit by just one percent, and the company believes there is strong potential for further growth.

The new Nokia is also retaining its network solutions business, which accounted for 45 percent of all sales last year, having agreed to purchase Siemens 50 percent stake in the Nokia Siemens Networks joint-venture for £1.5 billion in July.

Reports last week suggested Nokia was considering a tie-up with troubled Alcatel-Lucent, which has lost around $10 billion since the two firms merged in 2006, to better challenge the likes of Ericsson, Huawei and ZTE.

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