[tbeer22]

I'm interested in the future of the mobile phone industry and I'm an investor of Nokia stock. If anyone is familiar with nokia just in the us, the know that the phones are shitty, and are often sold in verizon stores for crap prices, bercause they have no good features.

If anyone here knows the industry, they know there are two kinds of cellphones; cdma and gsm. Cdma is the platform most phones run of. I'm not gona get into it, but basically verizon phones fun off cdma and cingular and tmobile off gsm.

Nokia's phones are mainly all gsm and there phones have been selling pretty much everywhere but in the united states for the past couple of years. The phones are way better than the ones we have here in the US. The reason they aren't in the US is still a mystery to me, but if they are available in Europe, and gsm phones are able to be used through cingular or tmobile in the us. Why not bring higher quality phones that are unavailable, to the country with the most money?

It's like creating a marketplace..... My question is this; Does this idea or concept seem ludicrous, or is it a good idea, but out of the reach for a young entrepreneur????

thanks for your responses....

[akula]

just to be clear: you want to import and sell nokia phones in us?

[quelephant]

Nokia has been the number 1 in the UK for some time now, although, i've moved onto the MIO range myself! Alot of people say they are the best phones on the market.
In terms of introducing them to the US though, i don't know how easy that would be??! unless you have deep pockets to implement a massive promotion throughout the US, purchase stock for millions from Nokia direct and a distributing strategy to allow you to hand them over to the public in every major city!! do you? can you?
Yes, ofcourse you can start small and grow, but i'm sure there are many others trying to do the same. Your plan may be out of your depth.
This just my opinion, but never forget: Nothing is out of reach. Try hard enough and you may succeed!!

[WanganRunner]

The only problem with this is that the vast majority of cell phones are purchased by people who are also buying a plan, and thus they are sold at a loss.

Not very many people buy the hardware outright for what it's really worth, and you'd have that price competition with the big service providers to deal with.

But on a small scale, it'd work. There are some people who are so fanatical about having the coolest phone they'd be willing to pay a premium for it.

[quelephant]

The Nokia phones are not as cool! as other phones, they're more renowned for theie robust build quality, reliability, ease of use (navigation) - they're mostly targeted to the the non-technical mobile phone user market who aren't up to speed with bluetooth/infra-red/3g/videophone/net access/gps/video messaging/etc/etc/etc.

my opinion, of course!

[Zeke3Elevn]

You would have to get them at wholesale and sell them retail by some venue like ebay or a .com Im not sure if there is a market for Nokia phones here thats why they aren't here to begin with (at least the ones you speak of)

[TheBox]

Nokia also makes amazing tires (Nokian)!!!

[Sam Barona]

Nokia has spent most of their current international marketing budget developing the Chinese market, where they are number one. Being a major multinational, they are not going to bend over for any of their competitors in the US market. Strategically, they have done the right thing, considering their lack of resources after winning the 3G contracts in Europe.

It is my view that it is only a matter of time (and Nokia mulla) before they enter the US market in earnest. Perhaps the situation is that it is currently too costly to gain customers from other manufacturers, so they have desided to spend their limited (to them anyways) resources on a more lucrative market.

The best that you can do is talk to them to find out what their plans for the US are. Unless you have vast resources, vast experience and contacts int he amrket place and a robust infrastructure, they will laugh at your face (politely, of course) at the mention of distribution rights.

You can start talks in terms of becoming a dealer. At the same time you can start talks with US network operators with the view of supplying outstanding phones at outstanding prices. If you can get the network operators to listen, then you can take this to Nokia as leverage for your negotiations. This ways you develop your hand better and increase your bargaining power. If you can muster this, they will listen to you; specially if they value the operator that you are putting in their reach.

Think about it in terms of reaching the most people in the fastest time possible. You can ascertain what the Nokia prices are at large volumes (you can find out what volumes the network operators move wiht some research), once you get the prices, approach the network operators.

This way you will know with certainty if the idea has legs.

Hope this is helpful