nokia

As Internet is entering into the core of mobile experiences, Nokia continues to implement new innovations for S60 on Symbian OS, the market leading smartphone software, to develop the best possible mobile experiences for people.

S60 will introduce new features that enhance the user experience and enable manufacturers, developers and operators to design new types of mobile devices, applications and services.

The touch user interface in S60 smartphone software offers licensees the opportunity to develop devices with a variety of input methods, whether it is a touch screen with a traditional keypad, touch screen with a qwerty keyboard or touch screen alone, supporting both finger or stylus optimized input, in addition to the range of access options that already exist today.

S60 touch user interface comes with support for tactile feedback, which means that there is a physical pulse and feedback when the user taps on the screen. This provides better awareness of the device's response improving the user experience.

The existing S60 3rd Edition applications will run on touch enabled devices unmodified. Tools will be made available for developers to further optimize the touch experience of their applications.

From motion and orientation to proximity and light, sensor technology is expanding to new areas and shaping the future for mobiles. S60 brings sensor support to the platform as a generic solution enabling support for a range of sensors in S60 devices. These technologies open up a new kinetic world to the user and offer completely new opportunities for application and game developers.

Also, the new UI Accelerator toolkit will allow device manufacturers to develop rapidly and easily impressive graphical effects and new types of interactions, further increasing the user appeal and excitement.

S60 will be the first mobile software platform to deliver the complete Web video experience as Flash Video will be integrated with the Web browser for S60. This allows people to view on the go Flash-enabled Web sites and Flash Video, such as YouTube, as they would do on their desktops.

S60 and 3, the mobile media company that launched the first 3G network in the UK, will demonstrate at the Symbian Smartphone Show in London X-Series devices based on S60, and the vision both share of creating great Internet experiences on mobile devices.

"We are constantly on the lookout for new innovations to enhance X-Series, our offering for Internet on the mobile," said Ken Johnstone, Director of Products, Global 3G Handset & Application Group, at 3. "The user experience is central to everything that we do, and we believe that X-Series provides the best-in-class Internet experience on the mobile."

"S60 on Symbian OS offers a great platform to innovate with Internet services", said Matti Vänskä, Vice President, Mobile Software Sales and Marketing, Nokia. "We see experiences converging, and people demanding more and more of the functionalities that smartphones offer, both of which highlight the significance of ease of use. The focus of our strategy is to give people choice and simplicity - both key to delivering the best user experiences to add value to people's lives." These technologies will be available for all S60 device manufacturers during 2008.

At the event, Samsung showcased their latest S60 devices, the new Samsung i450, Samsung i550 and Samsung i560. To date, 65 devices based on S60 and Symbian OS have been launched, 36 of which are based on the latest S60 3rd Edition.

S60 has been the leader in converged device software since the introduction of the first S60 device and continues to lead by a clear margin, with 53 percent global market share in Q2 2007

To provide broadband access across 7000 villages in India
Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) today announced that it has won a contract from Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), to deploy broadband access across 7000 Indian villages.

The contract is a part of the greenfield rural tender from BSNL. The new access network’s high bandwidth will allow BSNL to deliver high data and triple play intensive services such as Video on Demand, Video Multi cast, IPTV, Video Conferencing and VPN among others to its customers.

The network will also enable BSNL to provide connectivity to CSCs (Community Service Centres) and other e-governance locations, Nokia Siemens said in a statement.

The agreement includes supply, installation and commissioning, training and annual maintenance contract for five years. As part of the contract, NSN is deploying its Gigabit Ethernet-capable IP DSLAMs Surpass hiX5625 (Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexers) and chassis based access switch (Surpass hiD6615). NSN will also supply end-user devices that will enable BSNL to provide speeds of up to 24Mbps for ADSL2+ subscribers over its existing copper infrastructure. The first phase of new lines deployment will be completed by first quarter of 2008.

Kuldeep Goyal, chairman and managing director, BSNL, said, “BSNL is a pioneer in providing affordable high-quality communications services to Indian consumers and this mega broadband expansion initiative is another step in that direction. The BSNL rural broadband project will bridge digital divide and connect 20,000 villages in India.”

“Nokia Siemens Networks with its technology portfolio and its strong existing relationship with BSNL, is an ideal partner in our efforts to deliver world class broadband services and drive long termed sustained economic growth for India,” he added.

