Nokia Joins Battle for Mobile Web, Buys Novarra

26.03.2010
Nokia--the world's leading manufacturer of mobile phones--announced that it is --a privately-held Chicago-based mobile Web browser developer. The purchase moves Nokia into the increasingly contentious mobile browser battle.

In a statement about the acquisition, Nokia declares "Novarra's mobile browser and services platform will be used by Nokia to deliver enhanced Internet experiences on Nokia mobile devices." Novarra will enable Nokia to deliver an improved mobile Web experience to customers. However, the Novarra acquisition will probably have little effect on customers in the United States.

While Nokia is the largest maker of mobile phones in the world, it plays a more obscure role in the market in America. The most recent comScore survey places Nokia in fourth place for mobile phones in the United States, with just over nine percent market share.

Drilling down more specifically to smartphones, Nokia isn't even on the radar. RIM's BlackBerry is the leading smartphone platform in the U.S., followed by the iPhoneiPhone, Windows Mobile, and AndroidAndroid. Even Palm's faltering WebOS platform manages a fifth place position with nearly six percent of the smartphone market. Alles zu Android auf CIO.de Alles zu iPhone auf CIO.de

"Connecting the next billion consumers to the Internet will happen primarily on mobile devices," said Niklas Savander, executive vice president of Services for Nokiain the Nokia statement, adding "and delivering an optimized internet experience on our devices is core to our mission. By driving innovation in all segments of our portfolio, we are building one of the largest consumer audiences for web services and content. Novarra's Internet services technology delivered on the world's most widely-used mobile platform, Nokia's Series 40, will help us achieve this."

To its credit, Nokia has been working aggressively to regain some swagger and find the edge it once had among mobile phones. Nokia is engaged in a back and forth legal struggle with AppleApple over patent infringement allegations--Nokia claims Apple is violating its patents, and Apple accuses Nokia of the same. Nokia also formed an alliance with Intel to combine their Linux-based mobile operating systems to create MeeGo. Alles zu Apple auf CIO.de

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