Nokia plans to open design centres in Bangalore, and Rio de Janerio

With a view to augment its market in emerging India, Nokia (NYSE: NOK), the world’s largest handset manufacturer, will start a design facility in Bangalore. Officials also said India is expected to become the company’s second largest market by 2010.

"Nokia intends to start two new design facilities – one in Rio de Janerio (Brazil) and another one in Bangalore. It is important for us to be closer to the market and get feedback from our customer," Mitti Storckovius, director, corporate strategy, Nokia, said.

Nokia leads the handset market in the country by a huge margin (about 80 per cent market share). Nokia’s design centre basically aims at anticipating trends and designs of mobile users across the country.

Source: Business Standard

Wow, and you wonder why Nokia says emerging markets are important! I always loved Nokia for their spartan utilitarian designs, you could immediately tell they were Northern European. Hope this doesn’t change things. Who knows, maybe the team in India could create a design that is so hot it will be sold to the international market!

All I have to say is bring back my Psion Revo!