When Stephen Elop became the CEO of Nokia back in September 2010, everyone was a bit suspicious as to what he was going to do to the Finnish handset maker. Less than half a year later in February 2011 he got up on a stage in London and announced that Nokia would be getting rid of their Symbian and MeeGo assets and then depend on Microsoft’s new Windows Phone operating system to build the future of the company. Note that before becoming the CEO of Nokia, Elop was head of Microsoft’s Business Division for more than 2 years. Elop also said that he would help Nokia save a lot of money by concentrating on moving production to Asian countries. We saw Nokia’s factory in Romania shut down in September 2011 and there are strong rumors that the Hungarian factory and Finnish factory are next in line. According to Computerworld Singapore and MarketWatch, Nokia has now decided to move their Asian headquarters from Singapore to Beijing. Why? Here’s what a Nokia spokesperson had to say:
“Nokia’s APAC HQ will be relocated to Beijing as part of our strategy to adapt our operations to the business environment to ensure our competitiveness. This includes an increasing focus on assembly in Asia, close to our suppliers. The structure of the region is therefore being aligned to support the execution of the company’s strategy and savings target we announced last year, in bringing efficiencies and speed to the organization.”
So let’s get this straight: Nokia doesn’t make their own software anymore, they’re using companies like Compal to build their devices, Qualcomm does all the processor and radio stuff, so the only thing Nokia actually does is put a bunch of designers and marketing people in a room and tell them to crank out products? Sounds a lot like HTC to us. At least Samsung makes their own components, as does LG. Apple even goes so far as to design their own chips and buy machinery for their partner’s factories.
Nokia on the other hand? Outsource everything.