With sort of confirmations about this popping up now and then.

When asked directly whether they will be at Mobile World Congress Exhibition 2010, the official Nokia response is:

Nokia is committed to Mobile World Congress, as it has been since the event started. In 2010 Mobile World Congress (MVC), Nokia will focus on its infrastructure business and the congress programme of seminars and speaking opportunities, customer and media activities.

We have seen during the recent years that in Mobile World Congress we get the biggest benefit for the infrastructure part of our business. Therefore we will focus on this for 2010 and so Nokia Siemens Networks will continue to have a stand in the exhibition area.

Nokia remains committed in MWC and will be present in Barcelona in many ways.

Nokia has for more than decade hosted its own Nokia World event which has become a globally recognized leading mobile Internet forum. This forum is our primary forum for showcasing our vision, devices and solutions as well as meet with industry partners and customers.

Which sort of confirms, that only Nokia Siemens Networks will have a stand at MWC 2010. But still is pretty vague about the whole participation thing.

Well, MWC 2010 is less then 3 months away now, so I decided to finally make sure about this whole Nokia and MWC 2010 thing. First I checked MWC 2010 Exhibitor list. Yep, there’s no Nokia there, only Nokia Siemens Networks.

Then I contacted MWC PR agency about whether Nokia will be at MWC or not. Here’s their response:

Nokia will not exhibit at next year’s Mobile World Congress. However Nokia remains committed to Mobile World Congress and to the GSMA. Overall, Nokia will continue to have a significant presence at Mobile World Congress, in terms of leveraging the event to conduct business meetings and networking, as well as participating in the conference programme.

In terms of exhibition, Nokia’s strategy for the 2010 Mobile World Congress is to emphasize the infrastructure side of their business through Nokia Siemens Networks’ presence at the event.

Nokia speakers are also expect to present in the conference programme at the Mobile World Congress.

There you have it. Straight to the point – Nokia will not exhibit at MWC 2010.

So, what we can expect from Nokia at MWC 2010, are keynotes and presentations at the conference. And, hopefully, some Nokia organized events outside of the show grounds. Maybe even a device launch or two?

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A digital camera with Carl Zeiss optics (N90), music player with built-in hard drive (N91), mobile television set (N92), or a digital camcorder (N93) recording Mpeg-4 VGA quality video at 30 fps, are shining examples of this.

And then there was N95. The ultimate N-Series device, that defined what a high end smartphone should be, for more then a year. 5 megapixel camera, GPS, Wi-Fi, accelerometer, TV-Out, Mpeg4 video playback …

If you look at the basic hardware specs of N95 , and compare them to the specs of high end smartphones of today, they are not that different. Yes, cameras got a tad better, they might have more storage, memory, faster CPU. But, more often then not, it’s only an incremental improvement on the same basic N95 feature set.

But the success of N95, was also the beginning of problems Nokia faces today.

Before 2007, when N97 started shipping, the competition in the cellphone business was mainly about two things. Handset design and hardware, with hardware specs leading the way. You could have a huge hit with killer design and mediocre specs (just look at Motorola RAZR), but you could have even more hits, with OK design and ever improving hardware specs.

Nokia N-Series were the forefront of hardware innovation in mobile industry. The problem is, with Nokia N95, the hardware in mobile devices has become “good enough”. Yes, it took competitors about a year to catch up and offer full N95 feature set, but they have caught up by the end of 2007, beginning of 2008.

In the meantime, starting with the iPhone, competition in mobile industry (especially at the high end) has moved from the hardware platforms, to software, services and user experience. And Nokia, with it’s hardware company roots, have been caught flat footed.

Yes, Nokia probably have seen it coming even then.  But to see it, and then to quickly do something about it,  for such giant as Nokia, are two different things.

The launch of OVI is the best indication of that. Nokia  announced that they are becoming internet company in 2007. And even went on a buying binge, snapping various companies to bolster their internet service offerings. But, if you look at the results two years after the announcement, they are very mixed, at best.

As for the Nokia N-Series handsets? After getting close to “good enough” of what a user may need, it became very hard for the Finnish hardware wizards to excite users with what they will offer next. Nokia N82 and N95 8GB where a cool improvements, showing off what a mature N95 hardware platform has to offer. But after that? N78 and N79 – nice, affordable smartphones, but not much more.  N81, N96, N85? … Duh.  Nokia N86? Good camera smartphone, by all accounts… among many other good camera phones.

Even their flagship for 2009 - N97, from what I heard,  fell prey to Nokia hardware company genes. As the story goes – the hardware platform and specs for N97 have been finalized  long ago, as was the software, handset creators were initially planning to run it. But then the shift to the online services, web runtimes, apps, etc;  happened, and suddenly the device hardware was having trouble keeping up with increased software requirements. While software itself was still buggy, and not ready for primetime, even on shipment date.

