The world’s leading cellphone makers, Nokia and Samsung, are fighting back against the popular email-enabled BlackBerry smartphones and their iPhone rivals, analysts say.
With the unveiling of their own new smartphone models in Singapore this week, Finland’s Nokia and South Korea’s Samsung appear to have taken up the challenge, they say.
Nokia, the world’s number-one cellphone maker, rolled out two new email-capable devices targeted at business professionals who want easy and instant access to their messages.
Nokia’s E71 and E66 come pre-loaded with Microsoft’s popular email programmes, and support email accounts from key internet service providers such as Yahoo! and Google’s Gmail, the firm said.
Analysts say Nokia’s move is likely pitched at the business-user segment dominated by Canada’s Research in Motion (RIM), maker of the wildly popular BlackBerry smartphone.
The BlackBerry, which combines a cellphone and personal digital assistant, allows users to browse the internet, use email and make calls. It has proven a big hit with business executives worldwide.
”They [Nokia] really see it as a significant selling point,” said Nathan Burley, an analyst with Ovum telecommunications consultancy. ”People want their emails mobilised … that has been the success of BlackBerry and the killer application for BlackBerry success.”
With the E71 and E66, Nokia also has its eyes set on the nearly one-quarter of the world’s population it says have email accounts.
”We want to serve people who are passionate about their work,” said Chris Carr, Nokia’s vice-president for regional sales, at a launch in Singapore late on Monday.
”You know today there is an enormous amount of people, I think it’s 1,5-billion people, who are connected with email devices or connected with email accounts,” said Carr.
Nokia also says the world will have four billion mobile users by the end of 2009.
South Korea’s Samsung this week unveiled its Omnia device, a smart phone that comes with a touch-sensitive screen, email functions, a five-megapixel camera and GPS navigation function. It also has access to Microsoft office programmes such as PowerPoint, Excel and Word.
”When you look at the timing and some of the features that Samsung is talking about, it is positioned directly against the iPhone,” said Aloysius Choong, a research manager with industry research group IDC.
The Omnia capitalises on the buzz for smartphones created by the iPhone, and will offer an alternative choice for consumers, he said. ”This is an important tactical move.”
Josh Delgado, Samsung’s director for telecommunications in Australia, said the Omnia ”is more than just a phone”. It is pitched at consumers who ”are not satisfied with the all-in-one touch devices” available in the market he said, adding that Omnia is not completely aimed at Apple’s iPhone.
Last week, Apple unveiled its touch-screen-activated 3G iPhone built for high-speed wireless networks, with faster internet access and more features for users than its previous iPhone released last year.
Delgado says Samsung has ”a tremendous opportunity” among customers looking for alternatives. ”There is a lot of hype around iPhone but there are carriers, customers who don’t have iPhones,” he said.
The Samsung and Nokia launches came on the eve of CommunicAsia, billed as the region’s leading information and communications technology trade event. It began on Tuesday in Singapore. In its own bid to expand the customer base, Sony Ericsson, the Swedish-Japanese cellphone maker, rolled out a Wii-like phone that can be used as a motion sensor when playing games.
With the F305, users can control games with the swing of an arm or flick of a wrist just like Nintendo’s best-selling Wii console, known for its innovative motion-sensitive controller.
”The idea for putting motion gaming into a phone is something that we thought of a while ago and we are now able to deliver that in a package,” said Howard Lewis, vice-president and head of the product business unit.
Sony Ericsson also unveiled a cellphone with a high-resolution 8,1-megapixel built-in camera, which company executives say is a first for a wireless handset.
Data from IDC showed Nokia as the runaway leader in the cellphone industry with almost 40% of the market in the first quarter, having sold more than 115-million handsets during the period.
Samsung was a distant second with market share of 15,9% in the March quarter while Sony Ericsson placed fifth at 7,6%, the figures showed. — Sapa-AFP