By Wang Xu (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-09-08 06:24

Nokia, the world's top handset maker, said it's counting on services like its Ovi.com and WidSets to cash in on the convergence of mobile communications and the Internet.

"With the convergence of the Internet and mobility, the boundary of telecommunications and the Internet is blurring these days, making it natural for us to offer new platforms for mobile Internet services," said Tero Ojanpera, chief technology officer of Nokia. "Convergence offers great opportunities to companies such as Nokia."

The Finnish handset maker was one of the earliest to tap mobile Internet opportunities. It created a Web portal so that its phone users could download ring tones as early as 2000.

The company said last month it plans to launch Ovi.com, offering a range of services to mobile users, in Europe and Asia initially, and potentially later in the United States. Ovi, which is the Finnish word for door, will give users access to music, photos, maps and other content.

The company has also partnered with firms like Flicker and Yahoo to jumpstart the services.

"This is a long-term effort and we'll be rolling out new applications from the site in the coming years," said Ojanpera.

"Ovi is an open destination where people can link to all of their existing Web communities, feeds and content. It is user-defined, making it easier for customers to define the configurations of the services they prefer."

In May, Nokia began its latest trial of mobile Internet services in China with its WidSets website, which allows users to download software to their mobile phones to get real-time Internet content like news, blogs, e-mails, photos and games. More than 400,000 Chinese users have signed up for mobile Internet services since its launch.

"Another important trend is Web 2.0, which is the ongoing big thing," said Ojanpera. "We have already seen it giving everyone the chance to create applications for mobile phones."

Nokia has also launched its S60 smartphone software platform and open source Web browser. The S60 open platform allows individual developers or other companies to create applications for smartphones using S60 software.

Its Nokia S60 forum has amassed more than 3 million developers - the largest online mobile developer community in the world. The forum has 250,000 developers in China alone.

"We used to be the only company developing software for the 500,000 S60 smartphone users. But now with the Web 2.0 concept, we've got more than 250,000 companies and individuals creating new applications for our users in China alone," said Ojanpera.

Nokia holds 38 percent of the world's mobile phone market and expects to maintain its lead in the mobilized Internet era. But it's not alone; other tech giants are also trying to carve a niche in the mobile Internet market.

Apple Inc launched its iPhone on June 29 and outsold all other smartphones in the US market in July, according to iSuppli, an IT industry researcher. Apple is expected to sell 4.5 million iPhones this year, and more than 30 million in 2011, according to iSuppli.

And Google, the world's most frequently used search engine, is also set to launch mobile phones.

"Apple's approach is a validation of our vision in mobilized Internet," said Ojanpera. "We started the trend and it's great to see other people following. It actually helps us to drive our strategy toward convergence that we have already laid out."

(China Daily 09/08/2007 page9)