But this slow decline in the “coolness” of Nokia N-Series may be coming to an end soon. With the help of Maemo OS. A slip-up by someone on Nokia Maemo team, telling us that there won’t be anymore N-Series Symbian devices after 2012, is an indication of that.

Hardware guys, Symbian and S40, may still rule on the mid to low end devices, Nokia’s main cash cow. But when it comes to “far out”, pushing the limits stuff, software guys seem to be taking over. Starting with Nokia N900 Maemo 5 handset.

According to Ari Jaaksi, head of Maemo at Nokia, even the device design process for Maemo handsets is different from what Nokia is used to. Instead of building a shining piece hardware, with multi mega pixel camera, etc; and then tweaking a software to run it, they do it the other way around. First, building and/or envisioning the software and service capabilities, and then looking  at what kind of hardware is required for “these capabilities to shine”.

If you look at the hardware specs on Nokia N900, there’s really nothing special to it. Yes, it has top of the line CPU,  lots of storage space, good camera, etc;  But so do tons of other high end phones like iPhone, Palm Pre, Droid, Samsung Omnia II, Jet, Toshiba TG01, or Acer Liquid.  Yet, the excitement about Nokia N900 is higher then about any other Nokia phone. Including heavily promoted and subsidized N97. Because of the software that runs N900.

Every other open mobile OS, even those claiming to be “Linux based”, like iPhone, Android or WebOS, are just that. Operating Systems, created for mobile devices, requiring their own set of development tools, and having capabilities that are significantly below of what any desktop OS is capable of. And they are usually created by one company, behind the closed doors, with both users and developers, guessing about upcoming features until the launch date.

The OS running Nokia N900 is a bit different. It is a standard Debian Linux OS, that would run on any PC.  Nokia took this standard Debian Linux distribution, created a new user interface, optimized to run on a small screen devices, added 3G connectivity and  some other stuff like power management to it. But it still is that same standard desktop OS underneath. And they have been actively involving open source community all along the way.

The results speak for themselves. Ease of use, flexibility, the best browser in town, and impressive multitasking capability of Maemo 5/N900 , won accolades from almost all early adopters, developers, tech writers and bloggers,  who had a chance to put their hands on it. Even in this intermediate, unfinished form that is step 4 in Nokia’s grand five step plan for Maemo.

It looks to me, that Nokia N-Series are getting back to what they were meant to be in the beginning – pushing the limits of what’s possible on a mobile device. Only now, when hardware in the devices reached this “good enough” plateau, the limits are being pushed in software and services available on the mobile device.

And that’s what this gradual takeover of N-Series by Maemo OS is about.

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• Nokia will support carrier customization for Maemo

And he proved that again at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

When we all were busily running around reporting on all the new mobile products , Eldar was sneaking inside the closed demo rooms of Nokia, Motorola and others to check out what these companies are preparing to launch as far as in 2011.

Lucky for us Eldar has started sharing some bits and pieces about these things on his personal blog and in some other public places. (Disclaimer: everything below is only rumors, but considering the source, I put a lot of trust in them)

Let’s start with some pretty far out stuff.

Nokia Sparrow multi-core computer running Linux

ARM’s multi-core Sparrow chip has just been announced last week, and Nokia is already working on it’s first compact mobile computer with some blow-out specs, running Linux OS on this CPU. But don’t get your hopes up – this Nokia device is slated only for 2011 release.

Eldar got to play some with the early prototype and found it mighty interesting.

The design of Nokia Sparrow device does not follow the current netbook trend, going more the MID way, with some passing resemblance to Nokia N800 internet tablet.

It will have multi-slide keyboard, with different layouts/keys revealed as you slide it in different directions. The display also slides in several directions for different functions – think Nokia N97 tilting display.

The new Nokia computer has a very interesting keyboard with diamond shaped, elevated keys inverted to each other. At first glance it seems very uncomfortable – the keys are pretty small (about half the size of normal key), actually the device itself is rather small. But when you start typing on it, it works very well. It is very difficult to hit multiple keys with a finger, even on purpose.

The Nokia Sparrow computer has a novel, transparent widget based interface. Each running application gets it’s own semi-transparent widget to put it’s content in. Multiple applications can be stored in memory “for months”. E.g. when you are writing a document or e-mail, just swipe the finger through the screen and semi-transparent panels with active or pre-set applications and their content pop-up. Select one and you can start working with it at once.

Well, that’s about it for now. I asked our Ilinca to draw up something from the musings above. What with all the things lost in translation, and not really very exhaustive visual description from Eldar, I’m sure it’s pretty far off the real thing. But one needs to start somewhere:

Understanding Android

Android is pretty well stuck right now, because of Google, which does not really want to strongly promote Android devices yet. They have a key partner – HTC – which already released/announced phones (Dream, Magic) based on Android 1.0.

