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Nokia assumes fashion image to drive sales

Carolyn Ong

Nokia is riding on its powerful brand to branch out into the fashion accessories business. The Finnish mobile phone giant will be launching a digital photo frame in Hong Kong, a digital necklace, wristwatch and pocket image viewer in the first quarter of this year.

Timo Sivula, head of the mobile enhancements business unit for Nokia Mobile Phones Asia Pacific, said the non-mobile phone fashion items were designed with the Asian female in mind. The new lifestyle product category, Imagewear, is a significant new business for Nokia in its efforts to extend the market and drive mobile phone sales.

The products include the Medallion 1 and 2 and the Kaleidoscope. The two Medallions, which can be worn as a bracelet or necklace, can be used to store and display up to eight images on a digital colour display. Both are equipped with infrared ports to upload images from a mobile phone or PDA.

The Kaleidoscope is a digital eyepiece viewer the size of a small chocolate bar and serves as a pocket accessory for transporting images. Images can be inserted on a Multimedia Card or uploaded via infrared.

'We are not aiming at the tech-savvy market. These are fashion items, designed to look very low-tech, and the technology is well embedded,' he said. He would not disclose prices but indicated the products would be priced in the mid- to high-end range.

The mobile enhancements business unit, which also makes the chargers, headsets and covers for Nokia mobile phones, has created other non-mobile phone products, including a Bluetooth digital pen that has multimedia messaging (MMS) capability, and a remote camera that can transmit images to your Nokia phone on request by short messaging service (SMS).

The Nokia Image Frame, to be introduced in time for the Lunar New Year, lets you transfer pictures wirelessly using infrared or MMS, and displays the images in slideshow mode. The frame comes in two versions; the higher-end model has built-in GSM connectivity and infrared so you can send images to the frame via MMS.

Meanwhile, research firm International Data Corp has identified four types of users in a study aimed at helping content and hardware mobile device providers target products by compartmentalising users of mobile devices.

The first category, 'display mavens', consists of those who use their devices primarily to deliver presentations and fill downtime with entertainment applications. These favour the lightweight solution of Pocket PC with foldable keyboard and VGA-out card.

The 'mobile elite' second category includes early adopters and gadget-lovers who own the latest devices with the widest range of uses. They carry a convergence device such as a smartphone, possibly a PDA, digital cameras, MP3 players and sub-notebooks.

The 'minimalists', and by far the majority, use only those devices required for daily purposes. These people use just a mobile phone, perhaps making use of a basic personal information management package and mobile e-mail, or toting a laptop supplied by work, but little more.

The 'voice and text fanatics' of the fourth category are passionate about using their phone for all types of messaging, including voice and video calling, SMS, MMS, mobile e-mail and instant messaging.

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