OXFORD, United Kingdom-Having stated in November the worldwide growth in handset sales would climb by as much as 15 percent, Nokia’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Jorma Ollila has now revised this forecast down to 10 percent, or possibly “slightly more.” Nokia gave more weight to the 10-percent growth forecast by stating that it estimates 400 million cell phones will be sold by the end of this year, rising to at least 440 million in 2003.
Ollila, who justified this forecast change by pointing to the poor global economy and the possibility of hostilities with Iraq, said it is only prudent to now see around 10-percent growth. However, he reaffirmed the company’s three-year growth forecast of an average 10-percent to 15-percent growth in industrywide phone sales.
Separately, Nokia declared it is ready and willing to act as the operator of cellular networks for existing mobile operators wanting to outsource this part of their business. JT Bergqvist, vice president of Nokia Networks, said the company has prepared itself in terms of technical and operational skill to be capable of running a cellular network. However, he added that Nokia Networks does not expect a high level of immediate demand for these services, “for the simple reason that, for operators to make money, they must run their operations efficiently. Almost by definition, they should be the best possible operators.”
Bergqvist confirmed the company has taken over the management of a number of customers’ networks, but did not name any. The news follows an announcement by rival Ericsson this week that it has taken over operations of Hutchison’s Australian network.
