Nokia Oyj is betting BlackBerry addicts are looking for a new fix.
The world's largest mobile-phone maker is courting customers of Research In Motion Ltd's (RIM) BlackBerry for a combination phone and e-mail device, coming out next quarter.
Nokia is exploiting concern that the service may be shut down in the US amid a patent dispute.
"People are looking for some alternatives," Mary McDowell, a Nokia senior vice president, said in an interview in New York.
The patent lawsuit has "been a cloud over RIM," she said.
Nokia wants to create its own class of fans, similar to the users from Wall Street to Silicon Valley that nicknamed RIM's device the "CrackBerry" and crouch over the pagers on trains and airplanes.
McDowell says the Finland-based company's E61 device will win over some of the 650 million people with business e-mail accounts worldwide, by giving them access to messages on the go.
The opportunity may be better now than ever. Research In Motion, with about 4 million users, may be forced to shut down service in the US, its biggest market.
US District Judge James Spencer in Richmond, Virginia, on Nov. 30 rejected a US$450 million settlement between RIM and NTP Inc, which claims the BlackBerry unfairly uses its patents.
Nokia isn't the only one eying BlackBerry. Motorola is set to unveil a phone with built-in e-mail.
Dubbed the Q, after the so-called Qwerty keyboard such devices feature, the machine is due out in the first quarter.
Illinois-based Motorola expects some business users to buy the Q, spokesman Alan Buddendeck said.
The company also is aiming for "prosumers," a combination of professionals and consumers, or customers who want personal and business e-mail. Those clients would use the device instead of a laptop.
Mobile-phone sales across the industry are set to increase more than 10 percent next year from an estimated 780 million units this year, Nokia said last week.
Nokia, which had about a third of the handset market last quarter, expects to gain share, executives said after introducing three more high-end models that run on faster networks. Nokia has a long-term target of 40 percent market share.
Last month, the company predicted the market for smartphones, the handsets with computer-like functions such as e-mail, will double to 100 million units next year.
Nokia, which runs a version of the BlackBerry software on some of its devices, has a license from Virginia-based NTP to continue running the program on its products should there be an injunction, McDowell said.
She declined to be specific about the details of the license.
"There are no patent issues related to running BlackBerry software," McDowell said.
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
MULTIFACETED: A task force has analyzed possible scenarios and created responses to assist domestic industries in dealing with US tariffs, the economics minister said The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei. The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort