No. 1 handset manufacturer Nokia is loving that consumer space: On Tuesday it announced plans to nab Oz Communications, a mobile messaging company. The news came one day after it said it would abandon its business e-mail division, Intellisync, as part of a larger initiative to focus more on the consumer with a hardware + services approach.
Oz offers access to AOL, Yahoo and Microsoft IM in a PC-like user interface. It’s just one more consumer-y service for Nokia’s growing portfolio: It also just announced a music initiative. The Finnish giant faces tough competition in the business segment from BlackBerry, et al, and has made an ongoing shift to focus on the wider — and perhaps ultimately more lucrative — consumer market, for whom the smartphone is becoming more and more attractive thanks to the effect of the iPhone.
It remains to be seen if Nokia’s journey to the Emerald City (as in greenbacks) will pay off as handset makers face a potentially difficult quarter amid the economic crisis.