The first release of Android OS – it’s  Google making a claim for the future position in mobile OS market. It is  more like a marketing tool to train the  public on Android and also to give the developers a live device to make the apps for. Though there will be some interesting new Android devices coming from HTC and others later this year.

Android 2.0 looks pretty sad. Android won’t get to the level Google and partners want to see it on until releases 3.0 and 4.0. It has multiple partners working on Android 3.0  devices and  there were some demos of the handsets with Android 3 in closed showrooms. They look fantastic. The problem is that Android 3.0 is not slated for release until the mid of 2010, with version 4 to follow in 2011. So it will be a while until Android devices reach their full potential.

Some good news for Motorola?

There might have been a reason why Motorola looked so lame at MWC 09. According to Eldar:

The biggest surprise of the show? Motorola –no doubt about it. 100, 1000 percent. Elegant and very unusual. Common words hide very uncommon things. Someone smart, very smart joined the company. And clearly with the experience not from the University bench.

Disinformation is pouring through all the channels inside the company and everyone gets his own, different spin. The foot solders get one part of the picture, which, while using the right words totally confuses true meaning. Middle management gets confided with a bigger part of the story, as a “big secret”. Higher level managers outside the States get one more peace of the puzzle. But even the partners of the company do not have the full info.

Everyone is confused, competitors won’t even look Motorola’s way, which allows it to do some very unusual things.

Will it work or not? I won’t say. Actually I can’t say, because I’m not sure myself yet. The basic idea is very simple and elegant. It could work.

But before it get’s public, there will still be some announcements of the models we are used to. So do not expect anything exciting from the next few announcements. They are just placeholders.

Motorola is also definitely working on an Android device. And will use the chassis of one of the recently cancelled models. It may be VE1/RAZR3/Ruby, but I am not sure about that. Eldar mentions that there’s something of the RAZR style in the new phone, but it’s actually kind of new form factor, which will be launched at the end of the year.

The most interesting thing about the new Motorola Android phone is that it is not targeting the mass market. It’s aiming towards the truly  luxury one. Something on the theme of Moto Aura – expensive chassis and unusual services, somewhat comparable to Concierge from Vertu.

Other interesting tidbits

Sony Idou presented at MWC was only a plastic mock-up. SE does not have a working Idou model yet. And, regarding the 12mpx camera, Sony Ericsson themselves have not yet seen the actual camera modules.

Windows Mobile ain’t doing too well. Plans to reduce the WM license price by half are under way, just to keep WM handset makers on board. Very many of them are looking Google’s way.

About WM Dialer app. It was a major problem in earlier WM versions, resulting in dropped and lost calls, etc;. The reason was pretty bad quality programming of dialer app, which was constantly reloading every 30 mins. When  Eldar asked some Microsoft reps whether they solved the problem and rewrote the Dialer app, the answer was – “Yes, sure, everything’s OK now.  We don’t have to relaunch it anymore, now we have a separate utility that clears memory from it… every 15 mins…”

Well, that’s about all I was able to fish out of Eldar’s musings for now.

But stay tuned

Source: Eldar Murtazin Live Journal,  Radio-T podcast (mp3 in Russian)

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• Motorola RAZR3/Ruby canceled
• T-Mobile USA’s second Android phone to come this month, possibly not from HTC

• MOTOKRZR form factor
• Broadband connectivity via HSDPA and UMTS technologies
• MPEG4 Video Capture and Playback
• Audio/Video streaming (3GPP)
• Dedicated browser key
• Integrated Stereo Bluetooth Connectivity (Class 2)
• 2 megapixel digital camera with 8x zoom
• 50 MB end user memory +microSD slot
• Rich, pre-loaded J2METM games, screen savers; downloadable themes, ringtones, images, animations
• Enhanced, integrated music player supports multiple audio files: Midi, MP2, AAC, AAC +
• Email: POP3, SMTP, IMAP4
• Enhanced voice recognition
• MOTOSYNC
• SCREEN3 technology for zero click access to news, sports, entertainment and more.
• Large 2 inch display, QVGA 320×240 pixels 260K color TFT
• Messaging: MMS, SMS, EMS
• GPRS Class 12
• Enhanced mini-USB

Featuring impressive 3.5G specs, MOTOKZR K3 is made of premium metal and glass in Dark Pearl Gray and Stone Gray colors. So it’s got the durability and the looks too.

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MOTORIZR Z8 is thin (15.3 mm) slider phone with innovative and ergonomic “broken” design:

Key features of Motorola RZR Z8 include:

• Unique ergonomic slider design
• Up to approximately five hours 3G talk time, up to approximately 16 days standby time
• 3.6Mbps HSDPA providing mobile broadband
• 2 megapixel camera with 8x zoom and lumi LED light, video record and playback capabilities
• Approximately 90 MB free internal user memory, optional expandable to 4GB with microSD
• Messaging: SMS, EMS, MMS 1.2
• Integrated media player
• Redesigned user interface with one-click access to phone functions
• A2DP AVRCP Bluetooth stereo profiles

MOTORIZR Z8 also comes with a big and bright 2.2″ color 16M color QVGA TFT display that allows you to watch video at a natural 30 fps speed.

