Nokia unveils new converged devices

Anjana Samarasinghe in Sydney

Markets such as Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Singapore, Philippines and Thailand are growing at 5 to 6 per cent. GDP growth of the countries in Asia Pacific is more than 5 per cent Senior Vice President of Sales, Distribution East of Nokia Colin Giles said.

Giles said more than four billion people are expected to use mobile devices in 2010. Industry outlook for mobile devices volumes in 2008 to grow by around 10 per cent. Nokia unveiled new converged devices and internet services at the Showcase Nokia 2008 which was held on Monday.

Nokia introduced four new devices Nokia N96, Nokia N78, Nokia 6220 Classic and Nokia 6210 Navigator at the event.

The company also revealed the next step towards its Ovi Internet service environment by introducing "Share on Ovi" and Maps 2.0 taking navigation out of the car, into the street.

"Mobile technology has changed our lives and today mobile technology has become more affordable and accessible.

Last year Nokia sold 200 million camera devices and 140 million music devices," he said.

There is a huge contribution from the countries in Asia Pacific for overall growth. However there is a low market penetration in countries like India and China. Company is trying to enter into more rural markets.

"It has estimated that market opportunity for internet services will be Euro 100 billion in 2010.

"As we continue to free the internet from the limitations of the desktop, we are taking mobility into a completely new realm of possibility. We are, in fact, redefining the internet itself as we are making context aware and more personalised with the context Internet becomes a medium of very immediate and personal experience," he said.

Introducing new devices and services Vice President, Sales Southeast Asia Pacific Nokia Chris Carr said the N96 is a multimedia computer optimised for Video and TV. The Nokia N96 expected to be shipped in the third quarter of this year.

The Nokia N78 is designed to take advantages of the new suite of Nokia services, including the Nokia Music Store, Nokia Maps and Share on Ovi. This product will start shipping during the second quarter of 2008. Nokia 6220 classic is a full-featured device that combines a five megapixel camera with A-GPS. Nokia 6220 classic is expected to ship in the third quarter 2008 in selected markets.

Nokia 620 Navigator is the company's first GPS- enabled mobile device with an integrated compass for pedestrian guidance.