The Hindu : Business : Nokia unveils mobile computer-phone

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Wednesday, Dec 03, 2008
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Nokia unveils mobile computer-phone

Anand Parthasarathy

Promises Internet browsing from cheapest phones soon

BARCELONA: With four billion mobile phones in use world wide, the biggest maker of such devices suggests that they are next iteration of computing platforms that began with the personal computer and evolved into the laptop. At its annual developer event that opened here on Tuesday, Nokia suggested that the Internet should be personal too, and unveiled a new smart phone to epitomise this concept.

New feature

The N97 phone tauted as the first truly mobile pocket computer, introduces a new feature (and a new buzzword): So-Lo or social location, a marriage of the user’s social networking needs to his or her current location as sensed by the phones GPS navigation tool. It includes smart phone features like full QWERTY keyboard and professional Carl Zeiss photo optics.

“You are in control,” Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, told lay users, “There is not one Internet, but one billion Internets, each one shaped differently to suit the user.” Technologies like touch screens would be trickled down rapidly so that they would be available to owners of the cheaper models, he suggested.

Symbian acquisition

The day also marked formal completion by Nokia of the acquisition of Symbian, the leading mobile operating system provider. By 2010, Nokia would make Symbian fully open source, delegates were told.

Nokia will shortly launch a mid-level phone, the 6260 slider, that will bring GPS as well as browsing to a handset that might cost less than Rs. 7,000 in India, added Nokia India Vice President, Shiv Shivakumar. The company was using its presence in India to take the concept of personal internet further: later this month, it would team with Idea Cellular to offer agricultural and weather information to farmers in six test districts and three languages, he added.

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