Nokia to increase research and development activities in China

Jorma Ollila

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Mobile industry giant Nokia will increase its product development undertakings in China by opening two new research units in the country. In addition, the company will set up a postdoctoral programme and expand the existing Beijing product creation centre, which focuses on basic handset models.
      After these expansions, Nokia will employ over 600 people in China in the research and development field. The total number of Nokia R&D personnel is nearly 20,000, with 12,000 of them in Finland.
      "China is definitely a strategic part of Nokia's global R&D network," stated Nokia Chairman and CEO Jorma Ollila in Beijing on Friday. "We are pleased to be broadening our R&D activities in China and these steps further strengthen our long-term commitment to the country."
     
Nokia will open in Beijing a unit that will focus on CDMA technology, as well as a unit that will promote open standards and technology localisation. CDMA is a competing technology to GSM, and it is used in China, parts of the United States, and India.
      Nokia has previously developed its CDMA products in San Diego, but announced one month ago that it will open a CDMA development unit in Mumbai in India.
      The existing Nokia research centre in Beijing, which has operated since 1999, will receive added weight. In the future, the unit will develop and design 40 percent of the handset models of Nokia Mobile Phones. The Beijing unit will focus on developing low-cost phones that are targeted for the markets of developing nations.
     
In the new Nokia organisation model, Mobile Phones is responsible for basic handset models. All in all, Nokia has some fifty different models and their variations on sale around the globe. Around forty of them are in the Mobile Phones product range.
      Nokia will have five product development units in China after the announced additions. The company also cooperates closely with local universities. Nokia employs a total of 4,300 people in China, slightly under one tenth of the group's total head count.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Competition from Far East took Nokia by surprise (14.5.2004)

Links:
  Nokia press release

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