Nokia is all set to launch an entirely new series of handsets. The C Series and the X Series. Nokia C Series inormation surfaced yesterday on some Finnish website and was picked by InToMobile's Stefan, who has been a Nokia follower since ages. Nokia has already filed a trademark for C Series and it is pretty evident that after its popular E Series and N Series handsets, Nokia is all set for the new C Series, By the way Sony Ericsson also has handsets that belong to the C Series like the C902 and C905. Come today and Stefan has stumbled across a Finnish site, which has details (picture above) about Nokia filing for one more trademark name and this time its the X Series. Being one of the greatest mobile blogger, further investigation by Stefan revealed that Nokia has filed trademarks for Nokia Money - "Computer software to enable mobile telephones to transfer money from one bank account to another bank account"; Nokia Booklet - Possibly a Nokia Notebook; Ilo - This was also filed by Nokia. Nokia has also filed trademarks for a range of E Series devices, when you go through the list your head will spin and you might think that Nokia has fallen in love with E Series. Check this out - Nokia E53, E54, E56, E57, E58, E59, E64, E67, E68, E69, E74, E76, E77, E78, E79, E81, E83, E84, E86, E87, E88, E89, E91, E92, E93, E94, E95, E97, E98, E99 all trademarks filed by Nokia.
The pay per second model has really paid of well for the latest entrant in the Indian GSM space, Tata-DoCoMo. Tata-DoCoMo is the joint venture between India based Tata Teleservices and Japanese mobile giant NTT DoCoMo. Its the only GSM operator in India, who charges per second rate of 1 paise. So, if you speak for say 1 min 20 seconds you will be charged 1 rupee 20 paise. When it comes to other operators, you will be charged for 2 minutes even though you have spoken for 1min 20 seconds. This new pricing strategy from Tata-DoCoMo will certainly change the rules of the GSM game, which is dominated by AirTel and Vodafone. Tata-DoCoMo is also in talks with their joint venture partner NTT DoCoMo and you will soon see mobile handsets being offered from Tata DoCoMo along with the various GSM plans. Tata-DoCoMo has launched its GSM network in 5 regions, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, AP, Kerala and Orissa and they are aiming for a Pan-India presence by the end of October
To cash in on the popularity of Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, Nokia has reduced the price of the handset significantly. The phone launched at a price point of around 22,000 INR then the price went down to 19,000 INR and now Nokia has made the handset available for 17,499 INR. This is a huge price drop and guess this new pricing will fuel the sales of this handset. Though the handset, does not give touch UI experience that is at par with the iPhone's UI but some of its features are way ahead of iPhone and guess thats what is driving the sales of this handset. Last week I had a talk with a Nokia reseller and according to him, Nokia 5800 XpressMusic is doing pretty well in my city, Bangalore. The price cut will add more to its happiness. This move from Nokia might also be a response to the recent sales tax hike by the government of Maharashtra, which has left mobile phone resellers, companies and users unhappy.
Since last one and half year, Nokia's focus has been in the integration of multimedia, Internet and entertainment into its mobile devices. Now the company will focus more on two areas, navigation software and messaging software. Navigation and location based services have always been one of the main focus areas of Nokia and now messaging has been added to the list with Nokia Messaging client coming into most of today's Nokia high-end smart phones. Nokia is also been promoting its Ovi mail among existing Nokia users around the world. Nokia already has competitive edge over companies like Apple and Sony Ericsson when it comes to navigation and the company aims at expanding its portfolio of navigation services. Acquisition of companies like Navteq have added to Nokia's competency of navigation and location based services. Nokia will focus on applications for its high-end smart phones.
As told earlier, Chinese Government and Apple are planning to get a iPhone in China (officially). These phones will be special as they wont be having Wi-Fi connectivity. According to some financial analysts in China, Foxconn is manufacturing this special iPhones in China for the Chinese mobile phones users. Foxconn is anyway the preferred contractor of Apple for getting out its iPhones. Foxconn will be manufacturing both iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS and these would be available on big mobile service providers like China mobile. The Chinese market is already flooded with more than a million iPhones that have made their way inside the country through the gray market route. Does it make sense for Apple and Chinese Mobile Service provides to make the iPhone officially available and that also without Wi-Fi???
