Nokia executives used the company's annual Nokia World conference today in Stuttgart, Germany, to reveal more details on the firm's highly anticipated Booklet launch as well as debut three new devices. The company also announced a link-up with Facebook and provided some interesting data on some of its services such as the Ovi store and Comes with Music.
During a keynote address, Nokia's executive vice president for markets, Anssi Vanjoki, said the Nokia Booklet 3G netbook will have an unsubsidized price of $810 (570 euros) and will feature the Windows 7 operating system, a 1.6 GHz Intel Atom processor and 12 hours of battery life. The netbook also will sport HSPA and WiFi connectivity.
Vanjoki also discussed three new devices that the company debuted at the conference. The first, the N97 Mini, will be the first device that supports Nokia's lifecasting with Ovi, enabling users to publish their location and status updates directly to their Facebook account from the homescreen of their device. The phone will ship in October for an unsubsidized retail price of $639 (450 euros).
Two other devices that will be available in fourth quarter are the Nokia X6, which will retail for around $639 (450 euros) and features Nokia's Comes with Music service and 36 GB of memory, and the X3, a less expensive music phone that will retail for around $163 (115 euros).
Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo said that the company is focused on creating a personalized solution for devices that is as unique as a consumer's fingerprint. The company's services solution business (announced last week) will be heading up that effort. In total, the company has more than 55 million users of its services globally and has a target of growing that to 300 million by 2012.
In a conference call from Germany with reporters, Kai Oistamo, Nokia's executive vice president of devices, said the new solutions unit will "allow us to better and more quickly integrate devices and services to create an intuitive user experience."
Oistamo said the Booklet 3G and Nokia's new Linux-based smartphone, the N900, would eventually come to the U.S. market, but he declined to discuss pricing, availability or whether the devices would be subsidized by wireless carriers. He also said the company's newly announced X6 device ships exclusively with Nokia's Comes With Music service, and would not be available in countries that do not have the service. Yesterday, a Forbes report said Nokia would delay the U.S. launch of the music service until 2010. Oistamo said that the company had made no announcement of its plans for the service in the United States, and that if and when the service did make its U.S. debut, the X6 could possibly be released in the U.S.
Kallasvuo said that Nokia's Comes With Music service is available in 10 countries on a dozen different devices. In addition, he lauded Nokia's Ovi app store, saying that the offering is gaining momentum and now is accessible from 100 Nokia devices. In addition, 27 operators in eight countries are providing integrated billing to Ovi. "Developers from 65 countries have loaded products into the Ovi store. This is more proof of the global scope," Kallasvuo said.
The Nokia CEO also offered specific sales figures on the company's high-end devices. He said the N97 and the 5800 have exceeded 10 million in sales in 10 months, and one-half of those sales happened in the past three months.
In other Nokia news, the company introduced the Mural, a new flip phone that will be offered via AT&T. The phone illuminates when it is opened or closed, or when there is an incoming call or message. The Mural will support AT&T's 3G network and features a 2-megapixel camera.
For more:
- see this Reuters article
- see this Bloomberg article
- see this video of the Nokia 3G Booklet
- see this slideshow of the N97 Mini, the X6 and the X3
- see this Phone Scoop article
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Nokia confirms interest in netbooks
Nokia to use Windows in forthcoming Booklet 3G
Phil Goldstein contributed to this report.