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Report from the 2002 Nokia Mobile Internet Conference (NMIC)
Nov. 5-7, 2002 - by Glenn Letham, Editor, WirelessDevNet.com
Do you have questions, comments or information from the NMIC that you'd like to ask or share with WDN? Please contact Glenn
Visit the 2002 NMIC Slide Show/Image Gallery
From November 4-7, roughly 1,100 wireless industry media, developers, and industry experts gathered together in Munich Germany to discuss developments and trends affecting the mobile internet. We heard first-hand from Nokia executives, strategic partners, and some of the World's largest carriers as they discussed mobile device trends, strategies for developers, and business models from operators for generating revenues. Setting the tone for the event was a look at a number of new devices announced by Nokia, all of which will be released to the public between now and Q1, 2003.
Developers & Nokia Business Partners on the NMIC Exhibition floor
From day 1 it became quite obvious that the company [Nokia] is passionate about openness and that the concept truly is a business paradigm; hence the conference theme... "Openness - the road to success". Company executives discussed device trends and Nokia's strategy for following (and perhaps even establishing) trends, such as devices that support various environments, multi-task enabling, personalization, ease-of-use, integrating the Internet and PCs with the mobile Internet, and enabling technologies such as Bluetooth and Java. Recall it was just one year ago at Comdex when Nokia committed to the OMA (See www.openmobilealliance.org) - openness was the main theme at that time and today the theme persists, so much so that Niklas Savander, VP & GM Sales & Marketing, Mobile Software, Nokia insists "it's the only way to go". He went on in his innitial welcome addess to state that only if/when Completeness, Cost, Compliance, and Control are present, that the solution is truly open. Nokia is also actively invoved with the 3GPP, and Liberty Alliance
Attendees waiting to hear about "the killer-app" would come to the conclusion after the first day that what is truly to be "killer" in the mobile Internet is a simple, rich, user friendly experience rather than any one specific application.
Crucial in the development of the latest devices is the enhanced user experience, particularly since the user experience is vital in determining the success of services offered by operators. Speakers addressed the company's strategy, indicating that some combination of a number of enablers have been used in the latest devices. These include (but not limited to):
- color GUI
- MMS
- Java
- Camera
- GPRS
- Web browsers
- video
- radio
The common denominator in Nokia's devices is of course that they run on the Series 60 OS, a Symbian platform (See also http://www.forum.nokia.com/main/1,35452,1_36,00.html. On the bright side for developers in the Symbian realm are some compelling numbers, including the fact that more than 1 million Symbian devices were shipped by Nokia this year and even more exciting, the company expects to ship 10 million devices next year. To put this in a little better perspective, that would be more devices in one year than Palm has shipped in the past 5! Nokia currently has several companies licensing the Series 60 OS for their devices including Matsushita, Siemens, Samung, and most recently on board, Sendo.
Operators with executives present at the NMIC included NTT DoCoMo, Vodafone, Orange, AT&T, and Mobile One (M1). Naturally, they were all anxious to hear about opportunities for new revenues. So what opportunities exist for operators, handset makers, and software developers? Consider some of these numbers and then use your immagination:
- there are an estimated 5 million wireless games users in Europe
- more than 250 billion SMS messages were sent in 2002
- there are already 1 million Nokia 7650 devices in use Globally
- operators currently charge anywhere from .50 to $1.20 per MMS message
- 10 million devices running on Series 60 are expected to ship in 2003
- in countries like Singapore, where inter-operator SMS is enabled, SMS traffic more than doubled in just one year, currently the population is 73% mobile enabled, and each user generates an average of 9 SMS messages per day, of which 70% are mobile generated.
So what are the devices that Nokia is bringing to market? 9 new devices that operators can target a broad range of lifestyles were the focus at NMIC. Our next report will provide details and specification on each of these devices. Making "waves" in the list of new devices was the new gaming device or game deck - the N-Guage (TM), expected to launch in Feb., 2003. Nokia's expansion into mobile gaming comes as no surprise, given that the gaming industry has evolved to a point where mobility is a necessity. Consider also that the most recent Wireless Gaming Report revealed that there are currently around 5 million wireless games users in Europe, however, that number is expected to explode to an astonishing 130 million by 2005!
 Nokia N-Gage(TM) game deck - Console quality games will run on the game deck with games to be distributed on memory cards. Games published by leading developers (such as Sega) are expected to commence shipping (as is the device) on Feb, 2003.
Mr. Anssi Vanjoki, VP Nokia Mobile Phones
gives the crowd at NMIC a first look at the N-Guage. Click on image to view/hear Mr. Anssi's first look at the N-Guage (MPG, property of WirelessDevNet, all rights reserved)
Our next report from the NMIC will focus on the new devices announced by Nokia... stay tuned!
WDN Nokia DevZone Home
Were you in attendance at the NMIC? Please send us your comments.
Send details to editors@wirelessdevnet.com
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Nokia N-Gage(TM) game deck