Nokia respecting consumer demands at last

Nokia has been offering its traditional candybar handsets till now, but now pressure from operators and consumers have restulted in it offering variety of designs for its handsets. Of the 40 handset nokia models launched in 2005, more than half are clamshell, slider or other factors, compared to just three in 2004.

Other areas, outside its normal cellular sphere, where Nokia hopes to establish a strong and high margin presence include near field communications (NFC). The company joined forces last week with Samsung, Philips and Visa to promote products based on Philips' NFC standard,which Nokia has now incorporated into a handset through a 'shell' attached to the back of the device. This shell interfaces with the NFC radio and communicates directly with the phone's baseband, supporting applications such as making swipe payments for items such as travel tickets, using a phone waved over a special terminal. Nokia and Philips also announced a joint project with Rhein-Main Verkehrsverbung, the public transport authority for Frankfurt, Germany, to use NFCcapablemobile handsets in a trial.

Nokia also plans to launch a handset model with built-in television receiver in 2006 and plans to begin offering 20 tv channels in next 2 years. Nokia is already testing the handset in finland and UK and plans to commence tests in US soon.

But there is no news about Live TV Mobile coming to India any sooner. Till then enjoy recordings of TV shows on your Reliance India Mobile :-)