Top Ten Future Nokia Products
Top Ten Future Nokia Products
By Brad Rees in Barcelona
December 4, 2008
1. Forget about fancy pants phones and futuristic mobile TV services, the most significant revenue generation aid to mobile media from the Nokia World expo in
This is the gate to encouraging more low-end device owners and, let's face it, younger users to navigate the mobile internet and maintain a good customer experience. Series 40 phones are typically cheaper and less feature-rich Nokia devices, which appeal to a more mass market customer base. The web browsing enhancement provides a de-facto web compliance presented within an enhanced web browser user interface to provide pretty much everything you need for simple, intuitive browsing of the full web on a small screen.
Series 40 is the world's largest mass market feature phone platform and Nokia's core platform to help bring the internet to the forecasted next billion phone users in 2009. Let's just keep crossing the fingers that the operators will lower data plan prices to ease the bill shock.
2. Nokia N97 - The gadget is basically a mini-sized supercomputer and is related to the Nokia N95 and N96, both of which have so far sold 15 million, worldwide.
To the untrained eye, the Nokia N97 looks much the same as any other new 'smartphone' but Nokia are using it as a powerful symbol for how the lifechanging properties of the internet are affecting us all. The device has advanced satellite navigation options which synch with a PC so travellers can plot and plan at home before they set off. Add to this a powerful presence based social networking location tool, So-Lo, and the ability to personify the device with the most important people in your life and there's something truly spectacular about the proposition.
3. Nokia Interactive Advertising showcases the latest technology for mobile advertising and demonstrates proven solutions and customer case studies.
With established relationships with Becks, Disney, Ford, Amex and Old Navy Nokia Interactive Advertising acts as a primary sales agent or a supplementary sales agent which can sit alongside existing solutions.
Once Nokia has been allocated a set amount of inventory there are a series of set pieces which can be offered for mobile advertisers. Firstly, Nokia Interactive Advertising can distribute pre-planned advertising creative and ratchet the CPM volumes according to budgets.
They can act as a one-stop shop for advertisers to have their mobisite built, populated and managed as with the Ford Expedition case study, where they dealer videos, photos, alerts and wallpapers were offered as part of the overall proposition to clients.
4. The Nokia Point and Find application could be seen as a step change in the way QR Code advertising is evolving. Rather than have to snap a QR code (a kind of barcode) you point a phone at what Nokia call 'a real world object' (RWO), like a magazine advertisement, for example, and access relevant information from the internet database that underpins the service. It can work on a social media level by allowing users to implement their own Point and Find worlds e.g. football teams, shoes, handbags etc. by tagging RWOs and physical places so you can make use of relevant information from other members of the Nokia Point and Find community. You still have to download an application to run on your phone and user discovery is still an issue but the gismo could find its way onto the native menu of future devices.
5. All My Music is a commercial example of how the Nokia Point and Find application works with the music industry. All My Music combines a a Near Field Communication (NFC) solution for the hands-on discovery of music. Sadly, the demo at the event didn't showcase the Ting Tings, Radiohead or Coldplay but there was a Finnish Very Metal band called 'The 69 Eyes' who have relinquished all artist rights to the Nokia cause and so to prove a commercial point.
Wave a The 69 Eyes brochure in front of a Nokia camera and you will be automatically jettisoned off to their wap microsite, where you can sample The 69 Eyes 30-second MP3-streamed musicbites, lyrics; even a video of The 69 Eyes thrashing out their latest single, 'Perfect Skin', no relation to Lloyd Cole and the Commotions, though.
6. Nokia Home Media is a home entertainment hub with a difference: you can control the whole of your music, photos and videos from your phone, making it act like a remote control.
Nokia Home Media also acts as the hub between your phone, computer and all of your home entertainment equipment over a local WiFi connection.
It comes with the ability to use Series 60 devices such as the Nokia N95 as a home entertainment storage component in itself as well as being a remote control device to activate, coordinate and manage other media storage components, even other phones. Future releases aim to provide the ability to share the home hub from the same mobile phone by using a simple wireless connection outside the home so you can be round at a friend's house and plug into your home media store round at his house and play your latest recording of the Mighty Boosh through his TV.
7. Nokia Home Control Center is about knowing what happens in your home and saving energy. You can manage your home environment with a mobile device and can control your home's security system, electricity usage and temperatures and switch appliances on and off. It's tailor made for the neighbourhood watch control freak.
8. The Nokia Sports Tracker is a GPS-based activity tracker that runs on Nokia smartphones. It's the bodybuilding Narcissist's dream mobile companion where personal training information such as speed, distance, time can all be recorded and, as the marketing blurb extols: "can capture images and videos taken during each workout can be automatically stored in your training diary, on device or the Sports Tracker website and can be shared with your peers," Nice curls, Jeff!
9. Road driving, exploring the world on foot or preplanning a trip on the internet is allegedly made easier with Nokia Maps. The Sat Nav devices helps you to find your current location, discover your surroundings, search for new addresses or points of interest etc. The ability to pre-plan before you go by using the internet to synch to the in-car device could potentially avoid ugly marital arguments en route, though this isn't one of the marketing messages from the brand communications, oddly enough.
10. Using Local Sensor to find out where people, places are and navigate to them with your mobile. Local Sensor uses a direct wireless connection between devices tags and positioning stations and also works indoors where GPS is not available. It