LONDON — So, how is Nokia's new "multisourcing, commercial chip set strategy" working out for the industry, and for Nokia's handset business? And for IC suppliers, how does their working experience with Nokia differ from that with Samsung?

Mobile industry observers said the two companies' approaches present a night-and-day contrast.

For example, scoring a "design win" with Samsung is pretty easy, because Samsung welcomes designers with open arms. These design engineers are quickly integrated into one of Samsung's teams.

On the other hand, "Don't get too excited. A design-win with Samsung doesn't mean anything," warned Chris Fisher, CEO of The Ether Group, a Silicon Valley-based consulting firm.

Why? Because Samsung prides itself on having multiple design teams working in parallel, pitting one against the other in a race to solve the same problem. Hence, the chance that a supplier's chip actually ends up in a handset can be as low as one in four.

Of 70 to 90 handset projects under way in parallel at Samsung at any given time, only 25 percent will reach the commercial market, according to some accounts.

Meanwhile, there's a better chance that, in the competition, Samsung will seriously drained a partner's engineering resources.

This isn't the case with Nokia, said Kai Oistamo, Nokia's executive vice president responsible for devices.

In an interview with EE Times here, Oistamo said that Nokia designs about 50 different handset models a year. Once selected for one of Nokia's design projects, you are in. Then, "it's up to you" to keep that status, said Oistamo.

Unless something goes horribly wrong, suppliers can expect to see their chips inside Nokia's commercial handsets.

Nokia gave up its internal custom-chip development program more than a year ago. As a result, the Finnish company last year parted ways with its long-time ASIC partners Texas Instruments and STMicroelectronics. Nokia, meanwhile, sold its ASIC team—some 200 designers—to ST.

Oistamo acknowledged that this drastic change stirred lots of emotional responses from the industry. But he added, "We believe that it was absolutely the right thing to do."

Despite its new multisourcing strategy, Nokia is known as a company "really tough to get into." Oistamo agreed. "We are 'open,' but we look to work with the best."