Nokia Ready To Engage Google And Apple

Nokia's CEO, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo listened to the buzz last month when Google announced its Android operating system for mobile phones and the formation of the Open Handset Alliance with 33 other manufacturers.

Google, Kallasvuo noted, left out the perhaps the biggest mobile player of them all -- Nokia.

Many people said Android could be a game changer for the mobile industry. Coupled with the introduction of Apple's iPhone, the mobile market seemed to be on the verge of change so great that mobile devices would soon be unrecognizable in form and the services they offer.

Kallasvuo now has answered back in and understated way. In an interview with the New York Times this week, he said Nokia is not worried. "We've seen an announcement," said Kallasvuo. "Conceptually, we could have made that announcement a long time ago."

While many said that Google's wealth and intellectual firepower would enable it to build out an open source platform to transform mobile phones, Kallasvuo said Nokia has had its own phalanx of developers creating the next generation of mobile applications.

He seemed to be saying he's ready to rumble. "It's very clear that Apple, Google, and other players are bringing in a lot of new directions," Kallasvuo said. "Convergence is a nice, dandy word, but it means industries colliding."

Nokia's position in the mobile market should not be underestimated. It has 39 percent of the 1.1 billion-phone global cellular market, more than its next three largest rivals combined, the Times said. In addition, it owns half the market for smartphones, including the iPhone, Research In Motion's BlackBerry, and Nokia's N95.

Still, in the United States, Nokia is in a weak position. Its market share, 28 percent five years ago, is now barely 10 percent, the Times said.

But Kallasvuo has signaled Nokia has just begun to engage in the next-gen mobile fight.

"There's no doubt competition is intensifying," Carolina Milanesi, a wireless analyst in London for Gartner, the research firm, told the Times. "Nokia is responding more aggressively than any other vendor to the challenge."