Nokia announced yesterday that it is reallocating its resources and selling assets focused on the business and enterprise market. They are planning on stopping the research and development of business solutions and enterprise mail. Surprising, since Mail for Exchange 2.7 had just been released not long ago – which would lead some to believe that Nokia’s business support would continue going. Not so. Instead, they are focusing on the consumer and devices and software geared toward non-business types. Nokia is planning on selling off its security appliances business to a financial investor with the EVP of Services & Software saying:
“If this transaction is concluded, it would be an extremely positive development for the security appliance business, which will be able to realize its full potential under new ownership. The investor is committed to continuing the development and growth of the business, to serving its current network of customers, and to retaining and motivating its employees.”
We’ll see if this new investor can actually help that side of Nokia’s soon-to-be-former department “realize its full potential” and motivate its employees. This does seem like a logical step for Nokia since their business devices, like the E71 and E90, haven’t done so well against Blackberry, Motorola, and HTC in terms of sales, popularity, and enterprise support. Not to mention them stupidly dropping BlackBerry Connect. With Nokia tightening its focus on the consumer market, we can only hope that it leads to some awesome multimedia devices and compete with the iPhone, G1, and future devices that will be featuring Android.
UPDATE: To clarify, Nokia is not ceasing to manufacture business devices. They are concentrating on consumer software.
