TechSpotlightNokia Connections 2008
All about mobile lifestyle
Nokia, one of the biggest cell phone manufacturers and the world leader in mobility introduced two new email optimised sets -- Nokia E71 and Nokia E66 -- at Nokia Connection 2008 held in Singapore. The latest devices, including Nokia N-series, Xpress music phones, enhancement accessories and an array of services offered by the cell phone company, were also displayed. "The Nokia E71 and Nokia E66 were designed for people who lead a mobile lifestyle and want quick and easy access to their personal and official emails," said Chris Carr, vice president of Sales for Southeast Asia and Pacific, Nokia. "With both of the devices, we have responded to consumer feedback by making calendar and contacts available at the touch of a button." According to Nokia, since the last two years, when Nokia E61 was launched, about 10 million sets of the E-series were sold, encouraging the world mobile phone leader to introduce the two new models in the market. Nokia also has plans to introduce cell phones with camera and multimedia facilities at less than US$ 100 a set in the Southeast Asia Pacific region, including Bangladesh. Alex Lambeek, vice president, Entry Category, Nokia, made the disclosure at the event. Emphasising price and affordability in emerging Asia, Alex said entry-level users who used a $30 normal phone would look to upgrade their phones, which would contain camera, radio and music, at a cost of $40-50. To a question as to how Nokia was planning to expand its business in the region, Alex said that currently Nokia had 40 percent share in the global market, which was beyond the reach of its nearest competitors. He claimed that Nokia always tried to keep its commitment, and for the past ten to twelve years it had sent a constant message about the Nokia Brand. "The reason why we are at the top place is that we started earlier than anybody else," Alex said. On the impact of mobile devices in South Asia, he said that most consumers in the emerging markets would access the Internet through mobile phones in the near future, and there would be many consumers who would experience the Internet in mobile devices for the first time. Referring to the percentage of first-time users and replacement users in the global market, Alex said that 50 percent of the consumers were entry-level users globally. He also mentioned that 50 percent consumers of the emerging markets were replacement buyers in 2008. Prem Prakash Chand, managing director of the Nokia Emerging Asia, said that entry segment users were very much style conscious, and to them communicating through voice and SMS was the main factor, as well as affordability. Asked about their future plans, Alex said that it was a huge opportunity to address the first-time users as well as replacement users in emerging markets. First-time users buy a normal phone and gradually upgrade to a colour screen phone, entry-level camera, FM radio, MP3, GPS. Keeping this in mind, Nokia manufactures entry-level phones apart from the costly ones. "If you look at the projected market growth, both in terms of volume and value, there is much more projected growth in emerging Asia than in Europe," he said, adding that it was obvious that an emerging market was the place where Nokia wanted to invest more. The future plan from the Nokia side is to invest in products that are relevant to consumers, invest in right distribution channels, and build proper customer care, and it is extremely committed to South Asian markets. Within a few years, Nokia is planning to introduce GPS enable sets, email, instant messaging and camera, which will not cost more than $100. Nokia also displayed and talked about how location based Internet services can be provided to the consumers in future. About future plans, Prem said that there were many steps in the evaluation process, and Nokia was looking for the leap to a height in which it would not go through these steps. "The ecosystem that Nokia created will increase the opportunity for more employment," he added. Share More, Experience More
This year's theme, 'Share More, Experience More,' which focused on Nokia services like navigation, music, games, media sharing, video, email and more, highlights its commitment to expand by including Internet services to bring a complete experience to consumers. Share on Ovi, the personal media sharing community that enables richer personal connection, specially for the people who own a Nokia cell phone as well as any other person who has access to a PC. It allows you to share publicly with the world or privately with whom you choose. You can capture and share the media instantly from your Nokia mobile devices, share with non-members, and even allow them to contribute to the media, and much more. Ovi can be accessed from both mobile and desktop, and allows addition of comments and favourites, and private messaging also. Nokia also displayed how Nokia Maps 2.0 could help in finding stopover routing and traffic information. While in navigation mode, switching among bird-eye, arrow and traditional view is much easier on Nokia Maps 2.0. It also provides pedestrian navigation, helping urban pedestrians find their way on foot, and also features pathways, house polygons and more. The multi-sensor technology using A-GPS, WLAN hotspot helps navigation to work in slow motion. This feature of Nokia Maps 2.0 is very effective where GPS navigation is not possible, but it needs digital maps preloaded in your Nokia cell phones. E71 and E66 at a glance
The sleek Nokia E71 with full QWERTY keyboard, and the stylish, slide-to-open Nokia E66 specially made for IT and business professionals provide messaging facilities, including Microsoft Exchange, the most widely adopted corporate email solution. In addition to email and personal information management, the Nokia E71 and Nokia E66 both include Nokia maps, music, camera, and video, which are usually expected by the users from their devices. Both these devices include fast and seamless Internet browsing with HSDPA, WLAN and 3G connectivity, assisted-Global Positioning System (A-GPS) and 3.2 mega pixel auto-focus camera. Both Nokia E71 and Nokia E66, have integrated mobile VPN support that gives mobile professionals access to their company intranet, device lock and wipe to protect corporate information, and built-in encryption functionality for both the device memory and for the memory card. With A-GPS, the assistance server does the serious computation, cut downs the number of frequencies the cell phone has to scan and the numbers it has to smash, making the whole process a lot faster and lot more battery-friendly too. People can get reliable real-time access to their email, calendar, contacts and tasks, as well as download attachments like Word, Excel, PowerPoint or PDF files directly to their devices with these Nokia E-series devices. The Nokia E71 and Nokia E66 both support email accounts from thousands of Internet Service Providers (ISP), including Yahoo!, Hotmail, and Gmail around the world. These devices also support Nokia IntelliSync Wireless Email solution, as well as third-party software like System Seven, Visto Mobile, and are fully equipped for easy-to-install and easy-to-use professional and personal mail. Both devices are expected to begin shipping in key markets in July at a price of 350 Euros, excluding tax and subsidies.
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