Targeting various markets:

Nokia unveils series of mobile phones

by Gamini WARUSHAMANA

Chris Carr

Singapore Nokia, last week, unveiled a series of new mobile phones targeting various market segments, enhancing user experience in many dimensions as well as at affordable cost for mass customers at the Showcase Nokia 2009 in Singapore.

The event was held in conjunction with Mobile World Congress 2009 in Barcelona.

The Vice President, Sales, Southeast Asia Pacific of Nokia Chris Carr said that Nokia is moving from a device company to a complete solution provider. "This is the key difference of Nokia from our competitors. Nokia has been the market leader in the mobile phone industry with over one billion customers across 150 countries, Carr said.

Two newly released Nokia E-series range, QWERTY Nokia E75 and the compact QWERTY Nokia E55, offer new email user interface to richer messaging experience for the customers. Both devices come with Nokia Messaging that, when added to the company's corporate email clients, give people the most efficient solution for accessing consumer and corporate email on the go.

In today's climate, the costs and benefits of technology are under closer scrutiny and email is an essential driver of efficiency and productivity. Efficiency is about doing more with less and focusing on what's truly essential. With direct access to Microsoft Exchange and IBM Lotus Notes, companies can potentially save up to a third of their operating costs, as there is no need for middleware or additional servers. With the latest E-series devices, people will no longer need to boot up a PC to get a full desktop email experience, Carr said.

Nokia also introduced Nokia N868MP, Nokia 6710 Navigator and Nokia 6720 classic at the Showcase Nokia 2009. Nokia 6710 Navigator is the latest in that series which was first launched two years ago. "The navigation solution provided by the Nokia 6710 Navigator is second to none and provides everything that is expected of a dedicated GPS device with all the benefits of a converged mobile device," Carr said.

The Nokia 6720 classic makes sure that people also get the best voice experience with the curved design fitting perfectly to the users face and new active noise cancellation, a feature appearing for the first time in the Nokia 6720 classic, which significantly improves the quality of voice by cutting down on external ambient sounds. All other features one requires are easily accessible with up to 20 days of standby time, high-speed uplink and downlink Internet access and a TV-out connection for sharing images and video.

Convergence is the key feature of all new devices. Nine years ago we started convergence and integration of different hardware functionalities. Nokia won that game and became the largest manufacturer of cameras, GPS and music players.

Today people can use that hardware for mobility and integrity Carr said. Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, the device that enhances user experience in entertainment was launched in Colombo last week. After it was launched globally last December over one million devices have already been sold.

This is the first touch system device of Nokia said product manager Michael Pech. Larger screen, good speaker, 100 MB memory and 35 hours battery capabilities, capability of sharing 7000 songs are the additional features of this device. The product is cheaper compared to other similar products available and Nokia targets the mass market, Pech said.