IRVINE, Texas-Nokia Corp. said it expects its mobile handset business to improve in 2003, while its infrastructure business will face challenges. “We see growth potential in new product categories, especially in games, imaging and the enterprise market in which we can extend our strong brand, technology prowess and manufacturing scalability,” said Chairman and CEO Jorma Ollila today at the company’s bi-annual strategy meeting for investors. Ollila said network traffic has increased, although operators’ investments continue to drop. Nokia expects that the infrastructure market will fall 10 percent in 2003, compared with 20 percent this year, Ollila commented. The company’s stock is down about 9 percent today, as is the stock of other major wireless infrastructure vendors, perhaps because of Nokia’s cautious outlook.
Ollila also offered that Nokia does not intend to engage in mergers or acquisitions unless they would complement its major operations. He said the company’s cash situation is buoyant at this time and that vendor financing is well under control.
“I feel better about 2003 now then I felt in August,” said Ollila.
Anssi Banjoki, Nokia’s executive vice president of mobile phones, told the audience said that the company is learning more and more about CDMA, but it is concerned about the “monopolistic attitude” of some of the players in the market. Nokia has complained publicly that Qualcomm Inc., which owns essential CDMA patents, will not agree to a 5 percent cap on royalties for CDMA equipment.
