DOHA: Nokia and local partner Consolidated Gulf Company (CGC) has embarked on an aggressive campaign to fortify its leadership amid the tight competition in the local smartphone market.
Nokia and CGC executives introduced its overall year-long business and product strategies with a showcase of its latest handsets including N9, E6 and C2 series at Ramada Hotel.
Tom Farrell, General Manager of Nokia Lower Gulf, has admitted the world's top mobile maker is facing challenging times ahead but explained they have moved away from competition to shift towards global mobile ecosystem development.
Farrell said mobile ecosystem is a combination of maintenance, delivery of content to different cloud computing services and whole mix of ingredients on the latest mobile technology. Nokia Gulf will also focus on co-creation strategy especially with local universities by sending dedicated technicians to work with developers on mobile applications which are very much in trend with students.
Farrell was responding to a comment by a university student during the question and answer forum who said there is a perception that Nokia mobile phones is no longer a hype anymore at the campus and is already under pressure on students' patronage with other popular smartphone brands.
He said the recent partnership with software giant Microsoft to develop market-leading mobile products and services designed to offer consumers, operators and developers unrivalled choice and opportunity is at the heart of their innovation strategy.
Nokia and Microsoft have reached a partnership with Microsoft to make Windows Phone 7 as Nokia's primary smartphone operating system. The company said that its strategic partnership with Microsoft would "build a new global mobile ecosystem".
"The purpose of today's event is to underline our commitment and dedication to the Qatari market by discussing our new strategy and introducing our latest products that are at the cutting edge of handset technology and useability," Farrell said.
At the event, Nokia's latest smartphone, the N9, was taking center stage in the presentation of latest product which was launched in Singapore last week. The N9 introduces an innovative new design where the home key is replaced by a simple gesture: a swipe. The N9 will be available to the local market in the last quarter of this year.
© The Peninsula 2011
