Nokia catalyzes handset evolution

Nokia executives have revealed plans to deliver high-end cellular handsets that seamlessly switch between 802.11b and public carrier networks in an effort to transform handsets into terminals capable of consuming composite applications. 

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The switching technology, expected to be deployed in handsets for beta trials toward the end of the year, is designed to extend the reach of enterprise applications and to create new collaboration environments. Although the company has not yet unveiled names for the forthcoming devices, Nokia in April will announce a set of rich applications for vertical markets, including real estate and transportation, executives said.

"We're chasing the next wave of productivity and [will] support that with new devices," said Jake Sagehorn, director of business applications at Nokia in Irving, Texas . Nokia's mobile applications push is backed by a raft of enterprise companies, including IBM, Oracle, Siebel, Sun, and Texas Instruments. Nokia showed off working demonstrations of IBM's WebSphere, Oracle’s Collaboration Suite, and Siebel's CRM at last week's Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association (CTIA) Wireless show in New Orleans . SAP and PeopleSoft are working to port applications to the handsets as well, Sagehorn said.

Executives explained that the devices will also enable hosted CRM applications — for example, Salesforce.com — to run wirelessly via handset-based browsers such as Opera or WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) 2.0.

Nokia last week also detailed its Nokia One software, which is targeted at carriers and is built on the OMA (Open Mobile Alliance) middleware architecture. Nokia One will enable carriers to offer services such as converting e-mail to voice.

These industry developments will see high-end handsets evolve into mobile terminals with processing power that can consume composite applications, said Victor Brilon, Nokia's Java applications manager. "In the Web services environment, you are treating the handset as just another terminal," he said.

Talk of 802.11/GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) handoff will be important for companies such as PepsiCo that are using Microsoft's .Net Compact Framework to build handheld applications for mobile sales and service staff. The Somers, N.Y.-based soft-drink maker is developing an application for the Pocket PC platform but is also trying to reconcile that application’s functionality with the communications advantages of high-end smartphones.

"We're thinking seriously about GPRS," said Paul Hamilton, vice president of supply chain, logistics, and technology at PepsiCo. Hamilton explained that coupling GPRS handsets with 802.11x would allow mobile workers to transmit data through the Wi-Fi networks of customers such as fast-food chains during a service call.

Rival mobile companies, including Sony Ericsson and Motorola, are only in the early stages of developing technologies to support the handoff from GPRS to 802.11x.

Suzanne Cross, product marketing manager at Sony Ericsson in Research Triangle Park, N.C. , said the company remains consumer-focused, working on rich multimedia apps for handsets to support features such as cameras and streaming video. Support for enterprise applications and handoff technologies will not become mainstream until 2004, she argued.

Cross added that GPRS-to-802.11x handoff technology will have to develop to the point that it doesn't threaten carriers' growing revenue stream from wireless data traffic.

"The carriers want to integrate their services into cellular hotspots rather than broadband hotspots," Cross said.

The high cost of transmitting data via GPRS can be avoided if users deliberately hold the delivery of application data until they reach Wi-Fi hotspots, such as those being deployed by T-Mobile in public venues such as airports, conference centers, and Starbucks stores, according to Paul Hanlon, an executive at TTPCom, a Hertfordshire, United Kingdom-based mobile technology developer.

"That will greatly alleviate the data demand on cell phones," Hanlon added.

In addition, Nokia's strategy includes adoption of the Mobile IPv6 standard, expected to be ratified by the IETF within months. The standard will give a mobile user a consistent IP address across multiple devices to ensure application interoperability, said Sami Venalainen, GPRS marketing manager at Espoo, Finland-based Nokia. "If you have two IP addresses in the same network, [applications] stop working," he said.