Nokia targets businesses with dual-mode E51 mobile phone
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(InfoWorld) - Nokia released on Tuesday the newest addition to its E-series lineup of mobile phones for businesses, revamping the user interface for easier navigation, executives said during a London product launch. The E51 is a dual-mode model, working with GSM networks and Wi-Fi hotspots for businesses eyeing or already using so-called "converged" services -- VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol) technology alongside traditional phone networks. Nokia is hoping toÂ spur businesses to adopt its E-series phonesÂ by convincing IT managers they'll save money over the long term by using the mobiles in combination with VOIP software. The unsubsidized price of the E51 will be â¬350 ($485) and should be available in the last three months of the year. Cost savings through converged fixed line and mobile networks are a "door opener" for IT managers, said Mary McDowell, executive vice president and general manager of Nokia's Enterprise Solutions division. Expensive data plans -- which increase the total bill for companies every time employees read e-mail -- remain a barrier, although Nokia has brought the issue up with operators, McDowell said. Still,Â Nokia sees big opportunities, as 44 percent of businesses still lack plans for mobile usage by their employees, said Antti Vasara, senior vice president for the mobile devices unit of Enterprise Solutions. Nokia simplified the E51's main navigation window and added setup wizards for functions such as e-mail to make it easier during the initial set-up, Vasara said. Those improvements came to address user complaints that those functions were "more difficult" than on other models, Vasara said. Another improvement lets users access frequently used features, such as e-mail or their calendar, with the push of only one button, he said. The E51, which runs the S60 series operating system, may be built for business, but it's shiny, slim and attractive, forgoing a fattening QWERTY keypad to keep its figure. It has a 2-megapixel camera and an FM radio. The device will perhaps fill the void caused by Nokia's E70 mobile. Despite the full, fold-out keyboard that extended to the left and the right of the main screen, the E70 has not been very popular despite doing well in initial user trials, McDowell said. The E51 is compatible with Nokia's Intellisync Call Connect software for businesses using equipment and software from Cisco Systems and Alcatel-Lucent. The Intellisync software enables desktop phone functions -- such as call forwarding, extension dialing, hold and conferences, among others -- for mobiles. BT GroupÂ will test a client version of its BT Corporate Fusion software next month on the E51, with expanded trials by the end of the year, said Rakesh Mahaja, global director of mobility for BT Global Services. BT's Corporate Fusion software uses Wi-Fi to let mobile devices communicate with the fixed network, and runs applications and other calling management functions through an IP network. Â
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Short-range, energy-efficient wireless technology called Wibree is unveiled by Nokia.
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(InfoWorld) - NokiaÂ is enlisting systems integrators and value-added resellers in its drive to deliver more complete mobile systems to enterprises. The Nokia for Business Channel Program follows the mobile phone giant's expansion of its enterprise product line through the acquisition of Intellisync last year. Nokia has long sold security products through enterprise channels and its handsets through mobile operators and retail stores. The company announced Thursday it is expanding its business offerings with more mobile communications and IP (Internet Protocol) telephony products, including e-mail, device management and file synchronization products. Nokia got some channel partners through the Intellisync acquisition, but it wants to add more partners and make sure they are all qualified. The entry of more channel partners will give enterprises greater choice in whom to buy Nokia products from, said Mary McDowell, executive vice president and general manager of the company's enterprise solutions business. The partners can also deliver the type of support that enterprises are used to getting with complex systems, she said. Nokia wants to expand its enterprise scope beyond smartphones and e-mail to more complete mobility offerings supporting office phone systems and a variety of applications for use on the road. For example, it has partnerships with several vendorsÂ to make business-class eSeries Nokia phones work with those vendors' office phone systems. When an enterprise buys a set of handsets along with a service such as mobile e-mail, it's much more complicated than just getting phones and a calling plan, McDowell said. There is a server and software to install and integrate into the organization's security infrastructure, and a need for long-term IT support. Nokia wants systems integrators and resellers to fill that void. As part of its program, Nokia will train and certify channel partners and offer them incentives that are tied in part to how much help they give enterprises setting up new systems. The program will have three tracks. Mobility partners will be able to sell Intellisync Mobile Suite and other software for functions such as device management. Security partners will be licensed to resell firewall, IP VPN (virtual private network), intrusion prevention and other products. Voice partners will sell Nokia's enterprise voice systems. All the partners will be licensed to sell Nokia's eSeries business handsets, although Nokia expects most of its handset sales to continue going through operators and retail stores. Nokia will encourage partners to specialize in more than one track. There will also be two levels of certification, Authorized and Expert, with different levels of training provided by Nokia. The partners will get products through Nokia's authorized distributors. The Finnish mobile giant made the right decision to expand its channel instead of trying to build its own sales force, which is expensive and time-consuming, said Gartner Inc. wireless analyst Michael King. He applauded one feature of the program, a mechanism for enterprises to tell Nokia how good a job the systems integrator or reseller they are working with is doing. It's rare for a vendor to have this type of check on its channel partners, he said. Â
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A revamped interface joins GSM and Wi-Fi functions in Nokia's newest business model.
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If you thought developers were running out of new applications to squeeze into mobile phones, think again. Nokia Corp. hopes someday to add a new feature to its phones that could warn users of imminent lighting strikes.
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With Nokia&#39;s Personal Telephone Integration System, users can access key mobile-phone functions, such as viewing and selecting phonebook entries, initiating and receiving incoming calls, viewing
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A Nokia-led European Commission task force offers ideas for making mobile phones greener.
