Nokia

[CityFarmer]

I may not able to comment on consumer product, but I may be able to provide input on hand-phone product. The telecom and its related technologies are important but not critical to hand-phone marker. Suppliers are doing most of the R&D (with pilot projects with phone makers), the ability to assemble into a total solution is the key competencies of phone makers.

The standardization of telecom specification for 2G, 3G and 4G are actively participated by key phone maker representatives and key chip/module suppliers. There is little differentiation in technical features.

What i do agree is new technologies will enable new user experience e.g. faster throughput enables demand for more complex mobile application, thus enables new opportunity. This is the total user experience

In short,

For statement of market leader been obsoleted due to emerging of 2G, 3G, 4G or related technologies, i will disagree.

For statement of market leader been obsoleted due to enabling of new user experience by technologies advancement. I will agree.

There is subtle yet critical differences between them.

[CityFarmer]

Nokia has dropped out of the top five global smartphone vendors, with its place being taken by BlackBerry manufacturer RIM.

In overall mobile phone shipments Nokia remains in second place globally, with 18.7 per cent of the market, ahead of Apple's 6.1 per cent but behind Samsung's 23.7 per cent share.

http://www.todayonline.com/Technology/ED...since-2004

[Some-one]

Goldman Sachs And Morgan Stanley Are Backing The Truck Up For Nokia Shares

http://seekingalpha.com/article/1023...r-nokia-shares
Every quarter, Nasdaq provides the institutional ownership information for many popular stocks. Out of curiosity, I visited the page to check the institutional ownership situation regarding Nokia (NOK). In the recent year, the company's shares and debt were downgraded multiple times by multiple rating agencies and analysts were competing with each other to be the first one to downgrade the company. This is why it was important to see what institutions were doing with Nokia. After all, it is not uncommon for some institutions to say one thing and do another. If a large institution said to "sell" a stock but it kept buying the same stock, this would raise my suspicion.

In the face of extremely negative sentiment, two investment banks, namely Morgan Stanley (MS) and Goldman Sachs (GS) increased the number of Nokia shares they were holding greatly in the last quarter. In the beginning of last quarter, Goldman Sachs held 61 million shares of Nokia. As of the end of the last quarter, the investment bank holds 116 million shares of the company. This indicates an increase of nearly 90%. As for Morgan Stanley, the bank held 4 million shares of the company in the beginning of the quarter, whereas, it ended up holding 32 million shares by the end of the quarter. This is an increase of nearly 700%.

Some other institutions also increased their stakes in the company. Barclays increased the number of its Nokia shares by 115% whereas Credit Suisse increased its Nokia shares by 94%. The global investment group of Barclays also initiated a long position in the company with nearly 1 million shares. Bank of America (BAC) and UBS decreased their Nokia holdings in the quarter, but this could be part of asset sales by these two banks.

In the quarter, 112 institutions increased their Nokia shares by 128 million shares, whereas 163 institutions decreased their Nokia shares by 77 million shares. In net, the institutional ownership of Nokia increased to 17%.

The next update of Nokia's institutional ownership will be released by Nasdaq around the first week of January. I expect many institutions to increase their shares in the company in this quarter. Given how Nokia's shares bounced back from $2.50 to $3 within a matter of days, I wouldn't be surprised to see many institutions having bought this stock recently.

Until recently, the company's survivability was a huge question. This is probably why the company has been trading near its book value recently. Normally, it is very rare for technology companies to trade near their book value unless the investors seriously fear that the company is on the brink of bankruptcy. Lately, the strong demand for the company's flagship phone Lumia 920 seems to have removed much of these fears.

When big institutional banks tell people to buy stocks, it may not be a big deal, but when they actually go ahead and buy the stocks, it is a big deal. There is a lot of potential in Nokia and it can easily double in a year if the company can convince the investors that it is here to stay.

[CityFarmer]

Tough years ahead for telecommunication service providers, except for Huawei which is very successful especially in Asia

Another negative news for Nokia...

Nokia Siemens to close German services unit: Sources

FRANKFURT - Nokia Siemens Networks' (NSN) German services unit faces closure and 1,000 jobs are at risk as Nokia and Siemens shake up the joint venture, two sources said.
...
The telecoms equipment market is going through tough times with stiff competition from Chinese peers Huawei and ZTE as the major telecoms operators postpone investments, faced with shrinking markets due to the weak economy.
-TODAYonline

http://www.todayonline.com/Business/EDC1...t--Sources

[arthur]

STOCKHOLM—Nokia Corp.'s hulking glass-and-steel headquarters overlooking the Gulf of Finland was built in several phases with half-a-million square feet of space, enough room for thousands of employees to take the onetime galoshes maker to the top of the world's cellphone market. Today, the building houses just 1,800 workers and, as of Tuesday, has a landlord.

