"It's time to recognize that today's smart phones are full-fledged computers," said Oistamo. "We should call them what they really are."

Given the increasing processing power, bigger memory and higher display capabilities, together with always-on broadband access to the Internet, "A smart phone, serving as an Internet node, is a 'computer' that's much more personal than today's mobile computer," explained Oistamo, who is responsible for Nokia's device portfolio, R&D, design and related strategy.

The notion of Oistamo defining Nokia's business as something beyond phones is intriguing.

But hang on. Is he saying that Nokia is now aligned with Intel Corp., calling their phones "mobile Internet devices," or MID?

Not so fast.

When asked during an interview with EE Times, Oistamo said, "Today, they are two different things, based on two different design paradigms." While MIDs are still more or less a miniature version of a laptop, "Smart phones are much more power-optimized and mobile-optimized," he explained.

Shades of gray

But in five years, the market will see many "shades of gray" in mobile computing devices, predicted the Nokia executive. Smart phones and mobile computers are "converging and colliding," he observed.

It's clear that Nokia hopes to see itself not just another cellphone company but as a much more broadly defined mobile computing company.

Although Nokia's focus remains on "mobility" and the company has no intention to extend its resources to a traditional computer business, Nokia understands that fundamental changes are already happening in today's computer industry.

In the past, said Oistamo, the computer business depended on "a formula" in which the platform is built on vertical stacks, and applications, developed for a specific platform, that were layered on top of it. By contrast, the new mobile computing business is all about "cross-industry, cross-platform and open source," he explained.

The Internet has already wrought profound changes in the way mobile handsets are defined. Nokia believes that the open source community is also bringing equally radical changes to the computing industry.

"When the world is changing, we would like to lead the changes and drive the changes, rather than adapting to them," said Oistamo.

Indeed, Nokia has been already vocal and ambitious about the company's role in the Internet world.

Reshaping Internet

Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, president and CEO of Nokia, came to the Mobile World Congress earlier this year to declare that Nokia will "reshape the Internet." But isn't it a bit presumptuous to say that it's Nokia which is going to redefine the Internet -- rather than the other way around?

Not in the minds of Nokia executives.

Once users leave their desks and start using the Internet in a mobile environment, contextual information plays a significant role, Oistamo explained. With GPS and Wi-Fi on a mobile computer, "we know where you are and what time it is," he said. "Bluetooth could even sniff around and discover who is around you."

Once that context is added to the network, the Internet experience will become more mobile, contextual and personal than on the desktop.

Further, when Long Term Evolution wireless network technology arrives, said Oistamo, "you will have a broadband access faster than you have at home now."

Hence, Nokia asserts it can "reshape the Internet."

That led Oistamo, in his keynote, to describe a science fiction-like scenario of "overlaying digital world over your physical world."

Digital vs. physical world

Imagine standing in front of Madison Square Garden in New York, said Oistamo. GPS already knows where you are. You raise your handset to take a photograph of the Garden. With the back-end service already mapping out a 360 degree view around you, it can determine which building you're pointing at.

The service can, then, send you a host of relevant data, including who is performing at the Garden that night, if a ticket is available and if you want to purchase it.

Building blocks necessary to make this happen include GPS, broadband access, a back-end service, access to that service, enough processing power and memory.

There aren't any significant "technical hurdles" that prevent this vision from happening, said Oistamo -- other than the right business model.

To drive the point home, Oistamo demonstrated a radio-controlled car. A Nokia handset was used to drive the car. In order to control the car "just like James Bond does," Oistamo said, "all I needed was N82 [Nokia mobile handset], with accelerometer, Bluetooth and the third-party application developed on S60."

It's unclear whether the radio control car demo truly inspired the audience -- full of Symbian operating system developers.

But Oistamo made his point: mobile software developers should feel free to develop software that goes far beyond the boundaries of traditional mobile phone applications.

By: DocMemory
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