With much being speculated about the impact of Cloud Computing on the wireless industry - particularly handsets, Nokia has batted back the concept by stating that mobile devices will not become ‘dumb clients' relying on the Cloud for the majority of intelligence.
The company's chief development officer, Mary McDowell, has stepped forward by accepting that the Cloud will grow, "we don't think the cloud is the total answer. Mobile devices are becoming more personalised and increasingly part of an individual's life. We think it will not be either/or," she said. "There will be a lot of intelligence in the Cloud and in the device, and the ability to exchange data with the Cloud will not pave the way for thinner devices, but increasingly powerful ones."
This rejection of dominance by the Cloud was supported by Heikki Norta, the company's head of corporate strategy, by claiming that Nokia was eyeing the opportunity beyond selling devices, and intends to connect "intelligent devices" to Cloud-hosted data. Norta revealed that the company was setting itself the target of 300 million users of its core service offerings, which will include messaging, map navigation, music and the Nokia Ovi Store.
McDowell added that the company was also investing in a ‘mixed reality', citing augmentative reality concepts such as "point and find" - a location-based service using GPS and camera technology that is already being provided on Nokia N-series phones.
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Total Telecom
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