Nokia CEO Teases Snapdragon Nokia Phone

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Nokia’s CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo gave an interview with BusinessWeek and revealed some new opinions about Palm, as well as hinting at a possible new product coming with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processor. He’s also talking about helping expand Nokia’s marketshare in the US with Microsoft.

When Kallasvuo was asked about Qualcomm and the long-time patent feud and court battles between the two companies, he said, “All I can say is that Qualcomm definitely is a potential partner going forward. The companies did fight a long time in court, and now we see them as a potential partner.” When asked about the possibility of a Snapdragon-powered device, he declined to comment.

It’s no secret that Nokia has a small marketshare for smartphones in the United States. Kallasuvo revealed that Nokia and Microsoft are working together on a new initiative to produce more enterprise applications for Symbian, which, Nokia hopes, will lure American business customers to Nokia smartphones. Overall, he says, Nokia is making a big push to become very prominent in the business segment. Both Nokia and Microsoft (with Windows Mobile) see themselves as competitors to RIM’s BlackBerry dominance of the business world in North America.

Kallasvuo doesn’t see things ending up very well for Palm. When asked about the struggling company, he said, “[In] the past it has been difficult for a smaller company to have a sustainable position. [...] In addition to innovation and quality, you need scale.” However, he declined to comment if Nokia was interested in purchasing Palm.

Overall, it looks like Nokia has some interesting things coming down the pipe. While Nokia is the #1 phone manufacturer in terms of total handsets sold, in terms of “mindshare”, they’re often lagging behind Apple, HTC, Motorola and RIM.