The struggling company, scrambling to raise cash and cut costs amid deepening losses, raised €170 million ($222 million) by selling the suburban-Helsinki building to Finnish property investor Exilion Capital Oy and agreeing to lease it back on a long-term basis. The deal, which Nokia first said it was pursuing in October, follows a move earlier in the fourth quarter to raise €750 million in a bond offering.

.The economy in Finland, located on the euro zone's northern edge, has slowed in recent quarters due to federal budget constraints and pressure on exports, but it still remains a relatively attractive market in Europe. The Finnish office market has been particularly hot due to limited space and a robust startup culture, and the general global appetite for sale-leasebacks has been healthy of late given attractive financing terms and a desire to park assets in havens.

Sale-leasebacks have become a common practice for companies looking to raise cash, but they are also used as a defensive measure against potential acquirers buying the business and then selling off pieces, like real estate, as a means to raise money.

Nokia finance chief Timo Ihamuotila said "owning real estate is not part of Nokia's core business." Nokia is willing to exit these types of noncore assets "when good opportunities arise," he said.

The company has also been selling patents and divesting itself of parts of its business, including an optical-network unit sold this week by its Nokia Siemens Networks arm.

The 540,000-square-foot headquarters building includes rich Scandinavian interior-design features and a massive employee cafeteria with hardwood floors. It was completed in three phases, with the wings of the building connected by glass-enclosed bridges. The final portion of the building was finished in 2001, when Nokia still dominated the global cellphone market.

Nokia will lease back its 540,000-square-foot headquarters in Finland.
.Nokia's workforce in Finland has shrunk by 30% over the past half-dozen years.

Sale-leasebacks are occurring more frequently. Credit Suisse Group AG CSGN.VX +2.23%last week sold its main building in Zurich for $1.08 billion to Norway's Government Pension Fund Global and now plans to lease those offices, following similar property moves by Bank of America BAC +1.12%and HSBC HSBA.LN +0.05%. "It's become pretty commonplace over the past decade to extract capital out of their real estate when needed for their core business," said Dan Fasulo, managing director at Real Capital Analytics in New York. "It's not just struggling companies that use this."

Still, it is a convenient tool for companies in need of cash. For example, Sony Corp., 6758.TO -0.25%once an icon of Japanese industrial prowess, is considering a sale of its U.S. headquarters on Madison Avenue in Manhattan, and remains open to a leaseback.

Nokia has been under significant scrutiny over its cash position in recent quarters, and has been subject to a series of credit downgrades from the three major credit-rating firms, all of whom have cut Nokia's debt rating to junk. Its net cash position stood at €3.6 billion at the end of September, off from €4.2 billion at the end of June.

Still, Mr. Fasulo said Exilion Capital must have faith in Nokia to pay its bills if it was willing to agree to a long-term lease. "Basically, you're buying a Nokia bond," he said.

In a news release, Exilion said the property fit "very well" into its investment strategy because of the building, location and long-term contract. The deal for the building, which is one of the largest office complexes in Finland, doubled the value of Exilion's property portfolio.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424..._whatsNews

[sgd]

I'm putting my eggs on huawei becoming the next global leader after Samsung.

Huawei is a technology company, and having success in telecom market especially in 4G recently, but i doubt its capable of becoming a leader in hand-phone market which need more than technological capability

haha never say never when it comes to technology, see I told you so.

source: http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/754498.shtml

--- Huawei challenges Apple, Samsung with world's biggest smartphone

China's Huawei Technologies boosted smartphone with bigger, higher-resolution screen on Monday with two new devices aimed at challenging much bigger rivals, including Samsung Electronics and Apple.

The Chinese phone maker unveiled "the world's biggest smartphone" Ascend Mate and the Ascend D2, calling it "most powerful smartphone" on the eve of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

The Ascend D2, smaller phone but with a range of impressive specs, would have a high-definition screen with 443 pixels per inch compared with the most advanced Samsung and Apple phones, with resolutions more than 300 pixels per inch range, according to Huawei.

It is slightly smaller at a 5-inch screen, but the biggest spec on the sheet is this device's resolution. At 1080x1920 pixels with a pixel density of 443ppi, this device's screen specs are even more impressive than the Samsung Galaxy S3's and iPhone 5's.