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• Motorola RIZR Z10 press pics and specs
• MOTO RIZR Z8 now all in black
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Motorola Q gsm is a port of original MOTO Q CDMA phone to work on GSM networks.

Key features of Motorola Q include:

• Quad-band GPRS and EDGE capabilities for worldwide connectivity
• Microsoft Windows Mobile® 6
• Third party push email solutions (such as Motorola Goodâ„¢ Mobile Messaging, ActiveSync, Seven, Intellisync, etc) that enable a broad set of corporate email capabilities
• Multiple personal email accounts (Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo!, etc.) and instant messaging clients, including Yahoo!, ICQ, AIM and MSN Messenger
• Thin QWERTY device at 11.5mm thick
• Full QWERTY keypad, 5-way navigation and thumb wheel
• Document viewer/editor
• Video clip capture and playback
• Connectivity via Bluetooth® and mini-USB accessories
• Dual, stereo-quality speakers
• Audio formats supported: MP3, AAC, WAV, WMA
• Image formats supported: GIF87a, GIF89a, JPEG, WBMP, BMP, PNG
• Video formats supported: H.263, MPEG-4, WMV
• Data transfer with USB 1.1
• MiniSD removable memory card slot
• Large, high-resolution display (320 x 240 pixels, 65K TFT)
• 1.3 mega pixel camera
• PIM functionality with Picture Caller ID

Motorola Q gsm will compete with Nokia E61i, Samsung Black Jack and older Blackberries for a top spot among GSM e-mail phones

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One of these products is an upgrade to a successful Motorola Q e-mail messaging phone, called Moto Q q9.

Motorola Q q9 is a 3.5G HSDPA version  of the original Moto Q CDMA handset. Moto Q q9 slim (11.8 mm) e-mail device with full QWEERTY keyboard which runs on newly released Windows Mobile 6 OS.

A list of key features for MOTO Q q9 includes:

• Quad-Band (GPRS/EDGE) functionality
• QWERTY keyboard and large,
• 320×240 px display
• Video capture and playback at 30fps
• HSDPA technology for fast data transfers, streaming media and web browsing
• Connectivity: EMU, USB 2.0 full speed transfers and data access
• Integrated Class 2 Bluetooth wireless technology (A2DP, AVRCP – stereo) for hands-free connectivity with compatible Bluetooth enabled stereo devices
• Messaging via MMS, SMS, Instant Messaging and Windows Outlook Mobile
• Supports a variety of audio formats including AMR NB, AMR WB, MWA, MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, WAV, MIDI
• Video formats supported includeH.263, MPEG4, WMV, H.264 decode
• Up to 2 GB of optional removable storage space with a microSD memory slot
• Integrated 2.0 megapixel camera with digital zoom and LED photo indicator light
• Special productivity features: Opera browser, Attachment Viewer or Editor, Voice Recognition, File Manager, Voice Notes, VPN capability and Anti-Virus protection

Crisp 320×240 pixel resolution display, combined with ergonomic QWERTY keyboard and 3.6 HSDPA network connectivity serves all you communication and messaging needs, while ability of 30fps video capture and playback with 2GB of storage (with microSD card) turns MOTO Q q9 into a great multimedia device.

From the looks of it Motorola Q q9 will be a strong competitor to high end Nokia E90 Communicator and Blackberry 8800.

• Moto Q 9h (formerly Moto Q Q9) approved by FCC
• Motorola Q gsm e-mail phone for 2.5G GSM networks
• MOTO QA30 leaked: Motorola’s first QWERTY slider
• Telus officially launching Motorola Milestone (Droid) in early 2010
• Motorola Karma QA1 for AT&T now official

And even though it does not have a fancy touchscreen user interfaces, Nokia E90 Communicator will stand tall at least among business users.

Full sized QWERTY keyboard, huge 800!x320 pixel resolution 16 million color screen, WLAN and HSDPA connectivity, POP3, IMAP, SMTP and push e-mail support, VoIP, videocalling, QuickOffice Tools and Editors, Nokia Office Tools with Intellicync mobile suite that come as a part of Nokia E90 communicator, will allow you accomplish many tasks previously reserved for the laptop. While 3.2 megapixel camera, FM radio and Media player should satisfy most of your entertainment needs. Nokia Communicator E90 also comes with built in GPS navigation and Nokia maps app.

And all of this in a pretty decently sized 132 x 57 x 20 mm, 140 cc package weighting 210 g.

