Nokia is introducing a licensing and multisourcing model for its chipset strategy. This will allow the company to focus on its core competencies in chipset development, leverage external innovation and foster competition in the chipset industry. Under this renewed strategy Nokia will discontinue parts of its own chipset development and expand its use of commercially available chipsets.
However, the company will continue to develop its leading modem technology, which includes protocol software and related digital design for WCDMA/GSM and its evolution. It will then license this technology to its chipset manufacturers, who will use it in the chipsets they develop and produce for Nokia and, if they so decide, in the chipsets they produce for the open market.
This licensing and multisourcing strategy will allow Nokia to broaden its pool of chipset suppliers and leverage external innovation to support its wide range of products. It will also allow the company to invest in R&D areas besides radio technology, such as in software to power Internet services.
Based on this renewed strategy, Nokia is working with four chipset suppliers. Texas Instruments continues to be a broad scope supplier across all protocols, Broadcom has been chosen as a supplier in EDGE, Infineon Technologies as a supplier in GSM and STMicroelectronics as a supplier in 3G.
Niklas Savander, executive vice president, Nokia Technology Platforms, stated, "Companies in this industry need to focus on areas where they can add value and partner with others where it makes sense. We believe that our renewed strategy will allow us to concentrate on developing core chipset technologies, while increasing our R&D efficiencies and improving our agility in a fast moving marketplace."