This is the second rural broadband access tender BSNL has awarded to Nokia Siemens Networks. The company is also in parallel deploying the urban broadband access for BSNL across 15 circles. First phase of that roll-out is in advance stages of completion for 800,000 ports.

Adobe Systems Inc has released new software for its popular Flash Player that promises to bring the quality of live video on mobile phones closer to that of video on computers.

Adobe, whose software made possible the rapid rise of pioneering online video site YouTube, said Nokia and NTT DoCoMo Inc would use its new Flash Lite 3 in their new mobile phones.

Adobe said more than 300 million mobile devices equipped with previous versions of Flash had already been shipped and it expected more than a billion Flash-enabled devices to be available by 2010.

Adobe's Flash software is installed on about 98 percent of all personal computers and is used by virtually all popular online video sites, mainly thanks to the fact it works independently of the device that the video is displayed upon.

Gary Kovacs, in charge of marketing at Adobe's mobile unit, called Flash Lite 3 "the most significant advance we've made in mobile" and said it brought Adobe closer to being able to release software versions for mobile and desktop simultaneously.

"It's probably a few years away. We'll do it over the next couple to three years," he told Reuters.

Nokia's 3.4 million-strong mobile software development group, Forum Nokia, said it would launch a new development community on Monday to help Flash developers and designers.

Nokia, the world's biggest mobile telephone maker, announced a major new push into multimedia, including video, music and gaming last month, seeking to challenge Apple Inc's dominance in portable entertainment.

The head of Forum Nokia, Lee Epting, said in a statement: "Flash Lite 3 will enable us to deliver richer content to our customers, such as videos and animated ringtones."

Adobe, also known for its Acrobat document management and Photoshop software, said earlier this month that its profit more than doubled last quarter on strong sales of new products and as it makes inroads into mobile, video and office worker markets.

Intel Corp said on Wednesday it had won a mobile WiMax chip order from the world's top cellphone maker Nokia, which will use its semiconductors in Internet-focused devices from 2008.Nokia will roll out the first WiMax-enabled Internet tablets using Intel chips in the first half of 2008, a Nokia spokeswoman told Reuters.

Mobile WiMax, the high-speed wireless standard, is expected to support Internet access at speeds as much as five times faster than typical wireless networks, though it will be slower than the fastest wired services.

Intel has had little success in the mobile phone chip market and ended up selling its cellular chip unit to Marvell last year. Its push behind short-range wireless technology Wi-Fi was a big factor in the widespread adoption of that technology.Texas Instrument is Nokia's largest chip supplier, and it also uses STMicroelectronics, Broadcom and Infineon as suppliers.

Currently, Nokia is not manufacturing mobile devices using Intel chips.Intel said the companies were testing interoperability across Intel's forthcoming WiMax silicon "Baxter Peak" for laptops and mobile Internet devices, Nokia WiMax devices and Nokia Siemens Networks' WiMax infrastructure equipment.

Intel, Nokia and NSN have already started testing devices with other device makers' products, using Sprint Nextel's laboratory in Herndon, Virginia, Intel said.

Nokia is ready to up its pitch in the email market with a slew of new offerings and applications.

This would primarily include a stronger email menu that is expected to be in the market by the end of 2007.

In addition, it will bring out navigation and Field Force applications by early 2008. The company purports to grow the email market in India.

Chakrapani GK, country general manager, enterprise solutions, Nokia shared that up ahead is a deepr portfolio of devices that will take the success of E-series and series 60 devices in the business application market a step further.

The world's top cellphone maker, Nokia, has unveiled a new phone model, the Nokia E51, for corporate users and said it still expects to fast growth in the mobile e-mail market.

Nokia said the classic "candy bar" shaped phone model will be globally available later this year, and retail for 350 euros ($485), excluding subsidies and taxes.

Nokia's enterprise unit turned to profit in the last quarter after years of losses, helped by the success of its E65 phone model.

The unit has been hoping to benefit from runaway success of RIM's Blackberry models, but it said still only 2 percent of corporate e-mail accounts are mobile, similar to the situation a couple of years ago.

"We believe it will change quickly," Antti Vasara, head of device business at Nokia's enterprise unit told a news conference.

Vasara said by 2009 there should be 880 million mobile workers using either cellphones or laptops.

"Less and less people are bound to their desks while doing their work," he said.