Full specs for NOkia E90 Communicator are:

• GSM quad-band (850/900/1800/1900)
• WCDMA 2100
• Volume: 140 cc
• Weight: 210 g
• Dimensions: 132 x 57 x 20 mm
• Inner: Active matrix color display (800 x 352 pixels), 16 million true colors
• Outer: Active matrix color display (240 x 320 pixels), 16 million true colors
• S60 Platform 3.1 Edition
• Symbian OS Version 9.2
• Javaâ„¢ MIDP 2.0
• 3.2 megapixel camera with flash and autofocus
• QCIF camera for video calling
• Supports POP3, IMAP4, and SMTP
• Support for push email with filtering, including Nokia Intellisync Wireless Email
• View, open, and edit email attachments with Quickoffice (documents, spreadsheets, and presentations), Zip Manager, and Adobe Acrobat Reader
• Remote contact look-up
• Instant messaging
• Text-to-speech message reader
• MMS and SMS
• Video calling
• FM radio
• Music player (MP3, AAC)
• Media player
• Up to 128 MB free memory for user data and applications
• Extendible up to 2GB with microSD memory card
• Quickoffice tools with editors
• Maps application for location-based services
• Nokia Office Tools 1.1 (including Active notes)
• VoIP 2.1
• Download! application for add-on application download
• Support for Nokia Intellisync Mobile Suite
• WorldMate, Wireless Presenter, and Global Race – Raging Thunder – available for download via Downloads! application
• Mini USB, USB 2.0 full-speed
• Bluetooth wireless technology 2.0
• 2.5mm Nokia A/V connector with ECI
• Infrared (up to 115 kbps)
• Web browser (x)HTML
• JavaScript 1.3 and 1.5 supported
• Flash Lite 2.0 supported
• WLAN 802.11g
• HSDPA up to 3.6Mbit/s enabled
• WCDMA 2100 MHz with simultaneous voice and packet data
• GPRS/EGPRS (Class A, MSC 32)
• 3GPP rel 5
• Dual transfer mode MSC11, SAIC rel v1
• Voice dialing
• Voice commands for menu short cuts, keypad lock, and profiles
• Voice recording for making notes or recording conversations
• Internet Call release 2.1 for making VoIP (voice over IP) calls
• Text-to-speech message reader
• Enhanced voice commands with speaker-independent name dialing (SIND), and voice aid for eyes-free control of core functions
• Integrated handsfree speaker
• Push to talk (PoC)
• Nokia Team Suite
• Calendar attachment support
• Meeting requests to calendar
• Calendar plug-in for 3rd party email solutions
• Contacts with images
• Nokia Active Notes application
• Integrated GPS
• Support for Nokia Intellisync file sync and device management
• Stereo FM radio
• Up to 5 hrs talk time and 14 days on stanby

Nokia ESeries E90 Communicator will cost somewhere around €750-800 and go on sale in Q2.

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And most of what we heard was true. Key features of Nokia E65 include:

• Quad-band ( EGSM 850/900/1800/1900) and WCDMA 2100, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity,
• Active-matrix QVGA color display (240 x 320 pixels) with color support for up to 16 million colors
• 2 megapixel camera
• Up to 50 MB user memory
• MicroSD memory card support
• Volume: 74 cc
• Weight: 115 g
• Dimensions: 105 x 49 x 15.5 mm

According to Nokia, ESeries E65 phone is:

…slim slider, contains the mobile business capabilities of a Nokia ESeries device in an exquisite package with top notch materials. Nokia E65 has been designed for easy access to the most frequently used applications from the One Touch keys on the front cover. Users can make conference calls, access their contacts database, mute and unmute calls, and access an application of choice through ‘My Own’ key with just one push of a button. Active Standby, the capability to customize the phone display to show and provide quick access to user-defined applications, together with One Touch keys, simplifies connecting to business and personal applications and switching between tasks. Furthermore, Nokia E65 can be integrated with leading corporate telephony systems ¬- with Nokia Intellisync Call Connect for Cisco, Nokia Intellisync Call Connect for Alcatel and Avaya one-X Mobile Edition for Nokia solutions. The Nokia E65 device also supports the most used corporate and consumer email solutions.

It will cost €400 and is on sale in select markets already.

• ESeries Nokia E90 Communicator – Big screen and lots of functions
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• Nokia E61i Mobile e-mail Device
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• RIM to offer BlackBerry support for Nokia phones

Nokia E61i is a quadband GSM/EDGE (850/900/1800/1900), WCDMA 3GPP phone with full size QWERTY keyboard, dedicated e-mail keys, MP3 player, 2 megapixel camera, various business and productivity applications inside.

If you are doing lot’s of e-mail on the go and don’t mind a bigger form factor ESeries Nokia E61i might be the right device for you.

