Nokia launches 6 new mobile phones

[lineartube]

Nokia Launches 6 new mobile phones

I know this isn't the right topic, but it is the right forum...

Nokia, probably the best mobile maker in the world, with designs to match that title, just release 6 new models at the Nokia Mobile Internet Conference (NMIC 2002). They are the 6800, 2100, 7250, 6100, 5100 and the 8910i.

Here's a picture of the 6800.

 

[Twisted]

I'm affraid that Nokia is becoming the Microsoft of the mobile phone scene. They're becoming quite dominant.

 

[thomas]

OK, ok, you guys convinced me, just added a new tech forum.

 

[Twisted]

Praise!!

 

[Maciamo]

From Japan, I saw non-Japanese (or non-Korean) mobiles as underdeveloped : no digital camera (photo or video), no email, few with colour screens, always black or grey designs...

I have asked a few people recently, and it seemed that only a few overpriced mobiles had colour and digicam.

Having a look at Nokia's site just now, I have been startled at the new available designs, the autonomy, and other features such as the water-proof Nokia 5100 and colour-screens. There is a wondefully ingenuous observation camera that you just leave at home/in your office to check that nobody touch your stuff. Great ! I guess that means most mobiles also have a digicam, so it let me wondering as it's not mentioned on the site. But how much do they cost ? A very compact mobile with video digicam and high-definition real-colour screen is less than 100 euros in Japan.

Interestingly, Nokia and Ericsson are virtually absent of the Japanese market. Only J-brands here : sony, panasonic, casio, mitsubishi... I don't think that Nokia is going to conquer the world... not if Japanese decide to extend their market first.

 

[Maciamo]

Have a look at Japanese mobiles. They are almost always available in several colours and rarely black (rather pink, blue, red, white...). Here are the main sites I have found :

NTT Docomo

KDDI AU

J-phone (recently aquired by the English Vodaphone)'s famous "sha-mail", that is the first video digicam integrated to a mobile ever, I think. Since then (6 months ago ?), competitors have already caught up with their own version. Be ure to click on all the girls to see the possibilities.

Sony (actually "Sony Ericsson" now ! Who has swallowed who ?)

Panasonic

Casio

 

[Twisted]

Well, there was simply no network to support extra features in Europe so non-Japanese phonebrands didn't make phones for them. Overhere in Holland we only had i-mode for about six months now, but only with one provider.

Since a few weeks it's possible to send pictures over a GSM network, but that's only possible with two other providers.

The only Japanese brands overhere are Sony and Panasonic.
Sony has never been really succesful overhere with its phones so now they're collaborating with the almost bankrupt Ericsson.

 

[lineartube]

tooo drunk to ansewr... but businesses are going great.

God... ever had that whisky-happy client?....

 

[thomas]

Hehe, I'd be my own best client...

 

[lineartube]

This is a interesting article:

NTT DoCoMo Inc. thought its third-generation mobile phone system would spread like wildfire in Europe-but it hardly even generated sparks as reported by The Asahi Shimbun.

As a result, the mobile phone giant decided Tuesday to snuff its smoldering overseas expansion plans for the time being, effectively extinguishing plans to grab a commanding lead in the global 3G market.

Last autumn, DoCoMo became the first company to launch a 3G service when it rolled out the technology domestically.

Aiming to put further distance between itself and the rest of the field, DoCoMo sought to make its 3G specifications a global standard, hooking up with European telecoms that were keen on putting the technology into practice by the end of this year. But the alliances faltered as the European firms postponed or withdrew from the 3G business, leaving DoCoMo in an unenviable position of promoting its system on its own in Europe.

There are currently two international standards for 3G mobile phones-W-CDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access), which was jointly developed by Japanese and European concerns, and CDMA2000 1x, which was developed by U.S. wireless telephone giant Qualcomm Inc.

The transmission speed of W-CDMA is more than double that of its U.S. counterpart. DoCoMo's standard was adopted by some major U.S. firms, leading many to believe it would become the leading world standard.

Commercialization of the W-CDMA format, seen as integral to the dissemination of 3G phones in Europe, has been impeded by sky-high licensing fees required to operate 3G phones, which in turn have depleted the resources of European telecoms needed to invest in equipment.

Demand for the major features of 3G phones, including videophone and image transmission, is not expected to show marked improvement any time soon.

DoCoMo's 3G expansion freeze follows similar moves by other telecoms firms. In 2000, a consortium comprising six telecoms firms paid 5 trillion yen for the license to operate 3G services in Germany. Of the six, two have already halted investment in 3G.

