© Reuters. A mockup of the new Nokia logo is seen in an unknown location, in this undated photo received on February 25, 2023. NOKIA/Handout via REUTERS
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By Supantha Mukherjee
BARCELONA (Reuters) – Nokia (NYSE:) announced plans on Sunday to change its brand identity for the first time in nearly 60 years, with a new logo, as the telecommunications equipment maker focuses on aggressive growth.
The new logo consists of five different shapes that make up the word NOKIA. The iconic blue color of the old logo has been removed for a range of colors depending on use.
“There was the association with smartphones and today we are a commercial technology company,” Chief Executive Pekka Lundmark told Reuters in an interview.
He was speaking before a business update from the company on the eve of the annual Mobile World Congress (MWC) which opens in Barcelona on Monday and runs until March 2.
After assuming the top role at the struggling Finnish company in 2020, Lundmark laid out a three-stage strategy: restart, accelerate and scale. With the restart stage now complete, Lundmark said the second stage is beginning.
While Nokia is still aiming to grow its service provider business, where it sells equipment to telcos, its main focus now is selling equipment to other companies.
“We had very good growth of 21% last year in companies, which currently represents around 8% of our sales, (or) 2 billion euros (2.11 billion dollars) approximately,” said Lundmark. “We want to get that to double digits as quickly as possible.”
Major technology companies have partnered with telecom equipment makers such as Nokia to sell private 5G networks and automated factory equipment to customers, primarily in the manufacturing sector.
Nokia plans to review the growth path of its different businesses and consider alternatives, including divestment.
“The signal is very clear. We only want to be in businesses where we can see global leadership,” Lundmark said.
Nokia’s move into factory automation and data centers will also see them take on big tech companies including Microsoft (NASDAQ:) and Amazon (NASDAQ:).
“There will be multiple different types of cases, sometimes they will be our partners…sometimes they may be our customers…and I’m sure there will also be situations where they will be competitors.”
The market to sell telecom equipment is under pressure as the macro environment reduces demand from high-margin markets like North America, being replaced by growth in low-margin India, pushing rival Ericsson (BS 🙂 to lay off 8500 employees.
“India is our fastest growing market that has lower margins; this is a structural change,” Lundmark said, adding that Nokia expects North America to be stronger in the second half of the year.
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