It is Nokia's ability to listen to the network operators, coupled with the company's experience from consumer products and its boldness, which most impresses the expert group, which included Ericsson Radio Systems' former MD åke Lundqvist, östen Mäkitalo of Telia Mobile and Mike Short of BT Cellnet.
For many network operators it has been important to have a flexible alternative to Ericsson. However, companies like Alcatel, Siemens and Lucent have not been so keen to listen and adapt to the operators, which is why these have chosen Nokia as their second supplier. And some have gone all the way and appointed Nokia as their main supplier.
Nokia's recipe for success is so good that several of the experts firmly believe that Nokia has a chance to become the world's second largest mobile systems supplier. However, none of the experts Elektroniktidningen has spoken to believe that Nokia will become the largest mobile systems supplier. Ericsson's hold on about 30 per cent of the market is simply too strong. According to several analysts, Nokia, Lucent, Motorola, Siemens and Nortel all have market shares of less than 15 per cent.
Gittan Cedervall