Britain's Vodafone, the world's largest mobile phone company, postponed a trial service in Germany slated for this autumn to early next year.

Orange group, a France Telecom affiliate, plans to delay production of 3G equipment in Sweden that was initially scheduled for the end of 2003, for three years.

Another reason for the disappointing start to 3G service in Europe has been the growing popularity of general packet radio service (GPRS), or so-called 2G technology, which is less costly than 3G technology and readily compatible with Web sites.

``European nations will likely go with the GPRS format for the time being. They will probably not hasten to start 3G services,'' the Communications and Information network Association of Japan said.(IHT/Asahi: October 31,2002)

in Mobile News - Latest news from the world of mobile

 

[moyashi]

price!

haha, you all know my stance about docomo.

Although, Japanese Keitai (cellular) phones kick a_s! Even my N503i is sweet.

Nokia at one time was on the top of the Japanese market with all others playing catch up. But with AU and Docomo, expecially Docomo, pushing color internet Nokia just got buried in the dust with big, clunky, dorky, heavy, grey-green screen, and NO melodies phones obviously would get their butts kicked and basically get sent home with their tail between their legs.

Ahh, so Docomo ended up as a fiasco in Europe. Last I heard was well over a year ago and that the European Market wasn't too happy with the mini-MicroSoft shoving high prices down their throats. I wonder if any of the discrimination cases had anything to do with it too? Basically, docomo leveraged Japan to buy into the Euorpean market hoping to become the standard. OH well, it's not a bad standard just I'm sick of seeing 16 year old girls paying 20,000 yen a phone for phone bills and in turn seeing the economoy go down hill so that docomo can play Microsoft.

 

[lineartube]

While Vodafone and the likes where trying to sell WAP as moblie internet to europeans and americans, Docomo was already selling it's i-mode to the japanese.

Docomo hasn't failed completely or didn't failed at all since it didn't created structures from scratch here in europe. What they did was to create partnerships with the feudal Carriers of the land but most of them used this partnership as a way of stopping the technology from falling into the competition hands.

Right now, in europe I only know of one case were i-mode is being commercialized and that is in Germany. In the states they have a modified version called m-mode and that's it.

In europe, too much money was spent in 3G licenses and the carriers have noticed that they won't see that money for quite some time so they are expanding the 2G/2,5G life time so that they can cash more money in while slowly building their 3G networks. Sometimes this situation almost feels like they have an undisclosed agreement to this, wich to me, is worse than price-fixing.

In the states, they have the so called baby-Bells and for what I have read about it, the situation could be put in one word: messy.

Messy, messy, messy....



edited/typos, typos, typos...

 

[lineartube]

Heres a news that portrays whats going on in the states:


Qualcomm monoculture is 'killing American wireless'
By Andrew Orlowski in San Francisco
Posted: 06/11/2002 at 23:42 GMT

There's a huge reality gap if you follow wireless on this continent. Proponents of the CDMA phone system used by the large American networks (and rejected by most of the rest of the world) spend much time boasting about the system's "technical superiority".

At the same time, the handsets and services here lag far behind those on offer even in developing countries. Yesterday's technology abounds: awful, antiquated phones are the norm. You just can't get the coolest toys here unless you opt for one of the GSM networks and when you do, as in California, you're effectively locking yourself into a local monopoly.

Now, apart from a lunatic fringe of right-wing publications and enthusiasts, everybody knows this awful truth. Amps and hertz don't matter as much to the ordinary consumer as much as better handsets and better services, and more choice.

A case in point: Bluetooth is a standard feature on many new GSM/GPRS phones but the first CDMA 1X phone has yet to be launched. We were astonished to learn, after speaking to representatives from Samsung and Kyocera which are launching interesting PalmOS-based smartphones that the industry is waiting on Bluetooth-capable chipsets from Qualcomm. What, just the one supplier?

The following explanation comes from an experienced wireless professional who prefers to remain anonymous.

"Phones here are years behind the rest of the world: have you tried buying a Bluetooth-enabled CDMA 1X phone? You can't. Because there isn't one."

In his analysis of Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly's decision to affirm the DoJ-Microsoft Settlement, Andrew Orlowski makes the point that American protectionism of companies such as Microsoft and Qualcomm ultimately results in the stifling of innovation and competition. He uses the example of the lack of CDMA Bluetooth phones.

Recently, I've been following a few discussion groups where the proponents of CDMA technogies preach the supposed technological superiority of CDMA 1X networks over GPRS networks in North America, and WCDMA elsewhere. They delve deep into specifications to support their arguments and justify the supposed benefits to consumers, and the eventual world-domination of CDMA. It's an interesting mix of technical trivia and heart-felt religious righteousness.

