Sign in / up

back to article Huawei to build R&D centre in Nokia’s back yard

Shenzhen-based telecoms giant Huawei has revealed plans to double its European workforce and set up a new R&D centre in Nokia’s backyard of Finland, in a clear sign of the growing global footprint of Chinese smartphone vendors. The firm confirmed to The Reg it will increase staff numbers from 7,000 to around 14,000 in the next …

COMMENTS

House rules Send corrections
This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
    Linux

    Alternative Site (possibly?)

    Could be the former Nokia buildings in Farnborough

    Motorway next door and Airport 2km away.

    Plus there is a well trained local workforce looking for gainful employment.

    Nope I didn't work there. The place was used at times to host the Surrey Linux Users Group meetings.

    0 0
    1. LarsG
      Reply Icon

      Rub salt into the wounds....

      1 0
    2. JetSetJim
      Reply Icon

      Re: Alternative Site (possibly?)

      They're looking at Reading as it's a bit more convenient to get to Vodafone & BT head offices.

      0 0
      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Alternative Site (possibly?)

        On the same business park as Cisco's Reading office - Green Park, I understand.

        (I *think* the building they are moving in to is ex-Cisco, too - as Cisco leased a ton of buildings during the boom that they eventually never filled, if you go to Green Park just about every empty building is or very recently was leased by Cisco).

        It will make the inter-company park events more interesting...

        0 0
  2. Piro Silver badge

    Nokia can't blame this on the Chinese being able to compete in terms of manufacturing costs - I'm pretty sure Nokia already gave up making things in Finland, and they're all made in China anyway.

    So what's Huawei, and these other companies such as ZTE bringing to the table?

    Very, very quick development times. Nothing unique in the way of software, but most people are pleased to see fairly untouched Android on a phone that's easy to root. These quick turnarounds mean they can pump out several new models in the time Nokia had one meeting suggesting the design of the buttons on the phone or some such - and with each iteration they are getting closer to what people want. Maybe not paragons of style, but what kind of prick waves about his phone hoping to get people to drool over the detailed construction?

    1 0
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      FAIL

      Fail

      Most people do NOT root their phones and have no desire to. Most people aspire to own an iPhone so they can behave like pricks and wave them about.

      2 0
      1. Piro Silver badge
        Reply Icon

        Re: Fail

        I never said most would, but I'm saying most people don't mind untouched Android - I merely mentioned that it was a bonus that these phones are generally easy to tinker with. Maybe my sentence construction wasn't clear enough.

        1 0
      2. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Stop

        Re: Fail

        Common users tend to follow techies choices and advices. Soon Samsung got a hit with the Galaxy II, some friends of mine (iPhone users) started to make questions about Android. Guess what they choose for their next new shiny?

        0 0
      3. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Fail

        People might start avoiding handsets that had well-known upgradeability problems, especially if reviews mention it. Perhaps this is happening already? They don't have to update it themselves.... plenty commercial workshops.

        0 0
  3. TheOtherHobbes

    And then if Nokia goes tits-up

    Huawei will be ready to pick up the pieces.

    Hypothetically, of course.

    1 0
    1. JetSetJim
      Reply Icon
      Paris Hilton

      Re: And then if Nokia goes tits-up

      *if*?

      3 1
  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Windows Phone 8 UI.s

    You can't change anything, what's to customise?

    0 0
    1. mark l 2 Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: Windows Phone 8 UI.s

      Perhaps they mean putting Windows 8 style (not metro) skin on Android. Seen a few cheap Chinese tablets and phones running Android but with a Windows 8 skin appearing on the market.

      0 0
  5. Great Bu
    Coat

    Is that like a reverse circumcision ?

    Where instead of the standard procedure taking you from 4 skin to 0 skin, you go from 4 skin to 8 skin ?

    0 0
  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    A master of subtlety, this Mr Sladek.

    "stepping up of investment in innovation in Europe because it’s an open market "

    Ouch. You know what he means.

    0 0
  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    NOK is toast

    ... it's only a question of time before they run out of cash.

    Hanging is too good for Elop!

    1 0
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: NOK is toast

      Maybe Nokia are toast. But so will Huawei be if they are going to Finland to focus on UI's.

      One of the biggest reasons Nokia are in this mess has been that they have systematically and repeatedly fluffed the user interface despite a competent underlying phone OS. On that basis Finland is the last place on Earth that I would choose for a centre to focus on this.

      A bit like opting to locate a food technology centre in North Korea. Looking on the bright side, it's a few further years of employment for ex Nokia staff.

      0 0
      1. Piro Silver badge
        Reply Icon

        Re: NOK is toast

        I wouldn't say Nokia's staff are useless, but they have had very mixed messages and a bungled product strategy.

        They were hanging on to pieces of Symbian as they were still developing Maemo, which looked promising, and the N9 looks like a great device.

        Can't blame that on the staff, but only on the management. They've chosen which directions to take, and for a few years, there was no clear direction, and all of them led to products most people weren't that enamoured with.

        There are no doubt good engineers there who could contribute something to Huawei.

        3 0
        1. Christian Berger
          Reply Icon

          Re: NOK is toast

          The problem with companies having bad management is that good engineers are likely to move quickly when they've got a chance. I suppose that's what Huawei is betting on.

          And to be serious. That "Researching UI"-thing is probably just a cover. If they'd actually put researchers on the problem of mobile UIs, there would probably be a revolution.

          0 0
  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    If Nokia wants to survive they need to do two things.

    1) Fire Elop.

    2) Make the hardware and just put an OS on it. It doesn't matter if it is Android, Sailfish, Bada or Windows Phone. Even better would be if you allowed the user to switch to any of the "free" offerings regardless of what the phone came with.

    1 0
This topic is closed for new posts.

Other stories you might like