SAN DIEGO, USA – Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal interviewed Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo at this year’s All Things Digital conference which is taking place in San Diego this week. “That’s pretty cool” was Walt’s response after being treated to a demo of the Nokia N97. Of course, OPK agreed. But it wasn’t just about the N97, as you’ll see in the video, the discussion covers a wide range of topics relating to Nokia’s current and future plans.OPK kicks off by highlighting the number of people now using Nokia. The figure is never a surprise to me for I’m pretty familiar with it, but it always astounds. 1.1 billion people now use a Nokia device. Walt asks OPK about competitors which helps highlight how the world has changed in such a short space of time, the difference today versus three years ago is pretty astounding. With the likes of Samsung, LG, Microsoft, Google, RIM and Apple all fighting for a slice of the pie, OPK points out that Nokia can compete with some of them some of the time but not all of them all of the time.
Walt talks about the shift in emphasis, from hardware to software and is curious to know Nokia’s position on this. As we’re well aware, the shift from hardware to software is something that’s been a big part of Nokia’s strategy for some time. OPK highlights the fact that Nokia’s strategies, incentives and the way the business operates has all been aligned with a software focus. He also highlights the fact that Symbian is the only mature, open source mobile operating system. Nokia’s move to make it open source is designed to make it bigger, better and faster.
One really interesting thing Walt highlights is the lack of a US carrier for the N97. OPK whilst not giving anything away, does highlight the work Nokia has been doing to bring more devices to the USA, and specifically with carriers. He also highlights there’ll be a lot more to come, thanks to the work that’s already been done.
At a little over eight minutes, the video’s well worth a watch. We’ve embedded it here, but if you want to check out more from the All things D conference, head over to video.allthingsd.com.