We are just a few years into the 21st century and today’s hand phones do more than just connect people. Latest developments in telecommunications hardware and software have finally liberated the telephone from anything other than digital technology.
Says Nokia Mobile Phones Asia Pacific senior vice president Robert Andersson, during a recent media workshop with Asia Pacific journalists in Hong Kong, "If we look back by 8 to 10 years, the big revolution was that voice goes mobile. Voice is no longer something that’s attached to a cable that’s attached to something else. The new era of mobility means everything that can go mobile will go mobile."
Thus, in this era of mobility, services that we wouldn’t normally associate with a telephone a decade ago will finally become a reality.
Nokia unveiled last month two new units that offer phone users options to match their hand phones with their lifestyles. Launched during the recent "Feel the Rush – Music Connects," held at a specially created air dome facing the nighttime scenery of Kowloon Bay, were the Nokia 3300 and Nokia 6220.
The Nokia 3300 music phone is expected to do to cell phones what MTV did to television. With its True Tones capability and 64 megabyte memory card, equivalent to two hours of music, cell phone users can customize their units to play almost anything they want.
On the other hand, the Nokia 6220 triband incorporates Edge technology, a bridge technology that offers a downlink data speed of up to 118.4 Kbps. It has an integrated camera and offers high-quality color display, multimedia messaging and Java technology.
Andersson explains, "Any content, any service that doesn’t have to be in atoms will be converted into bits, and when converted into bits, it will be transferable over the air and transferable via a mobile device. No longer are we talking about voice going mobile, but all kinds of services will be going mobile. This whole phenomenon is what we call the converging digital industry."
Nokia Mobile Phones SEAP sales vice-president Tyler McGee says the new Nokia phones were designed to address the lifestyle needs of a broad range of users.
"At Nokia, we look at mobility from a consumer’s perspective. Once you look at that, there’s a broad range of consumers in the market, so we really try to tailor make our products to the various individuals in the market place," McGee says. "Like the 3300, the music phone, that is tailored for a person who is very involved in music, whether it’s dance or classical. But then you look at our other products, like the 5100 which is more like an active lifestyle product, or you look at our products like the 3350, which is actually very popular in the Philippines, or the 2100, which is a new product, which is more about the affordability side of mobility. It is more a product designed for SMS and voice versus 3300, which is designed for ultimizing your music experience."
The Nokia 3300 features a portable MP3/AAC digital music player with integrated handsfree loudspeaker, a stereo FM radio, a digital recorder and advanced ring tones. An innovative music key allows users to manage the phone’s music services with just one click, giving them instant access to the built-in music player and FM stereo radio.
Users can also transfer music files from a compatible PC to the Nokia 3300 with the new Nokia Audio Manager PC software. With a 64 megabyte memory card, users can save as much as two hours of music. Upgrading with a suitable higher memory card raises this storage capacity anywhere from four to eight hours of stored music.
What’s new with the Nokia 3300 is that it supports True Tones, which provide ring tones with real music. Users can easily assign songs, nature sounds, special effects and engine sounds as their ring tones. This feature allows users to personalize their phones with ring tones in a new and innovative format.
The Nokia 3300 will be available in the Philippines by the third quarter of 2003.
On the other hand, the Nokia 6220 was designed for mobile professionals and features an integrated camera, Edge and Gprs connectivity, a high quality color display, multimedia messaging and Java technology.
The phone also has a Presence menu that is an innovative feature that automatically updates family, friends and colleagues on the user’s whereabouts or status. Should the user be engaged in a meeting at the time of a call or message, the feature automatically informs his contact to reach him via SMS or MMS after the meeting, providing the caller with a suitable timeframe to reach the user.
The integrated camera in the Nokia 6220 has also been optimized for color screens of smaller handsets. It also has video player that allows receiving and playback of video messages. The unit is capable of supporting a maximum MMS size of 100kb.
The Nokia 6220 also has a powerful set of features to connect business professionals. Java allows users to download personalized applications either using the WAP 2.0 with XHTML browser or from a PC via the Nokia PC Suite. Users can also manage their e-mail quickly over EDGE, GPRS and HSCSD networks. SyncML allows users to synchronize their personal data remotely over the network. Personal data, such as calendars and contact information, can be synchronized and updated.
Like all recent Nokia handsets, the Nokia 6220 offers polyphonic ringtones and an integrated stereo FM radio.
The Nokia 3300 anticipates trends in the cellular phone industry to tap services from markets not traditionally associated with the hand phone.
Business and technology writer Peggy Anne Salz noted in her presentation that the new Nokia 3300 will access the untapped music industry for its services.
Salz noted that, with the world music industry in a slump following issues of piracy and Internet downloading, distribution of its products over mobile phones might be a better option to prop up the industry. The music industry piggybacks on the mobile phone market for a variety of promotional schemes.
She states that there is a perfect fit between SMS service and music broadcast in this example.
Universal Music, Southeast Asia, president Harry Hui agrees that opportunities afforded by wireless services, as those in the mobile phone industry, may prove to be viable.
Andersson agrees, and points out that there are new opportunities for growth in the cellular phone market.
"Nokia has been, for quite some time, a very mobile handset-centric company, with over 75 percent of our revenues coming from the handset business," says Andersson. "But, we are no longer just a voice handset company. We are in the music business. We are in a time of more and more exciting mobile enhancements: We have enterprise solutions; we have gaming; and we have imaging. Our role in this overall converging industry is that we bring mobility into this business. Nokia equals mobility. That’s our value added into this."