Hasta La Gadget!

Nokia has just started sending out invitations to its Nokia World 2012 event where the Finnish company is expected to unveil its upcoming Windows Phone 8 devices. According to the invitation, the event will be held on September 5-6 in Helsinki, Finland (no surprise there). For those of you who didn’t know, Nokia World is the annual event where Nokia shows off or announces new devices and since Windows 8 is expected to hit the market in October, it makes sense that we’ll be seeing Windows Phone 8 around the same time too.

Now all this is speculation, and for all we know Nokia could be announcing more Symbian phones – but that shouldn’t be the case. So keep your calendars marked and be sure to tune-in in about two months. We’ll keep you posted on what happens there. Any predictions to what Nokia will be showing off at Nokia World 2012?

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Windows Phone 8 to be released in October?, Windows Phone 8 seen on Vertu handset?,

Word has it that Update 8779 is being sent out to majority of the Nokia Lumia family, where this particular update will no doubt deliver brand new features as well as bug fixes. After all, what good is an operating system update if it will not be able to introduce a slew of bug fixes and make the entire user experience a whole lot more stable, right?

The Nokia Lumia 900 version 2175.2101.8779.12201 will see users enjoy enhanced sensitivity for proximity sensor performance as well as improvement to your smartphone’s screen colors, especially under low light conditions. As for the Nokia Lumia 710 version 1600.3031.8779.12180, Internet sharing (Wi-Fi Hotspot) is enabled so that you can share your current Internet connection over Wi-Fi with up to five other devices or computers. Are you in a conference or meeting and realized that the silent mode has not been turned on? Fret not, “flip to silence” is also introduced with this update.

As for the Nokia Lumia 610 version 1066.0000.12201, it will deliver enhanced sensitivity for proximity sensor performance as well as improved sound level for alarm tone during voice calls. Anyone given the updates a go yet, and how do you find it?

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Nokia Lumia 900 goes all batty with Batman model, Nokia Lumia PureView: Actual leak or mere concept?,

Today Nokia announced that its deal to buy imaging company Scalado has been finalized — a sign of another piece of the puzzle falling into place for Nokia as it continues to restructure to reverse huge declines in handset sales. But that dark, Finnish cloud has a silver lining that we’ve been noticing: the emergence of a bunch of startups being formed by many among the 40,000 people that have been laid off. The other day we wrote about how some of the smaller players have been picking up funding from Nokia courtesy of its Bridge program. And now we’ve come across what might possibly be one of the more ambitious spin-offs yet.

Oulutalent is a team of no less than 500 former-Nokia employees based in the town of Oulu. The skills on offer, and the ready-made team, is a testament to what Nokia has had to drop by the wayside, but also what is on the market for the many tech companies out there fighting the war for talent.

Averaging more than 10 years of experience, the group claims to have “created over 50 devices including major blockbusters. In addition to devices, we have done novel cloud services and UI platforms from scratch. We are on the leading edge with touch and LTE phones, Linux and WiMax tablets and we have world-class technical competence on all.”

The group is being led by Pekka Väyrynen, an engineer who developed patented wireless technology for Nokia (that is, the patents that are reported worth up to $6 billion and may well start getting sold off to help Nokia’s cash position).

Effectively, what we have in Oulutalent is a handset-making operation that could in theory be bolted on to a company with mobile ambitions (Amazon? A new Asian entrant? Nokia’s MeeGo spinoff Jolla?); or one that is growing already and needs to expand. It plays on the big area of outsourced operations — something that may have been too expensive for Nokia to maintain may well be hard for another as well; this lets that cost stay off the balance sheet.

Oulutalent notes that it can provide a range of consulting and technical services, from identifying market opportunities and planning product portfolios; to “concepting” (covering hardware and user experience, simulation and prototyping); turning those concepts into products; and then helping with the aftersales.

One twist is that the team is not in full effect yet, with some employees still working out their terms with Nokia, according to a spokesperson for the company.

And another is whether Oulutalent will be able to prove to the market that it’s worth the investment: its success is partly dependent on whether others believe Nokia’s downfall was mainly due to some bad decisions from management; or whether it was also down to those executing on decisions.

Oulutalent is offering itself as a group for “turn-key product creation,” but there may be possibilities to engage smaller teams, too. That is the approach being taken by a similar project called Kyvyt (Finnish for “talent”). Despite its Finnish name, Kyvyt is based in the German town of Ulm, where Nokia also had a large team of people who apparently were working on its low-end Linux based platform Meltemi (another project Nokia left on the cutting-room floor). Kyvyt is offering out its pool of talent as and where it is needed, and it is also running events like job fairs, as well as posting job adverts on its site.

