Nokia Slices Market So Thin It Only Has One Side
Nokia (NOK) Wibree Aims to Replace Bluetooth, Give Consumers a Headache - Gizmodo
Nokia’s just announced the Wibree short-range wireless technology that it says will work alongside, or even replace Bluetooth thanks to the fact that it’s ten times as energy efficient.
Great. After about five years Bluetooth is just barely getting to the point where a handful of products will work together, and Nokia wants to introduce a new standard.
Speaking of Nokia and standards, it seems like only yesterday that Nokia decided it didn’t need no stinkin CDMA technology.
The Finnish company said on Thursday it would pull out of CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) phone manufacturing, which it sees as a shrinking market in the longer term, though it will continue to offer to sell Nokia rebranded CDMA phones produced by contract manufacturers in the North American market, where the standard is popular.
So why go to all the trouble of signing an exclusive marketing agreement in order to gain some negotiating power?
Nokia’s patent licensing deal with Trimble Navigation this week could give the phone maker an important boost in an ongoing dispute with CDMA developer Qualcomm (QCOM).
The deal gives Nokia a license for 700 Trimble technologies for delivering location-based services, as well as exclusive rights to sublicense them to other companies in the wireless industry. That means any company that wants to license Trimble’s patents must now do so through Nokia.
Nokia officials stopped short of calling the deal just what it needs to end its acrimonious renegotiation talks with Qualcomm. But they acknowledged that it will strengthen Nokia’s hand.
The thing is, Nokia’s spat with Qualcomm has nothing to do with technology, market share or principles. It’s just that Nokia likes to be on the giving rather than the receiving end of throat-cramming technology.
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Nokia does not know where to draw the line with useless technology. What do we need Wibree for? To make cellphones more expensive? How on earth will having yet another wireless protocol benefit the consumer?!?
[…] at Stockmarketbeat contends that Nokia’s announcements about Wibree and licensing from Trimble Navigation were less about […]