Nokia Press Bulletin Board

Chairman’s special corporate innovation award recognizes Nokia’s dedication to innovation

Nokia was the sole corporate recipient in this year’s Economist Innovation Awards. At the seventh annual Economist’s Innovation Awards ceremony on October 30 at the Science Museum in London, UK, Nokia received an award in the corporate use of innovation category and was recognized for its innovative culture, renewal ability and rapid response to new consumer trends.  

The Economist Annual Innovation Awards celebrates the achievements and innovations that have positively transformed global business with commitment to new ideas and creativity. A distinguished panel of judges selects the winners in all eight categories. This was the second year running that a chairman’s special award for corporate innovation has been given to a company. The seven additional awards are typically conferred to individual recipients. 

Mark Selby, Vice President of Industry Collaborations accepted the award on Nokia’s behalf: “We are honored to be the sole corporate recipient of The Economist’s prestigious Innovation Award in recognition of Nokia’s corporate use of innovation. Nokia has a 140-year history of reinvention from its roots in pulp and rubber to a leader in mobile devices. ‘Passion for Innovation’ is a Nokia core value that permeates our culture as well as the products and services we deliver to our customers around the world. Our customers and the developer community have directly contributed to this innovation and we thank them for their valued engagement. Today, we continue our renewal with the addition of services that will improve peoples’ lives by connecting them in new and better ways.”

N-Gage showcases motion capture technique in a 3D animated fighting game 

ONE for N-Gage, by Nokia Games Publishing, challenges its players to confront their opponents in a unique environment where different fighting techniques and styles are created by motion capture. ONE features 3D animation and high-quality graphics with customizable characters. It offers a head-to-head multiplayer experience in Bluetooth gaming allowing players to compete with each other, and share and compare their scores in the N-Gage Arena.

Recognized for its 3D performance, ONE is unique in mobile gaming as it takes advantage of motion capture techniques usually reserved for console games and movies. The movements of a real martial artist performing kicks and other moves have been recorded and used to animate the characters in ONE.

“Making ONE was a learning experience for me, both as a martial artist and as an artist studying shape and form,” says Tommy Carruthers, the man behind the motion captured fighting techniques of ONE. He has over 30 years of experience in martial arts. “ONE connects the flow of motion into how the flow goes between two people. It’s a combination of forces that complement and work in union with each other”.

ONE players will be tested in various locations around the world, from the dark alleys of New York to the exotic beaches of the Caribbean. High-quality 3D graphics enables players to see even movements of the fighters’ clothes. There are altogether 30 opponents to fight against, in seven different locations, and an online world ranking system that shows who the true ONE is.

ONE is now available at www.n-gage.com, launching together with a global online tournament hosted by N-Gage Arena.

View ONE trailer, making of documentary and motion capture videos at www.n-gage.com/one/. More information on Tommy Carruthers at www.tommycarruthers.com.

Industry veteran to lead the foundation that will drive the future of the leading open mobile platform for smartphones  

London, United Kingdom – The ten initial board members of the Symbian Foundation (AT&T, LG Electronics, Motorola, Nokia, NTT DOCOMO, Samsung Electronics, Sony Ericsson, ST-NXP Wireless, Texas Instruments and Vodafone) today announced the nomination of Lee Williams as the Executive Director for the planned foundation.  Lee is currently head of the S60 organization in Nokia’s Devices business. 

“We are delighted to have such a strong and experienced leader to head the Symbian Foundation” said Kris Rinne, senior vice president, architecture and planning, AT&T on behalf of the initial board members. “Lee Williams is well known in our industry and has been a driving force in the establishment of the foundation.  Following an extensive, independent selection process, we believe that he is the best candidate to lead the foundation.  He will now work to ensure we get the most complete and competitive Symbian Foundation platform offering and setup the operations needed to drive the platform to its next phase of evolution as quickly as possible.” 

“I feel honored to have been invited to serve in this role”, said Lee Williams. “This is a great opportunity to directly help deliver on the promise of the foundation, working with the stakeholders and prospective members who are so committed to make this initiative a success. To me, there can be no more exciting role in the mobile software world than to lead the Symbian Foundation.” 