The Oulutalent spokesperson says that it will cooperate with Kyvyt, although declined to specify what that will mean. More detailed information, she says, will be coming out in coming weeks.

Ironically, as Nokia has been cutting staff, it’s taken a few on, too, to focus on areas where it hopes to stand out against handset competitors. The Scalado purchase will see some 50 people join Nokia’s smartphone operations in Lund, Sweden, where Nokia will be incorporating Scalado’s technologies and IP into its imaging business:

“We believe that this acquisition will strengthen Nokia’s leading position in mobile imaging and provide us with a great opportunity to create even better imaging products and applications,” Jo Harlow, executive vice president, Smart Devices at Nokia, said in a statement.

In the bigger picture, Nokia has insisted that it is safe and secure as far as cash reserves are concerned, but at the same time it’s running out of goodwill with the investment community: Nokia’s debt rating yesterday was cut once again by Moody’s, as the agency noted that losses in the current quarter will be even greater than previously thought. The three major credit agencies, Standard & Poor’s; Fitch and Moody’s have all now graded Nokia’s debt down to “junk” status.

Nokia, as before, has said that the “impact on the company is limited” with the company taking action to turn things around. The company says at the end of June it had a cash balance of €9.4 billion and a net cash balance of €4.2 billion, both higher than a year ago.

It’s not clear who is providing the capital to finance Oulutalent, although the Bridge program we wrote about before is basically restricted to startups of four people or less, so it’s unlikely to play a role here. We’re asking questions and will update as we learn more.

It’s taken just over a month for Nokia to get everything in place, but its now announced that around 50 “world-class imaging specialists” have joined Espoo’s already substantial mobile imaging department, alongside a stack of Scalado’s technologies and intellectual property. The imaging specialist’s co-founder, Sami Niemi, who will now head up the Capture and Relive section of Smart Devices at Nokia, said: “The technologies and competences we’ve developed should help move from taking photos to capturing memories and emotions.” (We’re sure those hulking PureView sensors will help too.) Take a look at Nokia’s brief statement on its future in mobile imaging after the break.

Continue reading Nokia completes acquisiton of Scalado’s imaging tech and developers

Filed under: Cellphones, Software

Nokia completes acquisiton of Scalado’s imaging tech and developers originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Jul 2012 03:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Nokia is considering inking exclusivity deals with European operators for Windows Phone 8 smartphones, promising a financial stake in the success of the next-gen handsets, in an attempt to boost its profile. Partnerships with specific carriers in European countries would be paired with a promised share of the sales proceeds, a source tells the Financial Times, to encourage in-store promotion. The whispers don’t come as a huge surprise, however; CEO Stephen Elop said in the aftermath of the company’s last quarter financial results that Nokia would trim its European carriers to mimic the deal with AT&T in the US.

Nokia has already begun talks with potential carrier partners, the insiders claim, with France Telecom named but apparently not yet inking a deal. Negotiations are described as “exploratory” and potentially unfounded, and there’s the possibility of a more broad-ranging deal with T-Mobile’s owner Deutsche Telekom that could see handsets crop up on Everything Everywhere in the UK too.

The move would be a considerable departure from Nokia’s sales strategy to-date, including its Windows Phone 7 Lumia handsets, in Europe. Nokia has traditionally pushed for the broadest possible availability, relying on saturation to boost demand. However, according to Elop, the complete opposite approach undertaken in the US – pairing up with AT&T on the Lumia 900 for a concerted and focused push into a market dominated by iPhone and Android – has been more successful.

Exactly by what metric that success is measured is unclear, though it’s presumably in bang-for-buck terms. Actual sales of Nokia devices in North America totaled just 600,000, dwarfed by sales in other regions, including Europe. However, it’s not clear how much Nokia (and Microsoft) spent in promotion per handset sale across regions.

The goal, it’s believed, is to encourage carriers to push Windows Phone devices through in-store promotions, retail staff  training and advertising, by giving them a greater-than-average kick back based on the platform’s success. In contrast, Apple is believed to be relatively miserly with its deals with carriers, relying on the iPhone’s existing allure for sales, while the market for Android devices is growing increasingly saturated.

Nokia in Windows Phone 8 carrier revenue sharing talks say insiders is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.