Nokia chief executive Stephen Elop is in SA today, as part of the final leg of a whistle-stop tour of Africa.
The mobile phone maker is not disclosing why the chief executive is in the country, but Elop is visiting here after meeting with mobile phone application developers in Kenya yesterday.
At the developers' conference, at iHub, in Nairobi, he highlighted that city's role as an important home for its research and advanced development hub for India, the Middle East and Africa (IMEA).
The Finnish phone maker has had a research centre in the East African country for the last few years.
Top technology companies, such as the phone maker and Google, have been attracted to that nation's investments in fibre-optic broadband and undersea cables that have boosted the country's bandwidth capacity.
“Our investment, in terms of research and advanced development for the entire IMEA region, which is India, Middle East and Africa, will be centred here,” said Elop in his meeting with the developers yesterday.
Nokia's move to re-emphasise its African presence also comes at a time when it is facing increased global competition from South Korea's Samsung. IDC research says Nokia has a dominant 26.6% share of the worldwide mobile market, while Samsung is not far behind, at 22.8%.
Nokia's decision to expand its presence in Africa's booming mobile market, which has grown to 500 million devices in the last decade, according to Booze & Company, could help the multinational regain a more dominant market position.
Apart from a renewed focus on Africa, the company is also hoping to make strides with its first Microsoft Windows Phone 7 smartphone, the Lumia, which is its answer to the dominant Google's Android phone system and the popular Apple iPhone range.
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