Full specs for Nokia E61i include:

• Quad-band GSM/EDGE coverage for international usage (850/900/1800/1900) with WCDMA 3GPP Release 99
• 2.8â€? QVGA landscape active-matrix color display supporting up to 16 million colors (320 x 240 pixels) with an active area of 56.9 x 42.7 mm
• Display contrast and brightness control
• S60 platform 3rd Edition 9.1a
• QWERTY keyboard with backlight
• Email key and LED indicator for new email
• One Touch keys, Naviâ„¢ key, power key that can be used as profile key, MyOwn key, and phonebook key
• Volume keys and voice key combine voice recording, voice dialing, and Push to talk functionality
• 2 megapixel camera for taking pictures
• Video recording
• Email: supports POP/IMAP and SMTP protocols
• Supports Nokia Intellisync Wireless Email 8.0 and a variety of third-party email clients: Mail for Exchange 1.5 (delivered via Nokia Downloads! Application), Visto Mobile v5.5, RIM BlackBerry Connect v2.1, and Good Mobile Messaging (email clients are dependent on operator variant)
• View and open email attachments Quickoffice, ZIP Manager, and Adobe Acrobat Reader
• MMS and SMS
• Instant messaging client
• Music player supporting MP3 and AAC formats
• Video and audio streaming via 3GPP and RealMedia
• Forward lock digital rights management (DRM)
• 60 MB of internal user memory
• Hot swappable microSD memory card support up to 2 GB
• Java MIDP 2.0 games and applications
• WCDMA PS (packet switched data) with maximum upload and download rate of 384 kbps
• GPRS/EGPRS (Class B, MSC 32)
• GSM CSD (circuit-switched data) up to 14.4 kbps
• HSCSD (high-speed circuit-switched data) up to 43.2 kbps
• Dual transfer mode MSC11, SAIC (single antenna interference cancellation) release v2
• Integrated WLAN (IEEE 802.11g, 802.11e*, 802.11i** standards)
• Email data roaming
• Integrated infrared module (up to 115 kbps)
• USB 2.0 full speed supported through Pop-PortTM interface
• Bluetooth 1.2 specification
• HTML and XHTML browsers, Nokia Web browser with Mini Map
• Remote and local (peer-to-peer) synchronization via Bluetooth, IR, cable, or WLAN
• Calendar, to-do lists, notes, and contacts
• Nokia Team Suite application for facilitating conference calls and initiating Push to talk sessions with team members
• In-device search tool
• File manager
• Nokia PC Suite 6.82
• Voice dialing
• Voice commands for menu short cuts, keypad lock, and profiles
• Voice recording for making notes or recording conversations
• Internet Call release 2.0 for making VoIP (voice over IP) calls (service agreement required)
• Text-to-speech message reader
• Enhanced voice commands with speaker-independent name dialing (SIND), and voice aid for eyes-free control of core functions
• Integrated handsfree speaker
• Integrated Nokia Mobile VPN (virtual private network)
• Volume: 97 cc
• Weight: 150 g
• Dimensions: 117 x 70 x 13.9 (/11.5) mm

ESeries Nokia 61i will cost €400 in Q2 2007

• ESeries Nokia E90 Communicator – Big screen and lots of functions
• Nokia 7360 review. It’s all about looks
• HP iPAQ 910/914 Business Messenger
• Nokia 7370. Worth a look
• Nokia 7380 review

Nokia N77 comes with DVB-H tuner and TV Program Guide inside. This provides you with easy navigation through various TV listings as well as possibility to schedule TV programs one week in advance. Nokia N77 also has integrated SMS voting as well as 30 seconds replay capability.

In addition to a mobile TV, Nokia N77 is an advanced 3G Series 60 handset. It comes with built-in 2 megapixel camera, integrated stereo speakers, 2.4″ 16 million color screen and support for 3G (WCDMA 2100 MHz), EDGE and GSM (900/1800/1900 MHz) networks.

Nokia N77 will go on sale for 370 euros in Q2 this year.

• Google launches mobile voting locator tool for the US elections
• Nokia 6110 Navigator – fully functional 3.5G HSDPA phone with GPS Navigation
• 22 new handsets in four new series announced by NTT DoCoMo for Japan
• Nokia and Qualcomm working on S60 smartphones for North America
• 3 New Low End Nokia Clamshells: Nokia 2660 and 2760 GSM, Nokia 2505 CDMA

Well, it has some impressive phones to show off this week too. One of them is Nokia 6110 Navigator.

Designed all around navigation function Nokia Navigator 6110 phone comes with built-in GPS and AGPS (Assisted GPS)functionality. It also has integrated local maps, routing and navigation available with the click of the phone’s one-touch Navigator key. That will allow lucky Nokia 6110 owner easily view their location on the map, search for destinations, find specific routes, or locate services such as restaurants, hotels or shops that are nearby. Nokia Navigator will even recommend you the best route to the desired location whether you are with a car or on foot.

The maps for the location where you buy your Nokia 6110 Navigator will come preinstalled on a memory card. Maps for other locations and additional content such as traffic information, weather services or local guides can be purchased and downloaded online.