Having spent nine years in Europe, I found it faintly amusing that people would want to spend their time arguing about underlying network technologies, rather than about new services, or new ideas about how to make money from mobile data. You're more likely to be spending time showing off your latest handset, how you can take pictures with it, or what games you can play, to worry about the networks. Are Americans so offended by Asian and European superiority in Wireless, and eager to redress the balance, that they will grasp at any thread that hints of possible "Homeland" supremacy?

If so, arguing about network standards isn't the way to go about it. It was the lack of a common network technology that was largely responsible for turning North America into a wireless backwater in the first place.

So what relevance to this is a Bluetooth-enabled CMDA 1X phone? It seems common sentiment in North America that Bluetooth is a failure: it should have arrived years ago, is buggy, expensive, difficult to configure, etc. There seems to be a feeling that Bluetooth had it's chance, and now 802.11 - a technology where North America could be said to lead - will fill the void. That Bluetooth failed will be news to any European who has been using Bluetooth headsets, car kits, Bluetooth-enabled PDAs, or Bluetooth connections with their laptops, and who first hand understands how uniquely useful and versatile the technology is.

For two years I have been using Bluetooth-enabled GPRS phones and PDAs to access wireless data. My workplace has a variety of Bluetooth devices...GPRS phones, headsets, PDAs, CF Cards, PC Cards, SDIO Cards, USB adapters, access points, etc.. An average of two Bluetooth devices per employee, and climbing. Our business is not Bluetooth, it is mobile data. However, mobile data is where Bluetooth shines.

I recently went looking for a solution to demonstrate our product using a Toshiba e740 (WiFi) PDA and CDMA 1X. (The e740 can manage about an hour of browsing over 802.11b before the battery gives up...less than half what the same PDA with Bluetooth can manage. ) The local CDMA 1X provider offered only two 1X mobile phones, neither of which supported Bluetooth.

Ah well...a USB cable can be purchased for the Samsung N370 for $80, and a port expander with USB is available for the Toshiba. Alas, while you can physically connect the two devices, there are no USB drivers available for Pocket PC for the mobile phone. Nor does the Toshiba support a serial connection. No 1X for Toshiba PDA's then.

Well, maybe we could import a 1X Bluetooth phone. We do this all the time with GPRS... you just swap SIMs. You can sometimes do this with CDMA...if you talk nicely enough to your CDMA operator. It depends on the operator's policy, and how the customer service representative feels that day.

Alas, there are no 1X Bluetooth phones to be had anywhere in the world. Even searching the Bluetooth Qualified Products List (QPL) reveals only one candidate - The Samsung X7700. Samsung hasn't announced this phone yet, and there's no information available on it, where or when it will be launched. The lack of Bluetooth in North America mobile phones is not due to any problems with the technology, it's due to Qualcomm. (Fortunately, in the last month or two Qualcomm has apparently demonstrated in the lab a new chipset that supports 1X and Bluetooth...maybe in a year or so we might actually see a Bluetooth 1X phone on the market.)

Okay, how about an integrated 1X Pocket PC? The Audiovox Thera is available...but if you want to use the device as a phone you must use an earbud and microphone, and you get about 1 hour of talk-time. So Audiovox Thera isn't going to replace an employee's mobile phone, but (because of the lack of a SIM) you will still need to purchase a separate voice and data service for it. Nor can we use a display adapter with it and we like to give presentations directly from PDAs as the Thera has neither CF nor SDIO slots. A Sierra Wireless 1X card? Same issues as the Thera, but more bulky as you need a PC Card adapter (with it's own battery).

The Samsung N370 1X mobile can be connected to an HP/Compaq iPAQ PDA (of which we have many, with integrated Bluetooth, of course) so we decide to use that. Only, you need a different cable, for another $80. So, we have to spend $160 on cables to connect a 1X mobile phone to both a laptop, and a PDA that already has Bluetooth. We've recently been purchasing Bluetooth USB adapters for $60.

Clearly then, 1X data is not a "wireless". The need to use (multiple) cables makes it not even mobile. At best we could cal 1X data portable. Connecting cables makes a mockery of "always connected" technology. The supposed speed advantage of 1X over GPRS is irrelevant if you can't get the data out of the phone. Who uses 1X data, other than for WAP, I wonder? Not consumers, with the degree of difficulty and inconvenience involved. It certainly doesn't seem to be suitable for PDAs. The main application must be corporate users downloading e-mail to their laptops. No wonder limited devices such as those from RIM and Handspring - unsuccessful in Europe - have found a market in North America.