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Finnish mobile device giant Nokia said this week that it will support most widely used methods of pushing email and other information to its smartphones.
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The pricey Nokia E90 Communicator had identity issues: It's great for creating text documents like a laptop and makes crystal-clear phone calls on par with iPhone.
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With smartphones gaining in popularity, Nokia has committed to beef up the capabilities of its Series 60 platform to embrace more multimedia features.
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Nokia has unveiled the Nokia NFC (near field communication) shell, which allows consumers to access services and exchange information with a touch gesture using NFC technology - a technology that emerged from the combination of contactless identification
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Nokia has created communication system that integrates mobile phone functions with the on-board system in Land Rover vehicles. The product dubbed, Personal Telephone Integration, was developed specifically
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Setting its sights on the Microsoft mobile camp, Nokia has kicked off two standards initiatives intended to strengthen its appeal to enterprise IT.
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Nokia (NOK1V.HE), the world's  top cell phone maker, unveiled two new multimedia phones and a  music service in an effort to find new revenues and win back  popularity lost to rivals like Motorola .
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Nokia has reached a deal with Good Technology to beef up its business-class cell phone lineup. The handset maker on Tuesday said it is working with the Research In Motion rival to ensure Good&#39;s wireless corporate
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(InfoWorld) - Nokia, the world's largest handset maker, is well known for its consumer devices but maintains a range of enterprise products. Mary McDowell is executive vice president and general manager of Nokia's Enterprise Solutions, a division that deals with products from theÂ E Series phonesÂ to security appliances to software such as theÂ Intellisync Mobile Suite, designed to manage a fleet of enterprise devices. She spoke with IDG News Service about Nokia's direction in several enterprise areas. The following is an edited transcript. IDG News Service: Where are the sources of growth for Enterprise Solutions? McDowell: We had growth in both our devices and in our software business. We did not have growth in the security business. That's been relatively flat given the state of the perimeter security market. IDGNS: Nokia has a lot of partners for mobile security products but as of yet no stand-alone security product. Are there plans to release one? McDowell: We are going to be releasing in the fourth quarter a mobile VPN client. We did have one in the past but it only worked with Nokia appliances ... but this will be a stand-alone VPN client that can be downloaded from the Nokia [Web] site to a Series 60 device. IDGNS: You mentioned that security is the first or second question that comes up from IT managers when discussing mobile devices. What do you tell those IT managers who are nervous that their company could be the next source for a data breach caused by a mobile device? McDowell: Certainly that comes up in the discussion around the deployment of mobile technology. Then we would discuss the various options. Do you want security that's going to be embedded in specific applications? If you're looking at multiple applications across a heterogenous device base, device management is a logical conversation to have. Are you going to be doing more browser-based apps? It kind of depends on the specific architecture of what they are going to mobilize. IDGNS: The firewall/VPN area is crowded with lots of vendors and lots of products. How is Nokia competing, and can you detail more on Nokia's partnership with Intel? McDowell: Our strategy has been to have a combination of very good performance for application processing, which got a lot stronger this year with the rollout of multiprocessing, multicore platforms and to complement that with very fast network processing. This week or next week we will have a new release of our IPSO operating system to support multiprocessing and then an advanced processing card, which should be shipping in the fourth quarter. So a pretty major product overhaul. We had been constrained in the past ... by not having the multiprocessing capability in IPSO. And so once we made the decision to make that investment in refreshing the underlying BSD kernel to support multiprocessing, that opened up the possibility to work more closely with the embedded side of Intel and get access to some of their earlier technology to incorporate into our appliances. Prior to that, we were a little bit downstream of some for their latest advances, but now we have a lot more visibility into their road map. IDGNS: Nokia is pushing to enterprises the advantages of "converged" services -- combining the use of Wi-Fi for VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol) and fixed phone network integration. But the cost of data plans for mobiles remains a concern for IT managers. What sort of conversations has Nokia had with operators on that issue? McDowell: I think what you are seeing there are different packages available around various software programs but there's very few "all applications, all you can eat" plans for a set price. So typically you have a price associated with a BlackBerry contract or an Intellisync contract but then any other data applications are going to be based on throughput. One of the things we have been working on a lot in the Intellisync software is reducing the network traffic the software generates so that the operators can be more confident in putting together the right package. IDGNS: When will that compression technology be wrapped into the Intellisync Mobile Suite server? McDowell: This year. IDGNS: Are there any other improvements on the horizon for Intellisync? McDowell: Over the summer, we enhanced the device management capabilities, primarily starting with the Windows clients in the device management offering. There's better management of the device lock-and-wipe capabilities and the ability to turn on and off the camera in a device. Cameras have been one of the things that have been a point of interest in enterprises. Do you include them or not? But with so much crossover into end-user personal use, we're seeing there is a demand for cameras but then enterprises need to be able to turn them off. Also, more remote control of Windows Mobile devices, so that a network administrator can wirelessly take control of a device and visually see the screen for troubleshooting. We will in a subsequent release have that capability for Symbian clients as well. IDGNS: Why would the Windows release of that come before the Symbian one? McDowell: Some of it is because of the state of the software when we acquired Intellisync. They had much richer capabilities on Windows, so we've been building up the Symbian space.
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Leading world mobile handset maker  Nokia  is set to announce three new phones aimed at  business users on Monday, the International Herald Tribune  newspaper reported.