Nokia’s World is turning

Posted by Gavin Byrne Friday, December 5th, 2008

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Nokia’s now annual pilgrimage to Barcelona for Nokia World was a little disorienting for this analyst. There was sunshine in December, early morning starts, a lively, loud, enjoyable Nokia Party, and plenty of jamon y queso. But most confusing was the amount of green on show. Some could have thought themselves transported to certain OS company’s event. But no, it was Nokia underlining its environmental credentials.

Going green, an admirable aim of its own, also has the very topical benefit of helping reduce costs. However, although the credit crunch was touched on in a few comments, any questions on market outlook were referred to Nokia’s Capital Market’s Day, 4th December, where the Big Finn yet again proved cautious about Q408 and 2009.

Nokia’s continued diversification is transforming it from the world’s largest mobile phone vendor, into a products + services company. Think brand loyalty, think recurring revenues and subscriptions. We may yet move to that paradigm of razors and razor blades.

Nokia’s accent on content and services was reflected by their dominance on the agenda. It was underlined by the company’s announcements around new messaging and location services. Indeed, the only new device on show, the N97, gives some indication of where Nokia may expand in future. Openness was also a theme, particularly with Nokia’s acquisition of Symbian Limited closing on 2nd December.

Nokia’s mobile email and IM story was considerably strengthened at Nokia World. With the right business model, possibly offered in conjunction with a flat rate data plan Nokia Messaging has the potential to dramatically increase the number of email accounts that are mobile. However, many mobile operators may balk at this latest encroachment on subscriber relationships and revenues. Personally I’d welcome the ability to consolidate different email and IM accounts from Yahoo!, Windows Live Hotmail and others and I am sure that will not be lost on the heavy email and IM users of regions such as North America.

Mail on Ovi, Nokia’s service offering email access via PC and Series40 handsets, demonstrates the Finnish vendor’s ability to leverage its installed base and deliver services to emerging markets.

Nokia Maps 3.0 brings new features such as 3D points of interest and terrain maps. Offered for free, Nokia will generate its revenue from services such as pedestrian navigation, route navigation, and premium content like travel guides.

Speaking of sharp new devices Anssi Vanjoki unveiled Nokia’s new high-end handset mobile computer. The N97 can be seen as a more internet and messaging focussed 5800 and a more commercial update to Nokia’s tablet products, such as the N810. In truth it borrows from both.

Running the same Symbian v9.4 and S60 5th edition combination as on the 5800, Nokia’s addition of widget support and greater home screen customisation gives users more freedom to tailor it to their needs. In addition the N97 also has access to an established catalogue of existing applications such as N-gage games. The N97’s launch date of 1H09 has also been determined to encourage application and widget developers take advantage of the device’s capabilities and its 3.6Mbps HSDPA connection.

The 3.5 inch 16:9 16 million colour display is impressive and slides to what Nokia assured me is the perfect viewing angle of 35 degrees. But it is the availability of different input methods, touchscreen with haptics (not yet available on the prototypes at Nokia World) and qwerty keyboard, enable both single and dual handed use. This flexibility will help broaden the N97’s appeal.

The N97’s high-end features, will make this a popular addition to the Nokia stable, although incorporating DVB-H could have taken even bettter advantage of the large screen. How successful the N97 is will depend on operators’ willingness to subsidise the estimated retail price of about €550. If those discussions go well, it may come close to the volumes achieved by Nokia’s N95.

But perhaps more importantly, the N97 demonstrates Nokia’s intention to develop ‘mobile computers’. Nokia’s dominance of the handset and smartphone markets is seeing it now address the nascent MID segment. It combines larger screens in new form factors with high speed connectivity and multiple input methods to increase usability and deliver a better User Experience. “Desktop, Laptop, Pocket” are three words I am sure we shall hear again from Nokia.