Nokia To Reposition Itself As Internet, Mobile Content Company

The 135-year-old company that turned itself from a rubber goods manufacturer into the world's #1 mobile phone producer is about to transform itself again.

Nokia has been moving into digital content for some time, what with its global mobile advertising network, its new mobile game store and social networking site and all. But now, the company says it's shifting focus again, this time to digital services, in a bid to take on the likes of Google and Microsoft.

"Success in the future will require mastering and integrating a complex set of technologies and services," Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo recently told investors and reporters. "It will involve partnering with others where it makes sense, and bringing all this together in products and services that improve or enhance our customers' lives...The link created between our devices and our mobile services will enhance our already strong brand, our market share and ultimately our device margins. Expanding into services also is giving us an opportunity to work together in new areas with our operator customers, as their businesses also change."

To get an inside look at how Nokia transformed itself before, and how it may attempt to do it again, in this exclusive excerpt from a special Q&A interview in BRANDING UNBOUND the book with innovation guru Gary Hamel. Hamel, you may have heard, was just named by the Wall Street Journal as the world's most influential business thought leader. You'll want to see about what he says about Nokia and mobile, here.

And to read more about Nokia's announcements, click here.

Quick links:

BRANDING UNBOUND The Blog
BRANDING UNBOUND The Book
ADWEEK Magazines Excerpt
Rick Mathieson.com