And that’s easy thing to accomplish, since Nokia 6110 is a fully functional 3.5G smartphone too. It comes with 3.6 Mbps HSDPA connectivity, 2.2″ 16 million color QVGA screen, built-in VGA camera for video calls as well as 2 mpx camera with dedicated capture key, panorama mode and integrated flash.

Key specs for the Nokia 6110 are:

• Fully integrated GPS Navigation with one touch Navigator key
• Local map pre-installed on the memory card for immediate navigation
• HSDPA for fast web browsing and downloading
• WCDMA 2100 HSDPA, GSM/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900
• 2 megapixel camera with integrated flash, 4x digital zoom and panorama mode
• Real-time video sharing and video calling
• ~40 MB free internal memory
• Support of microSD memory card up to 2 GB
• up to 3.5 hrs talk time and 11 days stand by

Nokia 6110 Navigator is expected to ship  in Q2 2007 with unsubsidized retail price of 450EUR

• Nokia N85 multimedia powerhouse launched
• Nokia 6210 Navigator approved by the FCC
• Nokia 6350 announced by AT&T, only $29.99
• Nseries Nokia N77 Phone/Mobile TV set
• Nokia Maps 3.0 beta available for download

Looks like Nokia has decided to remember the old days and has put together a new phone – Nokia 3110 Classic – that strongly reminds me of  these solid handsets from the beginning of the millennium.

Nokia 3110 Classic phone will cost around €150 and feature 1.3 mpx camera, built-in music player and FM radio, 2.2″ color display. It has USB and Bluetooth connectivity, microSD memory card slot and works on EGSM 900, GSM 1800/1900 networks. It’s also pretty light and feels comfortable at 87g weight and 108.5 x 45.7 x 15.6 mm dimensions.

As you can see, there’s nothing fancy about Nokia 3110 Classic. Just solid, dependable phone with practical functions. And that may be exactly what many of us are looking for.

• Nokia 7500 Prism offcially launched
• Rugged Nokia 3720 classic now official, costs only €125
• Nokia 6730 classic announced for Vodafone
• Nokia 7310 Classic first official photo
• Nokia 5610 XpressMusic 3G phone

Samsung Ultra Movie F510 handset comes with an LCD screen on both sides of the phone. One side is used for a normal mobile phone functionality like, well you know, talking, texting, etc;.

But if you turn your phone around, it becomes a portable multimedia player with a 2.4″ 262K 30fps screen, ability to play large array of video content including MPEG-4, H.264, WMV and AVI files, DVB-H and CBMS TV reception, a whopping 410MB of internal memory and microSD expansion capability, for a total of up to 4 hours of movie playback.

Samsung F510 is also fully functional 3.5G HSDPA phone that also has EDGE connectivity and works on 900/1800/1900MHz / 2.1GHz GSM/UMTS networks and  sports 2 mpx camera. All of this in a 116.5 x 50.4 x 10.7 mm sized box.

• Samsung SGH Z620 Ultra Slim clamshell approved by FCC
• Samsung Ultra Smart F520. If F700 is too smart for you
• Samsung SGH – C140 is… just a phone
• Samsung Ultra Edition 5.9. “The Worlds Thinnest Phone” got Thinner
• Samsung Ultra Edition 10.9. The “Worlds Slimmest Slider” Sheds Another 2mm

Well, Samsung seems to agree and in addition to a show-off F700 has produced a simpler touchscreen multimedia phone version – Samsung Ultra Smart F520.

Samsung F520 has kept all the cool UI features like “drag and drop” touchscreen functionality and full HTML browsing and  added even bigger 3″ screen as well as innovative dual slider keypad for messaging, which easily switches between QWERTY and conventional key texting by automatically switching between horizontal and vertical screens.

Samsung Ultra Smart also has EDGE and 3.6 Mbps HSDPA connectivity, works on 900/1800/1900 MHz + 2.1GHz GSM/UMTS networks and comes equipped with 3 megapixel camera, microSD memory slot in a 104.8 x 53.7 x 17.4 mm body.

• Samsung F510 Ultra Movie Phone/Personal Media Player
• Samsung Ultra Smart F700 Multimedia Smartphone
• Vodafone Samsung SGH-F700V is almost here
• LG SH150 DMB phone with 7.2 Mbps HSDPA download speeds
• Samsung U700 Thinnest 3G slider is coming to U.S. soon

But even with 3.5g phone Samsung managed to achieve some amazing things. If what was “worlds slimmest slider” Samsung D900 is OK for you, today you can get fully functional 3.5G HSDPA phone in the same form factor.

Yep.The new Samsung Ultra Edition 12.1 (U700) is only 12.1 millimeter thick and it’s fully functional 3G HSDPA phone.

