THE DREAM IN ACTION

In a press conference in Amsterdam today, CEO of Nokia Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo highlighted Nokia’s commitment to driving the mobile internet trend.  “We are at the dawn of a new era in mobile communications driven by the rapid convergence of the internet and mobility, and Nokia is setting the pace of change. But with market leadership in an industry of this scale also comes responsibility,” he said. “We are committed to taking a leading role in increasing environmental awareness and performance right across the industry, creating further products and services that help people make more sustainable choices. It is both the responsible thing to do and it makes good business sense.” 

Further they have something that will definitely challenge the iPhone’s unique combination of mobile phone and music player.  Anssi Vanjoki, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Multimedia, Nokia, said this: “We set out to create the music experience that people are telling us they are looking for – all the music they want in the form of unlimited downloads to their mobile device and PC.” Vanjoki also said, “Even if you listened to music 24 hours a day, seven days a week, you would still only scratch the surface of the music that we’re making available. Comes with Music fulfils our dream to give consumers all the music they want, wherever they want it, while rewarding the artists who create it.” Ovi a new internet service environment for Nokia mobile will also be released. Ovi meaning ‘door’ in Finnish, lets people have access to Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace or other social networks. Vanjoki boldly calls this service a “dashboard to a person’s life”!

 ”Ovi combines the mobile, PC and web environments into an easy to use experience with common user interface elements that provide consistency and simplicity,” said Vanjoki. “We started the Ovi services rollout with the individual services in navigation, music and games, and the next step is to provide an integrated experience. The complete Ovi environment and new services will be rolled out continuously throughout 2008.” 

It sounds to me like Nokia has some pretty powerful offerings to the mobile web on their horizon.  As Apple’s iPhone is dominating UI for mobile devices it will be interesting to see what competitors present to the tech hungry market.  I would very much welcome a competitor to the iPhone. Just think what Steve Jobs and gang would create with a little competition!