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Mobile phone/telecom corporation Nokia has acquired Chicago-based Novarra, a mobile web browser provider that is the creator of the Vision Mobile Browser, which has been used in everything from old Palm Tungsten PDAs to Alltel and U.S. Cellular phones.According to Nokia’s announcement, Novarra’s mobile browser platform will become part of Nokia Series 40 devices later this year. Chicago-based Kettle Partners was an investor in Novarra.
During our digging into Novarra, we learned a few things. First, Novarra laid off 20% of its staff early last year (35 people). While that’s just one data point, it’s likely that Novarra was stalling and has been looking for a compatible buyer.
The company’s main product, Vision, is often rebranded by carriers as their own custom Internet experience, mostly on Java-based phone systems. However, this technology is outdated compared to the browsers you’ll find on the iPhone or Android (). We think the acquisition was likely more about talent and intellectual property. Novarra owns the patent for “adapting information content for an electronic device,” which focuses on the combination of in-network servers with handheld browser clients, which could have been of interest to Nokia.
In any case, Nokia has a long way to go if it hopes to improve its footing in the U.S. smartphone market: Android and iPhone are growing like wildfire.

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