Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo is bullish about the company's future, despite acknowledging the global mobile phone market is "contracting" this year.
He says the company is geared to take advantage of the trend of the mobile phone becoming more of a mobile computer and is developing such devices. However, it will also focus on expanding services to attract more users, he adds.
In light of this, Nokia revealed two new E-Series smartphones at the GSMA Mobile World Congress, in Barcelona, this week. Kallasvuo believes the devices will maximise efficiency and offer users corporate and personal e-mail wherever, whenever.
The Nokia E55 and E75 phones are the first devices to ship with Nokia's new e-mail user interface. The company claims this will revolutionise the smartphone industry and ensure organisations get more for their buck, especially in today's economic downturn.
Nokia has partnered with Microsoft and IBM, in an effort to assist companies to cut costs and increase efficiency, as well as productivity.
"With direct access to Microsoft Exchange and IBM Lotus Notes, companies can potentially save up to a third of their operating costs, as there's no need for middleware, BlackBerry patches or additional servers," says Kai Oistamo, executive VP at Nokia.
With mail for Exchange and IBM Lotus Notes, says Oistamo, Nokia is enabling direct access to more than 90% of corporate inboxes. With Nokia Messaging, it also opens the world's top consumer e-mail accounts, such as Gmail, Yahoo and Hotmail, to the handsets.
With the new E-Series devices, users will no longer have to rely on a PC to get a full desktop e-mail experience. "This is the end of an era of alphabet soup e-mail set-up," he adds.
The company's 9300 communicator was the inspiration for the Nokia E75, which has a slide-out qwerty keyboard. "With the Nokia E75, we kept the essential ingredients that were found in the 9300, significantly upgraded all of the features and made it as compact as possible," Oistamo says.
The Nokia E55 comes with a compact qwerty keyboard and has an increased battery life, with a standby time of nearly one month. The E55 is 9.9mm thick, in a candybar form-factor.
Added to the Nokia Messaging service, both devices come with Nokia Maps and assisted GPS with integrated three-month licences for turn-by-turn navigation, and enhanced gaming with N-Gage on board. With Ovi Files, also included on the Nokia E75, important files stored on a PC can be remotely managed and shared, even when the user's PC is switched off.
Nokia says the E75 is expected to ship in March, at an estimated retail price of 375 euros, before taxes and subsidies. The E55 is expected to ship in the second quarter, at an estimated retail price of 265 euros, before taxes and subsidies.
Oistamo is confident about the integration of push e-mail into Nokia's devices and believes "Nokia is going to be the driver for worldwide e-mail adoption".
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