LONDON
— Nokia wants to rebuild its market share in the
U.S. and has been developing handsets focused on this
country with a dedicated R&D facility in the U.S., said Colin
Giles, senior VP and global head of sales.
Although those handsets haven’t reached the market
yet, other handsets on the U.S. market have already
“prioritized a number of U.S. requirements” to help gain
carrier sell-in, including stricter RF requirements, carriers’
general network requirements, and user-interface requirements,
he said.
Speaking here via conference call to the U.S. press from
the two-day Nokia World event last week, Giles admitted
that the “stumbling block” that held back U.S. share had
been “a lack of understanding of the U.S. market,” including
such things as RF requirements. The company, he admitted,
had been “building products for the global market,
but they weren’t tailored well enough for the U.S.”
Now, a U.S.-based R&D facility is designing U.S.-specific
products, taking into account operator requirements “very
early in the R&D process,” he said without saying when the
phones would be available.
