Nokia president and CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo exhorted the consumer electronics industry to “indulge in optimism” – an optimism he said was justified from his perspective in the mobile communications industry sector.
His remarks were offered at the CEA’s Leaders in Technology dinner Friday night, after the second day of the International CES had concluded.
“I believe that the industry’s future is bright,” he told executives and other guests at the annual event. “All here are involved in an amazing, dynamic business – exciting and at the same time exhausting.”
Kallasvuo pointed out that worldwide mobile devices were “the fastest growing technology in the history of civilization. “It took 20 years for the first billion to be sold, only four years for the second billion, and two years for the third billion. Soon, four billion in the world will have mobile devices. There’s no turning back. “
Kallasvuo observed that “many people are having their first Internet experience with a mobile device and not with a PC.” He added that the world is “on the threshold of an even more profound change – the way we connect with the Internet,” and called for government to “embrace openness” in communications systems.
“There are promising signs that openness will prevail in wireless Internet. Industry and government leaders need to insure that openness remains a bedrock principle. Consumers must be able to choose social or solitary Internet experiences, and for the benefits to expand, wideband broadband deployment needs to be a national and a global goal,” he said. He also called for more wireless broadband spectrum to become available, and for free and fair trade, which he said was crucial to the future flowering of global communications.
