Nokia, the Finnish mobile handset maker, is actively making moves to concentrate its efforts. The Espoo-based mobile company has made two recent announcements, both of which will cause the company to focus their efforts on becoming a consumer-based handset maker and Internet-based mobile services provider.

Exiting the Security Appliance Business

Casual observers may not know that Nokia has long been in the Enterprise security market. At a position I held in 1999-2000, I administered Nokia powered CheckPoint-1 firewalls, thus my awareness of this side of Nokia’s business.

The Security Appliance Division will be spun into it’s own business as Nokia is in advanced talks with a financial investor who will purchase the business from Nokia, as noted in Network World. As PhoneBoy points out, the division will likely be spun out intact and made into a new company under new ownership.

Also, Dumping Enterprise Email

In another related move, Nokia announced yesterday that the company will cease building their own enterprise, “behind the firewall” email solutions. Instead, they will partner with software companies such as Cisco, Microsoft, and IBM to deliver these corporate-focused email solutions.

Contrary to my initial fears, this move does not mean you will no longer be able to receive work emails on your mobile in the future. Instead, Nokia will just work actively with other players to make it happen. A good example is the Mail For Exchange client on the E71.

What Does This News Mean?

If you are a fan of mobile phones and the mobile market, the recent news out of Espoo is great news for you. Nokia is selling off side ventures so they can shift their focus to developing, engineering, and marketing a variety of consumer centric phones that can be combined with ubiquitous, easy-to-use online tools to enhance your mobile experience.

Nokia wants to transform itself from a handset company to an online mobile software powerhouse, because they know that mobile hardware, when combined with the right software is an attractive and profitable draw to mobile consumers.