Full specs for Samsung U700 are:

HSDPA 3.6 Mbps, EDGE
900/1800/1900 MHz + 2.1GHz
3 Megapixel camera (AF) + VGA
262144 (2.2â€?, 240×320) display
MP3/ACC/eAAC+/WMA/WMDRM
MPEG4/H.263/Real
MMS/E-mail/JAVA/WAP 2.0
Bluetooth® 2.0 / USB 2.0 high-speed
Wheel key interaction
Background Music Play
Full HTML browsing (NF 3.4)
Picture editing / Living World
20MB + microSDâ„¢
102.5 x 50 x 12.1 mm

High speed 3.6 Mbps HSDPA data connectivity, dual cameras and video telephony functionality in a slim 12.1 mm body. Samsung U700 looks like a great 3.5 G handset.

• Samsung Ultra Edition 9.6 U300 Slim Clamshell
• Worlds slimmest Samsung Ultra Edition 5.9 U100 Phone is here
• Samsung U700 Thinnest 3G slider is coming to U.S. soon
• Samsung D900 slimmest slider
• Samsung F330 music phone

Called Samsung Ultra Edition 9.6 (U300) this comes encased entirely in metal and is only 9.6 mm thin.

Full specs for Samsung U300 cellphone include:

EDGE, GPRS Class 10
900/1800/1900 MHz
3 Megapixel camera (Flash x4)
2.2â€? 240×320 262K TFT and 96 x 16gray OLED displays
MP3/ACC/eAAC+/WMA/WMDRM
MPEG4/H.263
64 Poly Ringtones
Bluetooth® 2.0 / USB 2.0 high-speed
Background Music Play
Document Viewer / Offline Mode
Smart Search / Smart Messaging
BT Printing / uGo / TV Out
Document Viewer / Offline Mode
Smart Search / Smart Messaging
Smart Search / Smart Messaging
BT Printing / uGo / TV Out
My Menu / Mobile Tracker / Power SMS
70MB of Memory
100 x 51 x .9.6 mm Size

• Worlds slimmest Samsung Ultra Edition 5.9 U100 Phone is here
• Samsung Ultra Edition 10.9 U600 Slimmest Slider Gets Official
• Samsung Ultra Edition 12.1 U700 Thinnest 3.5G HSDPA Handset
• Samsung X820 cellphone – slim…slimmer…slimmest!
• Samsung D900 slimmest slider

Now a part of new Ultra Edition II line-up it’s called Samsung U600 Ultra Edition 10.9 and is only 10.9 millimeter thick.

Other features for Samsung Ultra Edition 10.9 include:

EDGE, GPRS Class 10
850/900/1800/1900 MHz
3.2 Megapixel
262144 TFT (2.2â€?, 240×320) Screen
MP3/ACC/eAAC+/WMA
MMS/E-mail/JAVA/WAP 2.0
64 Poly Ringtones / Offline Mode
Bluetooth® 2.0 / USB 2.0
Yahoo Ready
Business Card Recognition
Smart Search / Smart Messaging
60MB + microSDâ„¢
103.2 x 49.3 x 10.9 mm

Samsung U600 also comes in a choice of colors which includes sapphire blue, garnet red, platinum metal and copper gold casing.

• Samsung Ultra Edition 9.6 U300 Slim Clamshell
• Worlds slimmest Samsung Ultra Edition 5.9 U100 Phone is here
• Samsung Ultra S Elegant Edition launched in Hong Kong
• Samsung Ultra Edition 10.9. The “Worlds Slimmest Slider” Sheds Another 2mm
• Samsung Ultra Smart F700 Multimedia Smartphone

The slimmest of them is Samsung U100 Ultra Edition 5.9 candybar that replaces Samsung X820 in the “worlds slimmest handset” spot.

Samsung Ultra Edition 5.9 (U100) phone is only 5.9 mm thin with overall dimensions of 105.5×50x5.9 mm. Other specs and features for Samsung U100 include:

EDGE, GPRS Class 10
900/1800/1900 MHz
3 Megapixel camera
262144 (1.93â€?, 220×176 ) Display
MP3/ACC/eAAC+/WMA
MPEG4/H.263
Background Music Play
Smart Search
Document Viewer / Offline Mode
64 Poly Ringtones
Bluetooth® / USB 2.0
BT Printing / uGo / TV Out
My Menu / Mobile Tracker / Power SMS
70MB of Memory

Interesting how Samsung making Ultra Edition 5.9 U100 handset 15% thinner then it’s predecessor, managed to make it even more powerful.

• Samsung Ultra Edition 9.6 U300 Slim Clamshell
• Samsung Ultra Edition 10.9 U600 Slimmest Slider Gets Official
• Samsung Ultra Edition 12.1 U700 Thinnest 3.5G HSDPA Handset
• Samsung Ultra Edition III to get even thinner
• Samsung X820 cellphone – slim…slimmer…slimmest!