A World Leader in Modularization: Nokia's Production and R&D Strategies

Benefiting from its successful development of both mature and emerging markets, in 2005 Nokia achieved global mobile phone shipment volume of 265 million units, representing an annual growth rate of 27.4%. Nokia's global market share increased from 30.8% in 2004 to 33.3% in 2005. Faced with the challenge of meeting the widely differing requirements of mature and emerging markets, over the years Nokia has implemented several major organizational restructuring programs, covering both production and R&D operations. It is these restructuring initiatives that have enabled Nokia to remain competitive in an increasingly complex and challenging market. This report presents an overview of how Nokia's mobile phone business has developed and analyzes the main sources of the company's competitiveness, namely Nokia's modularized production methods and its R&D platforms.