Nokia open to possibility of selling handset manufacturing arm

No one is more openly vocal at Nokia than executive vice president and general manager for marketing, Anssi Vanjoki.

Speaking to German news site Wirtschaftswoche, Vanjoki was evidently happy to admit that the Finnish mobile giant was open to the possibility of selling off its handset manufacturing arm to concentrate on the software and design aspects of the business.

During the interview, Vanjoki addressed questions about the hardware manufacturing business, given that Apple, BlackBerry and Google all outsource their phone construction, freeing them up to concentrate on marketing, software and design.

"One should never say never," was Vanjoki's trademark soundbite response, though he did qualify the remark by reminding us that Nokia's factories and global logistics network was an important aspect of its competitive advantage.

And with 500 million Nokia units hitting the shelves each year, it's hard to argue that for the time being, in-house manufacturing seems to be working to the company's advantage.