'Convergence' Must Mean That, Says Nokia CEO

LAS VEGAS — "Convergence has to mean convenience," was the key point delivered by Nokia president/CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo during his industry insider speech at International CES. During his session he stressed that Nokia is committed to being an "experience company" that will bring great experiences to people around the world through mobility, Internet, communities and convenience.

Kallasvuo remarked that the Internet is not static, but is constantly changing and evolving, and therefore so must the devices that access it. He added that mobile devices are also much more than communication devices, but rather computers in their own right, being more powerful than a full-fledged PC from a mere decade ago.

In the coming years Kallasvuo stated that smartphones will be more common than laptops. Leading the way with these devices will be the Nokia N95, a multimedia handset, which will arrive at retail in March, and feature a camera, as well as MP3 capability, Web browsing functionality and GPS. Smart2go map and routing functionality will be a standard feature on future phone and personal navigation devices, with maps cached on the devices and available via Wi-Fi or other downloads. These will include point of interests, and turn-by-turn navigation as an optional feature.

Other Nokia products that Kallasvuo highlighted included the upcoming Nokia N93i, a mobile handset featuring a 3.2-megapixel camera, and the newly available Nokia N800 Internet tablet, a communication device with IM capability, always-on Internet, VoIP and stereo audio.

To ensure that these, and future devices, will be able to offer the convenience of anywhere, Internet Nokia will work with Sprint/Nextel in the development of Wi-MAX networks to bring e-mail to multimedia computers

"We are excited to see Sprint taking a leading role in this promising technology, said Kallasuvo. "Wi-MAX has great potential to bring the open Internet to the mobile space."