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• Mobile

By silicon.com, 29 October 2003 12:50

Judging by its results last week, it may seem picky to point out things have been less than perfect in the house of Nokia this year. But news out of the Nokia Mobile Internet Conference this week – one excuse for not ‘doing’ the big ITU show at Geneva two weeks ago, it seems – shows some of the best and worst the company still has to offer.

The good news is that 3G is closer. No, really. You may have given up caring some time ago but it will be with us quite broadly in a year and it will make a difference. Nokia is happy – it claims a leadership position in shipped W-CDMA network infrastructure and will doubtless come up with the handsets by the millions, even if East Asian companies have appeared more willing to date.

But while Nokia has remained solid in handset functionality in the meantime, it could be said, those around it – especially Samsung, Siemens and Sony Ericsson – have stolen a march on looks while offering similar features. That’s not something the higher-ups in Helsinki like to hear.

This week sees Nokia answer that. It has not only come out with an innovative, touch-screen, xHTML-capable offering in its 7700 but even done a chic clamshell number in its 7200. Other products also look solid.

OK, so the 7200 – based on Nokia’s older, more limited Series 40 software platform – isn’t ground-breaking. And while it boasts changeable cloth coverings this writer for one can imagine devices getting grubby quickly. But it does mark the recognition that form really matters – something Nokia seemed to have forgotten.

What’s more, while there are those who say Nokia can go no higher in handsets while maintaining its margins – thus the importance of network equipment and its new enterprise division – it is worth noting its efforts more broadly with software.

Long a provider of security, Nokia is now looking to the matter of integration with all sorts of partners’ applications, though don’t expect Microsoft to set up a stand any time soon. It is now very much its main foe, long term.

Some innovation on devices will work. Network upgrades – to Edge, to 3G and maybe those using push-to-talk – is a good starting point but while users demand more features in their hand, some directions seem ill-conceived. The idea that people want a ‘visual radio’ as part of their mobile media experience, for example prompting the purchase of a music track when it’s being played or providing related information, won’t fly. If it is such a good idea, wouldn’t it have already happened for fixed internet music consumption?

Maybe they’ll prove us wrong. Details such as that shouldn’t overshadow what remains still an amazingly far-reaching success story. But the relevance of much of the consumer and enterprise technology in the spotlight now will only be known 18 months down the line.

We’ll be on the look out to see if it’s making a difference to your business.