Continuing its assault on the highly competitive market for mobile phones designed to deliver high-speed, application-rich data services, Nokia Corp. is targeting the second quarter of 2004 for delivery of its first smart phone in the Americas.
Nokia’s 6620 is the company’s first smart phone engineered to run on high-speed EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution) networks in the Americas, in addition to those based on GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) and GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) technologies, company spokesman Damian Stathonikos said Thursday.
EDGE networks, which are designed to transmit data at rates up to 384Kbps, are sprouting up across the Americas to serve customers demanding faster e-mail and Web surfing services.
Nokia’s new tri-band smart phone runs on 850,1900 and 1800MHz networks, which, in addition to the Americas, exist in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. The phone is priced at US$400 without the discounts generally provided by mobile operators, according to Stathonikos.
The 6620 features the Series 60 user-interface platform, based on the operating system developed by Symbian Ltd. The Series 60 platform supports a range of business and productivity tools, including mobile e-mail and wireless synchronization of PDA (personal digital assistant) data. It comes with a fully integrated Web browser and a wide selection of third-party applications.
In addition, the new Nokia smart phone offers users an integrated camera and a 65,000 TFT (thin film transistor) screen, as well as a RealOne mobile player from RealNetworks Inc. and MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) capability.
The handset follows two other EDGE-capable phones from Nokia, the 6200 and 6220, which are already available in the Americas, according to Stathonikos.
In Europe, Nokia started rolling out its 6600 smart phone, which is similar to the 6620 but is designed for 900, 1800 and 900MHz networks and equipped with different features, Stathonikos said.
Nokia is one of several companies, including Psion PLC, Siemens AG and Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB, which own Symbian.