Compare this with the kind of use people are making of PDAs and GPRS mobile phones. I can get my e-mail, browse the web, download applications, and sync my data back to my office. All without taking my phone out of my pocket. Now that the GPRS operators in North America have tri-band phones with Bluetooth (e.g., Nokia 6310i, Sony Ericsson T39m/T68i, etc.), and with devices such as HP's iPAQ 3870/3970, Palm's Tungsten T, North Americans can finally begin to experience Bluetooth for themselves. They won't be doing it over CDMA 1X, however.

Consumers will not make their choice of network operator based on the underlying network technology. Their choices are influenced heavily by the the appeal, popularity and price of handsets and services. CMDA continues to lag in these areas, and there are no signs of the situation improving. The top handset manufacturers prioritise their development efforts for the volume GSM market and it's evolution to WCDMA. New features are introduced on these handsets first. When North American consumers finally begin to adopt mobile phones and data services similar to their European counterparts, what phones will they choose?

[name and address supplied]


The start-up our correspondent works for ought to be in the first wave of new entrepreneurs who form the next wave of investment, profits and wealth here.

Instead, we have a monoculture that seems determined to keep American consumers behind the curve.

in Qualcomm monoculture is 'killing American wireless'

 

[moyashi]

I've used CDMA 1 and docomo phones in Japan. CDMA was a very clear voice but recently imode based phones are pretty decent and makes CDMA not so important. It's a shame that iMode didn't really move on in the world. I really can't stand NTT/Docomo but the ability of their phones are pretty sweet.

Japanese imode really went bananas probably because most Japanese do not have a computer at home and sites that allow people to hook up and of course, email.

 

[lineartube]

What about KDDI? If you hate Docomo so much why don't you try the competition? It's not i-Mode but (Openwave)WAP 2.0 and I've been hearing good things about their services.

 

[Maciamo]

I use KDDI, but if it weren't for the inconvience of changing phone number (and contact everybody to inform them), I'd go for J-phone/Vodaphone to promote European business. That would be a political move hoping that the Japanese market opens more to foreign companies. So far, I think that non-Japanese companies must be associated with a "native firm" (or just buy it, like Nissan and J-phone) to be allowed to operate in Japan.

 

[Twisted]

Originally posted by Maciamo
So far, I think that non-Japanese companies must be associated with a "native firm" (or just buy it, like Nissan and J-phone) to be allowed to operate in Japan.

I think most non-Japanese companies have no choice, since they don't have any grasp of the Japanese market.

 

[Maciamo]

Well, we see a few European companies, especially French ones invading progresively the land of the rising sun. Apart from Nissan that was bought by Renault (so it's now French), J-phone by Vodaphone (English), I have seen that AXA (French insurance company) and Carrefour (French supermarket) have already taken root in Japan. There are lots of European products, especially in fashion, cars and food, but all of these are imported rather than made in Japan. Japanese are happy paying 2 or 3 times the price we pay in Europe for a BMW or a Mercedes. The truth is, if they all had factories in Japan and prices were the same as in Europe, Japanese car manufacturers would have a really hard time. For about the same price, everybody (in Japan at least) would buy a BMW rather than a Toyota, Honda or Mitsubishi.

There already used to be lots of American companies, thanks to their special relationship position gained after WWII. The one that spring to mind are JP Morgan, Merryl Lynch (that shut most of its branches last year in a restructuration, though), IBM, Intel, McDonalds, KFC, Coca Cola, etc. (the usual ones...).

 

[moyashi]

I used AU (KDDI) after 2 years with NTT/Docomo. I was an AU when it was Cellular. I had 2 arguments with the company one to replace my wife's phone where the screen was cracked. I was told that "I pressed it too hard." Stupid tech person never even bothered to listen to what I was saying. Another time was over a change over of my number to my wife's phone. My phone up and died one day !!! SHOCK !!! I had Hirai Ken's personal phone number in it. Well, the data was blown, I was pissed but not at AU. I asked them to move my phonenumber to my wife's identical phone. They wanted $40 to do it. I laughed and mentioned that I could get a new docomo 503i for free. The manger insisted that $40 was more important that keeping a customer. Piss on em! I thought and got myself a free 503i net, color graphic and mail ready phone for free. My AU phone was the yucky green wap mail only type.

I then dropped my long distance contract with KDDI just to spite them.

I went with the devil since I get a better rate on my bills.

 

[lineartube]

Really bad costumer relationship job there.

 

[Chipi]

Hihi, go Nokia go!!

..many good things come from Finland

(sorry, I just had to..)