Nokia is exploring the possibilities of vying for a piece of the laptop market. The world's largest cell-phone manufacturer's CEO told a Finnish television audience that the company is "actively looking" at entering the laptop fray where Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Acer dominate.
Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo said he envisions the company moving deeper beyond its mobile-phone roots. Nokia has expanded its offerings over the past year with navigation, social-networking plays, and the Comes With Music offering. But a laptop would be an entirely new challenge -- or would it? Smartphones increasingly have PC-like capabilities.
"We don't have to look even for five years from now to see that what we know as a mobile phone and what we know as a PC are in many ways converging," Kallasvuo said in a Finnish television interview. "Today we have hundreds of millions of people who are having their first Internet experience on the phone. This is a good indication."
The Crossover Movement
So what would a Nokia laptop look like? Would it compete with the ultra-slick Apple MacBook? Would it turn out more like a newfangled netbook? The latter seems to be the route the mobile-phone maker is considering.
Also called mini-notebooks, netbooks are on pace to reach 5.2 million units in 2008 and eight million units in 2009, according to Gartner. The market is expected to experience strong growth, with as many as 50 million mini-notebooks shipped in 2012. Several factors will drive the demand for netbooks, including a small form factor and small screen, light weight, price, ease of use, and basic but sufficient PC functionality.
Perhaps ironically, Nokia's hints around the netbook space come at the heals of Acer's entrance into the smartphone sector. It seems the grass may be greener on the other side, or at least the opportunities appear viable. Dell, a leader in the laptop and netbook market, is also rumored to be working on a smartphone.
Similar Distribution Chains
Avi Greengart, a wireless analyst at Current Analysis, said the manufacturer crossovers from laptops to smartphones and from smartphones to laptops reflects the reality of the market. The PC vendors have ventured into the smartphone space because they see both growth and competitive threats. Greengart said the smartphone vendors should at least consider moving in the opposite direction.
"Some of the handset vendors are part of corporate conglomerates that already make laptops and smartphones, such as Samsung, LG and Sony Ericsson," Greengart said. "The most successful PC vendor in the smartphone space is Apple, but HP, Acer and Asus have smartphones. Nokia has already produced an Internet tablet, the N810, that runs Linux."
Noteworthy is the fact that the netbook distribution chain looks increasingly similar to smartphones. In Europe, several operators sell netbooks with a wireless LAN data plan that's subsidized. Greengart said Nokia could realistically sell a netbook through the same channels it sells its smartphones. Of course, there are downsides to venturing into the netbook market.
"The market for netbooks is incredibly crowded and the margins aren't that great. But Nokia is used to that," Greengart said. "Nokia competes effectively with the Chinese on super-low-cost phones sold in China and India. Nokia certainly has the logistics and supply-chain expertise to manage this."
Nokia is exploring the possibilities of vying for a piece of the laptop market. The world's largest cell-phone manufacturer's CEO told a Finnish television audience that the company is "actively looking" at entering the laptop fray where Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Acer dominate.
Via Yahoo
Follow us on Twitter!