New Nokia handsets: Extensions of digital home and office

SYDNEY, Australia – To round off its product highlights for the year, Nokia recently unveiled here for the first time in the Asia-Pacific its three new Nseries high-performance multimedia devices and three new Eseries business-optimized units.

The new Nokia N71, N80 and N92 high-performance multimedia devices promise to bring true digital convergence to consumers’ lives with richer entertainment and mobile multimedia experiences.

All based on the Series 60 third edition and Symbian operating system, the Nokia N71 and N80 will be commercially available to Asia-Pacific markets in the first quarter of 2006, while the Nokia N92 will be shipping in countries where DVB-H services (Mobile TV) are available in mid-2006.

On the other hand, the latest Eseries models of business-optimized devices give companies three choices of enterprise mobility handset devices for their workforce – the Nokia E60, E61 and E70, which will be available in the first half of 2006.

The new Nseries phones have solutions for mobile photography, music, media, productivity and connectivity, as well as add-on software.

With all these functionalities in one device, Nokia executives have started referring to Nokia handsets as mini-computers.

"We’re getting down to the capability of computers with another three very exciting mini-computers for consumers’ pockets this year," said Mauro Montanaro, vice president for multimedia of Nokia Asia Pacific.

"With content digitalization and Internet services changing the world around us, today’s consumers expect immediate access to information to purchase content and to share experiences. The Nokia Nseries offers these same experiences… as mobile multimedia computers with comprehensive functionality, different from traditional mobile phones," Montanaro added.

The new Nseries handsets offer a complete range of form factors – fold (N71), slide (N80), monoblock (N70, N91), and twist-and-fold (N90, N92).

Enterprise mobility

Nokia is also further making headway in its bid to become an enterprise solution provider with its new suite of Eseries business-optimized devices and the Nokia Business Center – an application software platform for corporate users.

The Nokia E60, E61 and E70 are the first of the new Nokia Eseries models to showcase distinctive designs and functionalities to appeal to different types of business users.

Aside from having key mobile applications like mobile e-mail and advanced voice calling functions, the new Eseries devices feature new technologies to allow IT departments to manage secure settings, corporate applications and data.

The need of companies to have an enterprise wireless strategy now goes beyond promoting mobility among its workforce.

According to Warren Chaisatien, research manager for wireless and mobility of International Data Corp. (IDC), a global market research firm, the dominant reason now for organizations to embrace a wireless and mobile strategy is to stay productive and to serve their customers better.

The third reason is they want to expand to new business areas where they can be competitive.

"Companies are repeating the Internet revolution of the early 1990s. The first application that companies deployed then was corporate e-mail. In the mid-90s, businesses started to deploy internal business applications and their resources online. Now we are seeing in the wireless world, especially when it comes to enterprise mobility, a repeat of the journey we took 10 years ago," said Chaisatien.

"While wireless e-mail is now everywhere and will continue to dominate the (enterprise wireless) scene, there will also be CRM, sales and workforce automation… My take is wireless (enterprise) mobility delivers efficiency that allows gains to be easily quantified," he added.

The latest Eseries business phones support advanced voice services such as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone calls, Push to Talk, and other SIP-based rich call services, giving businesses a variety of ways to make it easier for employees to collaborate rapidly in or out of the office.

Meanwhile, the Nokia Business Center is a new software solution that IT managers can deploy to enable collaborative business applications, starting with mobile e-mail, for the new Nokia Eseries devices, Nokia 9300 smartphone, Nokia 9500 Communicator, as well as the Nokia 6600 series. It will be available from select carriers in the next quarter.