The Ascend Mate device has a screen that measures a 6.1-inch display compared with Samsung's biggest smartphone to date, the Galaxy Note II has a 5.5-inch display. It has an 8-megapixel camera, a front-facing camera.

The standout feature, though, is the whopping 4050mAh battery, which Huawei claims can provide 48 hours of power. This battery capacity smashes records. Up until now, Motorola's Droid Razr Maxx has been the reigning champ with a 3,300mAh battery.

Huawei's consumer business CEO Richard Yu said the company is hoping its latest smartphones will offer an alternative for people who have to carry around their tablet computer, laptop, smartphone and camera all at once.

"Our idea is whether we can have one thing for all that," Yu said.

[CityFarmer]

I'm putting my eggs on huawei becoming the next global leader after Samsung.

Huawei is a technology company, and having success in telecom market especially in 4G recently, but i doubt its capable of becoming a leader in hand-phone market which need more than technological capability

haha never say never when it comes to technology, see I told you so.

source: http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/754498.shtml

--- Huawei challenges Apple, Samsung with world's biggest smartphone

China's Huawei Technologies boosted smartphone with bigger, higher-resolution screen on Monday with two new devices aimed at challenging much bigger rivals, including Samsung Electronics and Apple.

The Chinese phone maker unveiled "the world's biggest smartphone" Ascend Mate and the Ascend D2, calling it "most powerful smartphone" on the eve of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

The Ascend D2, smaller phone but with a range of impressive specs, would have a high-definition screen with 443 pixels per inch compared with the most advanced Samsung and Apple phones, with resolutions more than 300 pixels per inch range, according to Huawei.

It is slightly smaller at a 5-inch screen, but the biggest spec on the sheet is this device's resolution. At 1080x1920 pixels with a pixel density of 443ppi, this device's screen specs are even more impressive than the Samsung Galaxy S3's and iPhone 5's.

The Ascend Mate device has a screen that measures a 6.1-inch display compared with Samsung's biggest smartphone to date, the Galaxy Note II has a 5.5-inch display. It has an 8-megapixel camera, a front-facing camera.

The standout feature, though, is the whopping 4050mAh battery, which Huawei claims can provide 48 hours of power. This battery capacity smashes records. Up until now, Motorola's Droid Razr Maxx has been the reigning champ with a 3,300mAh battery.

Huawei's consumer business CEO Richard Yu said the company is hoping its latest smartphones will offer an alternative for people who have to carry around their tablet computer, laptop, smartphone and camera all at once.

"Our idea is whether we can have one thing for all that," Yu said.

Huawei can tried, but i doubt it can success to become leader in hand-phone market.

[specuvestor]

TCL has a 110" LCD TV does not mean it will be a market leader anytime soon. It takes a lot more than showcase products to be a leader.

[sgd]

sure .. this is not overnight thing to become a global leader it takes time and a lot of investment. Samsung took more than 10 years buying up companies to become electronics global leader. If you had told westerners in the 80's or 90's that Samsung would one day become the global leader in electronics they would probably have laughed.

If you look at the elements that are in place, to build all these electronics and smart devices you need low cost manufacturing and you need rare earths and china has all these, they control 90% of global rare earths production and they have all the cheap and skilled workforce that can make anything end-to-end today. There's really nothing to halt them is just only a matter of time, what they don't have is a large domestic consumer market but that will eventually happen under this new chinese leadership. if you want an investment with a long term horizon buy huawei or any of the consumer related coy in china

[CityFarmer]

sure .. this is not overnight thing to become a global leader it takes time and a lot of investment. Samsung took more than 10 years buying up companies to become electronics global leader. If you had told westerners in the 80's or 90's that Samsung would one day become the global leader in electronics they would probably have laughed.

If you look at the elements that are in place, to build all these electronics and smart devices you need low cost manufacturing and you need rare earths and china has all these, they control 90% of global rare earths production and they have all the cheap and skilled workforce that can make anything end-to-end today. There's really nothing to halt them is just only a matter of time, what they don't have is a large domestic consumer market but that will eventually happen under this new chinese leadership. if you want an investment with a long term horizon buy huawei or any of the consumer related coy in china

Huawei has all the elements highlighted, plus huawei technologies and leader position in the back-end.

Huawei already win and a leader in the back-end market.

To become leader in hand-phone market, the lacking is a "steve jobs" leader, which is probably the hardest and most critical base on my limited understanding of Huawei culture.