MNB RG: Nokia CTO office mystery: Android? Meltemi? Wearables?

Janne takes on the task to write about the possibility of Meltemi, Android and Wearables.   Cheers Janne!

A new kind of rhetoric has been rising in the Nokia blogosphere after the Microsoft Devices & Services acquisition news: discussion of the Nokia CTO (Chief Technology Officer) office and projects therein. Nokia CTO office, headed by longtime Nokia Research Center boss and a PhD of considerable academic credentials Henry Tirri, is of course important in the wake of the D&S news, because it will remain with Nokia. Whatever Nokia is cooking directly under its highest technology leadership, will remain in-house even after the Microsoft deal is (expected to be) completed (barring Chinese interference, it seems).

In some past MNB write-ups, I have explored Nokia’s possible post-D&S paths. In the very first one, “Will cars soon be tracked by Nokia black boxes? Jorma Ollila heads a car tracking taskforce”

(http://mynokiablog.com/2013/10/19/mnb-rg-will-cars-soon-be-tracked-by-nokia-black-boxes-jorma-ollila-heads-a-car-tracking-taskforce/)

I explored the possibility of Nokia being somehow behind the initiatives to tax cars in Finland based on their location. Apparently this kind of work is not only getting lift in Finland, but e.g. in Germany as well. Since then at least one list of companies making proposals to the taskforce has been made public, and Nokia/HERE were not on the list, so no further confirmation for this angle has been received – of course we don’t know if HERE plays a part in the listed companies work. Still, it seems plausible HERE – as one of Nokia’s remaining pillars – would remain interested in work inside this area. Whether HERE has anything to do with, directly or indirectly, with the Finnish plans is unknown. For all we know, Nokia could still be considering spinning HERE off entirely.

In my second and third stories, “New Nokia HERE interview – and what is Nokia Guru, really?”

(http://mynokiablog.com/2013/10/24/new-nokia-here-interview-and-what-is-nokia-guru-really/)

and “What will the post-D&S-sale Nokia look like?”

(http://mynokiablog.com/2013/10/25/mnb-rg-what-will-the-post-ds-sale-nokia-look-like/)

I took a broader look at what will remain at Nokia after the D&S unit is sold to Microsoft. Current NSN and HERE operations of course being the obvious ones, but more interestingly talk behind future Nokia consumer products was gaining some wind. While the Nokia Guru I mentioned in this context was later revealed to be nothing more than a Bluetooth headset that will probably transfer over to Microsoft (Nokia Treasure Tag is still unreleased though), Nokia HERE boss Michael Halbherr’s comments about Nokia releasing future consumer devices that “do a few things well” still stands.

In the latter article I also mentioned the CTO office when discussing the third pillar (after NSN and HERE) of the “new Nokia”, Advanced Technologies: “Advanced Technologies is, really, what remains of Nokia’s Future Disruptions, CTO office and Nokia Research Center after the tumult of the last few years. Nokia dubbed it “a leader in technology development and licensing”…” In the fourth story, “Nokia planning “bounceback”, “new weapons””

(http://mynokiablog.com/2013/11/26/mnb-reader-generated-nokia-planning-bounceback-new-weapons/),

the man himself – head of Nokia’s CTO office Henry Tirri – was being interviewed in a link. Henry Tirri talks about the kinds of innovations Nokia Research Center has worked on and how Nokia could bring them to market themselves or through licensing to others.

Parallel to and since these stories, a few interesting additions about the Nokia CTO office have surfaced. First one was, quite a long time ago, when infamous MNB contributor Random Random tipped us that Nokia had moved some Meltemi people after its cancellation (for a bit more about Meltemi, see:

http://mynokiablog.com/2012/05/14/mnb-reader-generated-nokias-low-end-strategy-explained/)

to supposedly work on a new, secret project. Random Random indeed tipped this multiple times in conversations here on MNB quite a few months ago. Second interesting tidbit was that Nokia’s Project N/Normandy low-end Android phone project was actually inside the CTO office, not inside the D&S being sold to Microsoft. While the Android phone seems to now be cancelled

(http://mynokiablog.com/2013/12/18/nokia-android-plan-abandoned/),

it is possible the Android project remains at Nokia after the sale. Maybe something could come of it later.
Likewise there has been talk in the past that Meltemi too was a project of the CTO office, not of D&S. In this case, CTO office (including Nokia Research Center) probably means what Nokia used to talk about as their Future Disruptions. Was Meltemi a Future Disruption? Was Project N/Normandy a Future Disruption? Or, more intriguingly, could they still be? We remember Random Random’s tip that people were moved from the Meltemi project to something new. We also recall Meltemi was supposed to be built around some (cloud computing?) innovation? Could it have lived on longer? In probably the wildest twist to this story, alias Eero and his blog Eeron Nokia (http://eeronnokia.blogspot.fi/) suggest Meltemi indeed at least was alive recently (http://eeronnokia.blogspot.fi/2013/12/meltemi-on-hyllytetty.html) and might be related to Nokia wearables in 2014 (http://eeronnokia.blogspot.fi/2013/12/nokia-meltemi-puettavaan-teknologiaan.html). Even a new brandname of Nokia Crystal (http://eeronnokia.blogspot.fi/2013/12/nokian-alylasien-nimeksin-tulee-crystal.html) was suggested. Of course, this could be just pure fantasy.

Indeed, it is quite possible, likely even, none of the speculation or leaks collected in this article are accurate – some probably are completely false. However, a pattern seems to be emerging that what was once known as Nokia Research Center, then Future Disruptions, then just talk of the “CTO office”, now Advanced Technologies, may at least have been plotting Nokia’s return to consumer goods – and might still be. Might it manifest itself in the form of wearable Nokia technology or other Nokia consumer products in 2014? I guess the possibility isn’t completely within the realm of fantasy, as distant as it now in the aftermath of the D&S sale might seem.

Finally, while the eyes of the world are on Microsoft’s CEO selection, more relevantly for us here on My *Nokia* Blog, we shouldn’t forget Nokia too has a CEO to select. The current CEO/President combo of (Chairman) Risto Siilasmaa and (CFO) Timo Ihamuotila is just a temporary one. At the same time, Nokia’s board is said to be involved in strategy work around the new strategy of the company – some fruits of which expected to be announced once the Microsoft deal is finalized early next year. Will that strategy include consumer products directly from Nokia and, if so, under what brand? Will they come in the form of wearables? Maybe run Meltemi or Android? Or will Nokia simply abandon consumer products and concentrate on licensing their technology research to others?

Category: Nokia