Liveblog: Nokia's Phil Brown talks mobile strategy at Nokia World 2007

The second day of the Nokia World conference kicked off this morning to a hall of whey-faced delegates still recovering from last night’s party (in short: the Dutch Beach Boys, a mountain of Pina Coladas, and Finnish beach-volleyball playing twins).

First up was Phil Brown, Nokia’s VP of sales and marketing was first up, talking about the company’s overall strategy, services and handsets. Some stats first: three quarters of people with Series 60 phones are using their handsets to share and upload photos – not just take them. I’m liveblogging chronologically, so head to the end and hit refresh for the latest.

Two thirds are “storing and sharing communities of music” (not quite sure what that means). Half are playing games, and half are browsing the web. The people who are leading this usage are, well, what Nokia calls ‘Technology Leaders’ – people who actively seek out new mobile apps and services.

Now he’s talking about navigation, and how people use it. Apparently taxi drivers use satnav systems, because (according to someone who drove Brown the other day) “you tourists never trust taxi drivers, so I’m going to show you I’m going directly there”. Interesting.

He’s also referred to how mobile navigation has to include “the pedestrian mindset” – not sending you round all four corners of a park when there’s a path through it. There’ll be more on navigation from speakers later today.

Now Brown’s talking about some of the key handsets in Nokia’s portfolio – N82, N95 8GB, N81 8GB and N810. And now moving on to Style Leaders and Young Explorers (more demographic groups) – where “it’s more about standing out, and also fitting into a community”.

Onto music – this is a broad range through Nokia’s service. Apparently 55% of Nseries users have stopped using a standalone MP3 player. He’s now showing off the 5310 and 5610 Xpress Music phones, which Brown says show Nokia’s determination to make music phones as good (and preferably better) than standalone players.

Apparently Brown’s teenage son thinks the 3.5mm headphone jacks are great, but that the earphones supplied with the phones are still rubbish. Good bit of consumer insight there. Would this be the point for me to rail on about the way none of my headphones fit in the iPhone’s socket? No? Alright then.

Next is ease of use – a big focus for Nokia now (as opposed to the competiton, who strive for difficulty of use, presumably). But as an example, Brown’s onto photography, and making it easier to share your mobile snaps with your family. “It’s as important for the people in this segment as it is for the people who are using these handsets to make films.”

So, Nokia devices are apparently “by far” the most devices being used to add photos to Flickr.

Now Brown’s onto the new Nokia 3110 Evolve handset, which has 50% renewable material in the covers, a more eco-friendly manufacturing process that cuts out fossil fuels. “Yet it still has to have music, Bluetooth, good camera and all the rest. We’re not compromising what the consumer wants.”

We will see more of these devices apparently, expanding into other parts of Nokia’s portfolio.

Finally business handsets, with email, presentation, office doc editing applications and so on. Handsets like the E90, E65 and E51, although Brown stresses that people are using these for entertainment purposes too, with music, mapping and other features.

Brown’s onto Ovi now quickly, and talking about how there’ll be suites around the key areas for Nokia – photos, music, games, video & TV, contacts, maps and internet. Which makes me wonder, with N-Gage, Nokia Music Store and Nokia Maps already out or imminent, does this mean in 2008 we’ll see big Nokia applications/services for TV/Video and Photo Sharing?

That’s it, anyway. A good overview of where Nokia’s at, although without many revelations.

For the latest posts from the show, check our Nokia World 2007 category