The Hindu : Nokia sees growth in imaging phones, enterprise solutions

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Mar 23, 2004

Business

Business

Nokia sees growth in imaging phones, enterprise solutions

By G. Ananthakrishnan

Megapixel camera phone

CHENNAI, MARCH 22. Imaging, multimedia and enterprise will drive the next phase of growth in the mobile phone industry, which is facing saturation in traditional voice and data transfer services. The camera phone, which came into its own in 2003, is getting more sophisticated, with capability to shoot sharp pictures, record ten minutes of video and even serve as a gaming device that allows the user to compete with other mobile users in a variation of Internet-based online gaming.

Even with relatively low picture quality, more camera phones were sold in 2003 than digital still cameras, says mobile phone giant Nokia, quoting technology research firm IDC. Camera phones are set to record nearly 160 billion images in 2005 and earn the distinction of being the most prevalent image capture device in the world. The number of images captured by camera phones could cross 353 billion by 2007, opening up possibilities for strong partnerships with services that specialise in storage and printing.

Mobile phones are catching up with sophisticated digital still cameras rapidly. Nokia recently unveiled its first megapixel camera phone, the 7610 to an international group of journalists in Hong Kong, simultaneously with its launch at the CeBit expo in Germany. The company has announced that it will continue to improve the quality of images that its phones can record. The 7610 is also bundled with software that facilitates editing and addition of special effects using the phone, to the video recorded.

Camera phones exploit `memory keeping' behaviour — recording of images for either short-term purposes such as social gatherings, for emotional reasons or for long-term documentation and archiving. Nokia has chosen imaging as a growth area and with its new phones, users can transfer the pictures using (wireless) bluetooth technology to a compatible personal printer or to a printer at a branded kiosk, post the pictures on online albums or `lifeblogs', share them immediately in an optimised form through Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) or view them using a TV or PC connected to a Nokia Image Frame, an optional device. The Nokia 7610, which comes with a host of third party software, uses a reduced size 64 MB Multimedia Card (MMC) in addition to an in-built 8 MB to provide 72 MB of expandable memory. Kodak, Fuji and Hewlett Packard are collaborating with Nokia in the imaging area.

GSM v CDMA

While the latest Nokia product, the 7610, is on the Global System for Mobile (GSM) platform, the company `is committed' to serving the alternative mobile platform, the Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA).

"India is very important, we are focusing a lot on the country. China and India are the big markets of the future," said Urpo Karjalainen, Nokia's Senior Vice President, Customer and Market Operations for the Asia Pacific area.

On the GSM-versus-CDMA platform question in India, Nokia thinks it is a choice that the consumer will make based on perceived value from the operator. "I don't think they look at the technology, they look at the value proposition that the operator offers," said Tyler McGee, Vice President, Sales at Nokia. The company seeks to deliver a broad range of products for the Indian marketplace. "That means we will have a range of products in CDMA and a range in GSM. We are committed to CDMA just as we have been for a long time to GSM," Mr. McGee said, adding that services on both platforms were expected to grow over the coming years.

Part of the growth for Nokia, which had a global market share of 38 per cent in 2003 for mobile phones, would come from lifestyle uses for the mobile phone, such as imaging and the five month old mobile gaming technology.

There are indications that the gaming services would be rolled out in India with promotional packages. At present, mobile phones with Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) are able to download new generation games that can be played in an interactive manner. "Mobile gaming is an area that requires a lot of work. It could take a few years before we can perfect this. It took a few years to create mobile telephony after all," said Mauro Montanaro, Vice President, Sales and Channel Development, Multimedia for Nokia.

Other uses for the mobile phone in the future, he says, could be downloading music and accessing multimedia such as television.

The second growth area is the enterprise solution for businesses that provides end-to-end mobility for higher productivity. The enterprise solution involves wireless email, Lotus-based instant messaging, intranet and office applications in a secure back end environment. This will be achieved through partnerships with IBM, Oracle and Fujitsu among others and the architectures will be of an open kind allowing for integration with other systems.

The enterprise solution of the company is built around the fourth generation of the Communicator series mobile phone, the 9500. It looks at working with a variety of businesses that are conscious of returns on investment.

A study by mobile industry analysis firm Telephia last year indicates that large companies see email with attachments as the single largest voice and data application being considered for implementation over the current year, followed by dialled voice calling, corporate intranets and networks.

Personal Information Management (PIM), which Nokia considers a driver factor for its enterprise mobility solution, is the sixth most important requirement for business. Telephia's study shows 100 per cent mobile phone penetration among mobile workers, compared with 51 per cent for laptops, 23 per cent for Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) and 7 per cent for two-way messaging devices. Only 8 per cent of laptops had wi-fi connectivity.

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