Nokia 2007 Strategy
August 13, 2007
Nokia’s New Chipset Strategy
Let the chips fall where they may
♦ Nokia announced a new chipset strategy including the use of standard 2G chipsets and the licensing of its protocol stack for merchant market chipset suppliers. ♦ Broadcom, STMicroelectronics and Infineon are the clear winners (in that order). ♦ To varying degrees all other chipset suppliers are losers while Texas Instruments faces a “two birds in the bush” situation.
Signals Flash provides timely information and analysis on major wireless events as they occur. It is a complimentary research bulletin that is intended for the clientele of Signals Research Group, LLC and the subscribers of its Signals Ahead newsletter. For additional information about SRG and the various research and consulting services that we offer, please visit our web site at www.signalsresearch.com.
♦ NOK, along with STM and TI, tried a similar strategy a few years ago. The industry dynamics may have been a bit different but the end result wasn’t exactly encouraging. Has anything changed? ♦ Our current 3G chipset market share forecast remains intact due to timing of new STM solutions and uncertainty over the potential success of the protocol stack licensing strategy.
Thoughts and Implications
Last week Nokia announced that it was going to begin using merchant market chipset solutions from Infineon (GSM) and Broadcom (EGPRS), thus ending a long-standing strategy that required the use of the Nokia 2G protocol stack in handsets that bear the Nokia brand name. Technically, Nokia has been using Qualcomm’s protocol stack and chipsets for CDMA2000/EV-DO handsets but this is generally done through a third-party ODM. Nokia also expanded its 3G supply chain to include STMicroelectronics. Given the complexities of integrating the software on a solution other than a TI DSP, Nokia would not give any indication of when it would begin shipping a handset based on the new platform. We believe that initial shipments
Nokia’s New Chipset Strategy
Let the chips fall where they may
♦ Nokia announced a new chipset strategy including the use of standard 2G chipsets and the licensing of its protocol stack for merchant market chipset suppliers. ♦ Broadcom, STMicroelectronics and Infineon are the clear winners (in that order). ♦ To varying degrees all other chipset suppliers are losers while Texas Instruments faces a “two birds in the bush” situation.
Signals Flash provides timely information and analysis on major wireless events as they occur. It is a complimentary research bulletin that is intended for the clientele of Signals Research Group, LLC and the subscribers of its Signals Ahead newsletter. For additional information about SRG and the various research and consulting services that we offer, please visit our web site at www.signalsresearch.com.
♦ NOK, along with STM and TI, tried a similar strategy a few years ago. The industry dynamics may have been a bit different but the end result wasn’t exactly encouraging. Has anything changed? ♦ Our current 3G chipset market share forecast remains intact due to timing of new STM solutions and uncertainty over the potential success of the protocol stack licensing strategy.
Thoughts and Implications
Last week Nokia announced that it was going to begin using merchant market chipset solutions from Infineon (GSM) and Broadcom (EGPRS), thus ending a long-standing strategy that required the use of the Nokia 2G protocol stack in handsets that bear the Nokia brand name. Technically, Nokia has been using Qualcomm’s protocol stack and chipsets for CDMA2000/EV-DO handsets but this is generally done through a third-party ODM. Nokia also expanded its 3G supply chain to include STMicroelectronics. Given the complexities of integrating the software on a solution other than a TI DSP, Nokia would not give any indication of when it would begin shipping a handset based on the new platform. We believe that initial shipments