Nokia enters mobile broadband market to "mehs" all-round

Nokia does not appear to have learned its lesson from its failed attempt to crack the 3G market, with the news that it has developed a USB dongle to rival those on offer from networks such as 3.

The firm’s offering has yet to be named officially but Tapio Markki, vice president for hardware platform components at the Finnish telecommunications giant, said that it will ship its first HSPA modem early next year. Mr Markki told Reuters that its experience in developing 3G will serve it well in breaking into the market.

Hmmm, I'd beg to differ. Not least on the grounds that any techy with a bit of nous can see just how myopically short sighted the venture is. The problem here is that Nokia has failed to take into account that although mobile broadband is undoubtedly on the rise and is indeed a growth area, demand from consumers is in likely to wane over the next couple of years as they turn instead to 3G embedded laptops.

So it seems just as demand for embedded laptops is poised to grow exponentially next year, Nokia is entering the market with its last-gen offering. Certainly figures from a source at a leading broadband price comparison site indicate as much, with broadband deals which include 3G embedded laptops proving among their most popular products in recent months.

With the N97 on the way and a sustained challenge to its market supremacy recently arriving from Apple, wouldn’t Nokia be better off channelling money into its marketing spend for its new handsets? Or better yet holding back on its attempts to diversify and sticking to what it does best, i.e mobile phones.