Nokia's Chinese Bet, Wholesalers
At Nokia World, while much more than 7,000 jobs were cut globally, Nokia announced an increase of 2,000 members in China, highlighting the essential position of China. Meanwhile, Nokia announced a global merger and adjustment of R&D bases and staff, further emphasizing China's status—Beijing will become Nokia's global innovation center. Nokia stated that Beijing will be the main base for S30 and S40 R&D and will develop key products for Chinese users and mobile phone users worldwide using the Windows platform.
Although smartphones and wholesale markets have hit Nokia hard, it remains one of the world's largest smartphone companies. China may be the world’s largest single market, contributing over 38% of Nokia's revenue. Despite being the fastest-growing smartphone market in the world, China has seen its mobile phone market severely impacted by giants like Apple's iPhone. On February 11, Nokia and Microsoft announced an extensive strategic partnership, adopting Microsoft-developed Windows Phone as their primary operating system for smartphones.
Within such a burning platform, Nokia CEO Stephen Elop has a profound understanding of the importance of change. The first-generation iPhone was released in 2007, and until today, we haven't been able to offer a product that closely matches the user experience they provide. The Nokia-Microsoft alliance is seen as Nokia beginning to help itself. Despite this cooperation, it marks the formation of the three pillars of the mobile phone industry: Microsoft, Nokia, Android, and Apple. However, up to now, we have not seen any decent Nokia products emerge. Given the maximum market demand in China, each product can usually find a certain segment of the market. For Nokia, Chinese consumers recognize the brand best, making survival in the Chinese marketplace critical for Nokia. Clearly, Nokia has recognized this.