Suri: Nokia can continue to stay in healthcare business, regardless the Digital Health unit

Nokia recently announced a strategic review of its Digital Health business. Digital Health is a unit inside Nokia Technologies, that was formed after the acquisition of Withings, Franch maker of health and fitness gadgets. Digital Health offers a lot of interesting and good-looking products like hybrid smartwatches Steel and Steel HR, different scales, BPMs, thermometers and more. With HMD’s Nokia phones, the Digital Health products comprised a well rounded portfolio of consumer products carrying the Nokia brand.

As Nokia’s Chief Strategy Officer Kathrin Buvac said in her memo, this could come as a surprise to some, but Nokia questions if the company should stay in the health consumer market or not. Nokia’s CEO Rajeev Suri at today’s Press and analyst conference at MWC 2018 made a prediction, that in 2018 we will see disruption in healthcare. During the Q&A session, someone asked Suri, in sense, why is Nokia doing a strategic review of Digital Health business if opportunity in this sector exists.

Nokia CEO explained, basically, that regardless of the decision the company makes after the strategic review of Digital Health, Nokia can continue to do business in healthcare by offering networks solutions and software. He couldn’t comment about the strategic review, saying that the future of Nokia Health products will be decided after the review.

Looking how Nokia bolsters the “end-to-end” approach with networks, I don’t understand why doesn’t the same principle apply to Digital Health. Nokia could alongside software and infrastructure, sell the equipment patients (and others) will be using. Can’t be more end to end than a Nokia Steel HR sending data via Nokia’s network to be processed by Nokia’s software.

You can find all the remarks of the “Press and analyst” event here.