Nokia rejigs chipset development focus

Nokia has said it is to discontinue parts of its own chipset development and instead will introduce a licensing and multi-sourcing model to expand its use of commercially available chipsets in its mobile phones.

As well as fostering competition in the industry, Nokia reckons this will allow it to focus on its core competencies such as modem technology, which includes protocol software and related digital design for WCDMA/GSM.

Nokia will then license this modem technology to its chipset manufacturers, who will use it in the chipsets they develop and produce for Nokia and in the chipsets they produce for the open market.

"This is a pragmatic move in the face of an increasingly complex technology environment," said Niklas Savander, executive vice president of Nokia Technology Platforms.

"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."

The move will also free up resources for the company to invest in R&D areas besides radio technology, such as mobile data software.

Nokia is now working with four chipset suppliers.

Texas Instruments will continue to be a broad scope supplier across all protocols, while Broadcom has been chosen to supply its single-chip cellular baseband processor and its companion power management unit (PMU) for selected future EDGE mobile phones.

Infineon Technologies will supply GSM chipsets and STMicroelectronics will cater for 3G chipsets.