High-tech options for Generation N

A swanky hotel, a glitzy event, a high-profile product.

At half past nine in the morning, the press conference is about to begin. The guests are seated, the stage ready, the emcee is on cue. But hey, where’s the keynote speaker? Mauro Montanaro, vice president of Nokia Asia-Pacific’s multimedia division, is nowhere to be found.

A quick call to the missing executive on a Nokia 6680 was made. And there on the giant LCD screen flashed Mauro’s face. He’s just on the other side of the ballroom, hobnobbing with other guests and other tech executives. But the keynote speaker could very well be in another building or in another country and the show can go on.

Welcome to the new possibilities of mobile video conferencing. Welcome to Generation N – new, next-generation Nokia.

The Drive To 3G

Mobile telephony has not yet come fully of age. But technology is incessantly pushing the bar and continues to redefine what it means to be on the go and always connected.

The Nokia 6680, for instance, features a dual camera, which allows users to make video calls. A 1.3-megapixel front camera is provided for capturing self-portraits and another 1.3-megapixel back camera is available for capturing regular snapshots.

While video phones and video-calling are still rarities here in the Philippines, it may not be long for dual-camera phones to gain acceptance in the local market.

The key driver for this new wave of mobile gadgets is third-generation (3G) wireless technology, which is based on Wide Code Division Multiple Access (W-CDMA).

Simply put, 3G technology allows the transmission of text, voice, video and multimedia at data rates comparable to broadband speed. At this rate, mobile phone and mobile computer users are always connected to the Internet even as they traipse the globe.

High-bandwidth 3G paved the way for the invention of more mobile gadgets with bigger and more sophisticated capabilities and offering a diverse range of mobile services such as video conferencing, e-mail, information services, music or karaoke on demand, stereo FM radio, and TV.

Convergence has become the byword. As more and more services and functionalities are packed into one gadget, multi-function devices have suddenly become the trend.

The mobile phone, given its worldwide popularity and appeal, is the most logical beneficiary of this convergence wave.

In a panel discussion with a group of experts in the field of mobile communications during the launch of Nokia’s Nseries phones in Kuala Lumpur, Montanaro said a lot will depend though on consumer acceptance of convergence.

Design of multimedia devices will have to depend on technology advancement, evolving consumer behavior, ease-of-use and digital convergence, he said.

Is this revolution or hype? Is it relevant? Where is this technology taking today’s concept of a "mobile lifestyle?"

Next-Generation Imaging

The marriage of the mobile phone and the digital camera is the first path to convergence.

According to the latest research from Strategy Analytics, 257 million camera phones were shipped worldwide in 2004. This was up sharply from only 84 million in 2003.

Montanaro said Nokia alone has sold 215 million camera phones in 2004. Its projection is that half a billion people will have a camera phone by end-2005.

Bryan Ma, associate director for personal systems research of IDC Asia-Pacific, said 70 to 80 percent of handset shipments in 2005 will be camera-enabled.

Nokia’s recently minted partnership with Carl Zeiss AG, the world’s leading optics company, to bring design expertise to Nokia’s high-end camera devices is obviously an attempt to ride on this emerging mobile sales trend.

The two-megapixel, WCDMA-enabled Nokia N90, which is expected to ship middle of this year, is the first camera phone to feature a Carl Zeiss lens. Among others, it offers superior quality photography, with options for printing and sharing photos and video over distances.

It’s trademark look – a multi-hinge twist and shoot shape – will be easily recognizable among camera phones in the market. It also features macromode for sharp close-ups and VHS-resolution video capture.

Will the Nseries lead to erosion of traditional markets for digital cameras or will it merely enhance future partnerships and collaborations?

"Camera phones will serve the needs of an average shooter, which is around 95 percent of snapshots. We see many people using that instead of a stand-alone camera," said Kornelius Mueller, marketing manager of Carl Zeiss’ camera lens division.

The other conference speakers, which included Steve Lewis, director of Nokia Asia-Pacific’s imaging business unit; John Cosgrove, editor-in-chief and former photo editor of The Straits Times; and James Gibbons, senior vice president of programming and creative services of Discovery Network Asia, were one in saying that stand-alone cameras and other stand-alone digital devices will not be completely replaced, especially in the professional segment of the market.

Mobile Music, Visual Radio

"Your life should have a soundtrack," said Sandy Monteiro, managing director of Universal Music, Malaysia.

Indeed, if there’s something that accompanies us throughout our lives, it was the music of our times – the music of our childhood, the music of our youth and the music that continues to spice up and define our lives.

"Hell is full of musical amateurs; music is the brandy of the damned," wrote George Bernard Shaw in his Man and Superman.

Generation N will truly have a full musical soundtrack with the Nokia N91, also called the mobile jukebox with its four-gigabit memory that can store up to 3,000 songs.

But Nokia’s music strategy transcends beyond making handsets that double up as musical players. Nokia wants its consumers to listen, share, purchase, manage music in its gadgets.

The WLAN and WCDMA-enabled N91 supports MP3, M4A. AAC+, eAAC+, Real V8, WAV, SP-Midi and WMA file formats. But even this is not enough. In the future, one can "interact with one’s favorite radio station, find out what song is playing, who sings it, enter contests and answer surveys, vote for one’s favorite songs and download the songs direct to the mobile phone."

This is if Nokia’s plans for "Visual Radio" pans out. According to www.visualradio.com, the first Nokia handsets that carry the visual radio software are the Nokia 7710 and 3230.

But as expected, providing interactive content over the mobile phone network will entail a lot of collaboration among the handset manufacturers, telcos, Internet service providers, record companies, radio stations and a host of other entities, even the government.

The good news is everybody is now talking about it. Philip Wu, Singapore Telecom-munications director for content marketing, said what will drive this commercial application is not just technology but usage.

What will work, added IDC’s Bryan Ma, is national usage and the concept of doing away with multiple devices to use a single device that could bring this all together.

"The problem is execution," he said.

Mobile TV

Like the mobile music ecosystem, the Mobile TV ecosystem is a complex thing. There’s the TV studios, TV channels, cable networks, manufacturers of the TV set-top boxes, mobile TV channels, the mobile broadcasting network and the mobile terminal.

"To make it fly," said Montanaro, "there must be a clear understanding of what kind of content consumers will interact within a mobile phone, what kind of services."

What Nokia is doing, he said, is investing only in early infrastructure and the wide distribution of Nokia handsets, piloting technology content in multiple regions of the world, supporting industry standards and technologies, and collaborating with trusted partners for mobile TV initiatives.

Right now, the Nokia 7710 is mobile TV-ready. But who would want to watch a two-hour movie, a three-hour basketball match or even a 30-minute telenovela on a tiny cellphone screen?

Clearly, it calls for a paradigm shift. TV, as we experience it today, will never be the same TV we are going to watch on the mobile phone.

The combination of television, PC, Internet and telephony, said Viswa Sadasivan, chairman and CEO of The Right Angle Group, offers a strategic value in the value chain as it can open up new revenue streams for the different players.

"What we do is bring them together," added Greg Dayton, executive vice president for technology and development of Maxis Communications.

In a statement from Helsinki, Finland on Tuesday, Nokia said it will soon release "the technical details of its mobile TV system to help service providers offer customers the possibility of watching television on their handsets."

The air interface specifications, which are based on Digital Video Broadcast-Handheld (DVB-H), will provide information on how mobile terminals can interconnect with a network.

Commercial mobile TV services is expected to commence in 2006. In the Philippines, how long do we need to wait?