52 companies have now announced their support for the planned Symbian Foundation, including 8 device manufacturers, 7 semiconductor companies, 9 mobile network operators, 27 services and software companies and 1 financial services provider.  More details are available at www.symbianfoundation.org, where hundreds of other organizations have registered their interest in learning more about the Symbian Foundation, since plans were announced in June 2008. 

As previously announced, the plans for the establishment of the Symbian Foundation and royalty-free licensing of foundation software are: 

1. The acquisition of Symbian Limited by Nokia, expected to close in Q4, 2008, subject to regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions.
2. Software assets are contributed to the foundation, including Symbian OS™ and S60 by Nokia, UIQ technology by Motorola and Sony Ericsson and MOAP(S) by NTT DOCOMO and Fujitsu.
3. This contributed software will be available under a royalty-free license to foundation members from the first day of Symbian Foundation operations, expected 1H 2009.
4. The Foundation will work to unify the platform, with the first unified foundation release expected in 2009.
5. The foundation will work to make the platform available in open source by June 2010 (two years from the Symbian Foundation announcement) 

Lee Williams will remain in his current role as head of the S60 organization in Nokia’s Devices business until January 1, 2009, or until such time as the foundation and its leadership team are in place and operational. The operation of the foundation remains subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals. 

Notes for editors: Further information about the Symbian Foundation is available at www.symbianfoundation.org.  

Symbian and all Symbian based trademarks and logos are trademarks of Symbian Software Limited.  The operation of the proposed Symbian Foundation remains subject to regulatory approvals.  Until such approvals are obtained, and the Symbian Foundation has become fully operational, Symbian Software Limited retains exclusive responsibility for all licensing and marketing activities related to Symbian OS.  

Nokia Growth Partners, a global venture capital management fund, today announced the debut of its China operations. Nokia Growth Partners also announced an investment in Madhouse, a leading mobile advertisement network in China. 

“China is an incredible place to witness the ongoing convergence between mobility and the Internet. We see China rising to the forefront of innovation that is equally relevant both locally and globally”, said David Tang, Vice President, Sales, Nokia China. “The expansion of Nokia’s partner ecosystem in China is all about building momentum for innovation.”

“Nokia is committed to connecting people in new and better ways, as well as maintaining and extending its leadership in the mobile and Internet space.  China is an important part of our plans to create investment vehicles to support innovation around the world.  Developing a systematic and sustainable private equity and venture capital strategy provides Nokia with a holistic approach to access the innovation and partnering opportunities in China”, says Rick Simonson, Chief Financial Officer of Nokia.

Nokia Growth Partners was established in 2004 by Nokia as a growth stage venture firm focused on mobile technology, services and media.  Nokia Growth Partners has $250 million under management for direct investments. Nokia Growth Partners invests in companies, funds and people that are changing the face of mobility, communications and the internet.  Recent investments involve promising companies developing innovative mobile applications in context aware location services, mobile payments, mobile advertising and mobile entertainment etc.

Today Nokia announced a unique, slender monoblock device for its select global CDMA markets. The Nokia 2228 combines a slim 12 mm compact design and ultra light weight, with some essential features, targeted for a stylish and practical consumer.  

True multi-tasking is simple with the Nokia 2228. It’s an affordable 1.3 megapixel camera phone with a built in Nokia media player, supporting most of the common digital formats. It comes with several modes of messaging to make sure you can reach out to your friends and family, whether your preferred way of communications is short or long message, image or music. On top of all that, it comes with speaker dependent voice recognition, an integrated handsfree speaker and can be used as a modem which allows a consumer to use their phone to connect to a PC for internet access.   

The slender design features a unique lanyard hole which has an LED indicator light that flashes with incoming calls or messages waiting. The LED indicator “pulses” in cycles at a user-defined interval or in the off mode, allowing users to always see if any messages await them.  The Nokia 2228 is expected to launch in select CDMA markets in the fourth quarter of 2008.  A complete list of Nokia 2228 features and technical specifications can be found at www.nokia.com.