Predicts shipment of 100 million color mms-terminals — MobileMonday Global: Industry News

^{Nokia Mobile Internet Conference 2003} Predicts shipment of 100 million color mms-terminals

28 Oct 2003 at 20:51 GMT Timo Poropudas

At the 2003 Nokia Mobile Internet Conference (NMIC) held this year in Nice, France, Nokia shared its vision of a mobile services mass market to a broad range of industry players, including mobile operators, application developers, content and service providers, media, IT companies, retailers and enterprises.

Also unveiled at the annual conference were five new mobile devices, including the ground-breaking Nokia 7700 media device, mobile enhancements and Network products and solutions.

To drive the mobile multimedia mass market, Nokia expects to ship approximately 100 million terminals having color displays, Java and MMS in 2004. These include devices based on Series 40 and Series 60 platforms. In addition, EDGE technology is taking an increasingly important role in Nokia's terminal range. Having launched to date 8 EDGE-enabled phones, Nokia foresees virtually all of our future GPRS and WCDMA phones to include EDGE. In 2004, Nokia expects to have approximately 15 EDGE handsets in the market and cumulative deliveries of EDGE-enabled handsets to reach approximately 100 million by the end of 2005.

Anssi Vanjoki shows mobility and multimedia business opportunities."This year's Nokia Mobile Internet Conference has three objectives," says Anssi Vanjoki, Executive Vice President of Nokia Mobile Phones. "Firstly, we aim to highlight mobility and business opportunities in the areas of multimedia, enterprise applications and entertainment. Secondly, we will reinforce our belief in interoperability through open standards as the way forward for market acceleration and continuous growth in a converging digital industry. Finally, to begin working towards building a balanced ecosystem for growth in which all players have the opportunity to benefit."

New category: Media device

Nokia aims to reach these objectives with products like the Nokia 7700, the company's first media category device that was introduced today. The EDGE enabled Nokia 7700 media device offers users a true mobile Internet and personal media experience via a large 640x320, 65,000 color touch screen optimized for viewing full Internet content. Additional features include music and video streaming and playback, an integrated VGA camera, FM radio, multimedia messaging and email support, as well as a full complement of personal information management features.

The Nokia 7700 media device will also support the Nokia Streamer SU-6 accessory, the first mobile DVB-H/IP Datacast receiver designed to demonstrate the mobile phone television experience. The Nokia Streamer attaches to the Nokia 7700 like a battery pack, and will be used in a pilot project to showcase the future of digital broadcasting on mobile devices.

The Nokia 6230 phone, a tri-band mobile phone with multiple connectivity options via EDGE and Bluetooth wireless technology was also unveiled. The Nokia 6230 features an integrated VGA camera, a removable multimedia memory card, and an MP3 player, in a sleek design for mobile professionals.

Nokia's first GSM-clamshell phone was introduced in the fashion category.Form meets function in the Nokia 7200, Nokia's latest fashion-inspired model, also introduced today. The Nokia 7200 artistically blends modern mobile technology with contemporary design trends, highlighted by an ensemble of folding, ornamental textile covers. The Nokia 7200 also boasts an integrated camera, color screen, and presence-enhanced functionality.

Mobility and Enterprise

Nokia Mobile Internet Conference marked the introduction of Nokia's newest business group: Enterprise Solutions. This business group, dedicated exclusively to bringing true mobility to the enterprise space, introduced two new products, aimed specifically at business users and mobile professionals.

The Nokia 6810 and Nokia 6820 messaging devices are both specifically designed for enterprise use, each with a full keyboard to offer faster text-input and easy navigation for advanced messaging like mobile e-mail. These compact messaging devices are ideally suited for mobile professionals and reinforce Enterprise Solutions' strategy of bringing extended mobility to the enterprise and to provide competitive, enterprise-focused mobile devices and platforms, as well as seamless connectivity solutions.

Nokia Networks also builds multimedia

Nokia Networks was also in full force at the Nokia Mobile Internet Conference 2003, demonstrating a range of solutions and products to drive consumer multimedia, introduce new mobile voice services, and expand mobility for enterprises.

Nokia's mobile packet core network empowers data services such as content downloading and interactive gaming. As consumer interest in such mobile services increases, operators will broaden their mobile data services portfolio to keep up with demand, making the role of the mobile packet core increasingly important. Nokia at NMIC showcased its success in bringing Internet Protocol (IP) to the core of mobile networks. Close to 10 deals for the Nokia Intelligent Content Delivery solution, a key mechanism to efficiently deliver services, close to 60 customers to date for the Nokia MMS solution, and during this year alone, over 100 core related network deals signed.

At NMIC, Nokia Networks introduced two new products for push to talk, the "Walkie Talkie" type of instant voice service popular with many user groups around the world. Nokia push to talk over cellular (POC) enables GSM/GPRS operators to offer push to talk using GSM.

The Nokia Push to Talk Call Processor handles PoC traffic, while the Nokia Push to Talk Register handles PoC subscriber data. Both will be commercially available in first quarter 2004

Toss away your fixed phones

Nokia Networks also demonstrated a solution for driving fixed-to-mobile substitution by making full mobility an attractive business proposition for enterprises. The Nokia Mobile Business Voice solution can enable enterprises to save up to 25% in their total telephony costs by substituting mobile for fixed service. At same time, the solution allows mobile operators to boost their average revenue per user (ARPU) from business users by as much as 50%, as voice minutes are shifted away from fixed networks.