Nokia Malaysia’s “Integrated Nokia Kiosk” (INK) recently snagged the inaugural “Green Mobile Award” at the GSM Association’s (GSMA) Asia Mobile Awards 2008 held. The award recognizes initiatives in the region aimed at promoting low carbon economies and sustainable lifestyles.
The INK is a first-of-its-kind kiosk that plays a double role: it provides customers a really simple way to recycle their old mobile phones and accessories, as well as get their current Nokia devices serviced. The initiative was launched in Malaysia earlier this year with four kiosks placed in high-traffic shopping malls for a six-month pilot phase. As an added incentive for recycling, for each mobile phone dropped off, the customer will have a tree planted in his or her name via the Nokia NewTrees Program. This is a collaboration project with WWF Indonesia and Equinox Publishing whereby Nokia has committed funds towards planting of 100,000 trees in Sebangau National Park in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia). The customer then receives a unique URL and instructions to view their tree through Google Earth.
“This award is a fantastic recognitionl Nokia’s ongoing commitment to the environment. Today, up to 80% of any Nokia device can be recycled, saving precious raw materials that can be used again. However, a recent study by Nokia earlier this year showed only 3% of people actually recycled their old mobile phones,” says Francis Cheong, Nokia’s Environmental Affairs Manager, South East Asia Pacific. “INK is an innovative way we can make it easier for people to recycle their used and unwanted mobiles. Working together with consumers we can make a big difference for the environment” Francis continues.
Since July, more than 1,200 cell-phones have been collected and recycled via the INK initiative.
Several innovations from the Nokia Research Center (NRC) will be showcased at Heureka, the Finnish Science Center in an Innovation Finland exhibition on Sunday, November 30, 2008. The event will put a spotlight on a series of significant innovations from three Finnish companies. Eight demonstrations from the Nokia Research Center are among these.
The Heureka event aims to answer the question: how does an invention become innovation? To provide an insight into the question from a Nokia Research Center perspective, Petteri Alinikula, who heads the Core Technology Research in Nokia Reserch Center, will discuss innovation in NRC.
“Demonstrating eight innovations from the Nokia Research Center at the Heureka event is both a great opportunity for us to get our research work in the hands of the public and also valuable recognition of the cutting-edge research that we conduct. Our open innovation approach fosters the development of an incredibly wide variety of innovations, as these examples demonstrate”, said Petteri.
The spectrum of the eight demonstrations that the Nokia Research Center team will unveil to the public at the Heureka event is colorful. Many highlight the way that sensors (such as Global Positioning System (GPS) and accelerometers) are changing mobile devices by turning them into true interfaces between the user and their environment and thereby transforming the way we experience the world around us. Many of the demos are also available for download from Nokia Beta Labs.
The following demonstrations show a glimpse into innovation in the Nokia Reseach Center:
- Nokia Image Exchange: a combined mobile image gallery and web service for sharing and browsing images taken on a mobile device. Just snap and share!
- Nokia Friend View: a location-based service which lets people share their moves and moods on a world map from their mobile device and also from the desktop using a web browser.
- Mobile Video Conferencing: a conferencing service which enables users to bring together friends and family in a video conference – see and talk, all on one mobile device screen.
- Nokia Storm Detector: warns mobile device users about approaching thunderstorms via specific software on the mobile device which listens and reacts to the radio lightning caused by thunder.
- Nokia Carbon Calculator: automatically detects a mobile device user’s travel method, calculates carbon dioxide emissions caused by travelling and thus motivates users to reduce their carbon footprint.
- Near Field Communication (NFC): NFC will make the mobile device the most convenient means of payment, travel pass, building access and interaction with advertisements, just by touching an NFC tag with a device.
- Shaker Racer: introduces a new dimension to radio controlled cars by allowing the user to control a car via a mobile device, based on the user’s movements.
- Morph: leveraging nanotechnology in a completely new type of device concept, which is not only small and thin, but also transparent and stretchable and context aware by adapting to the environment.
The Innovation Finland event is held on Sunday, November 30, from 12 noon until 5pm and is free to the public. Petteri will be delivering a talk at the event at 2.30pm.
For more information on the Nokia Research Center, visit http://research.nokia.com
For more information on the Nokia Beta Labs, visit http://www.nokia.com/betalabs
For more information on the Innovation Finland event (in Finnish), visit http://www.heureka.fi/portal/1021
As part of its effort to sharpen its business focus and priorities, Nokia will discontinue mobile device sales and marketing activities in Japan. Vertu, Nokia’s line of luxury mobile devices will continue with strong focus on the Japanese market. Nokia substantial global R&D and sourcing operations in Japan will also continue unaffected.
“In the current global economic climate, we have concluded that the continuation of our investment in Japan-specific product variants is no longer sustainable. Moving forward, in Japan, Nokia will concentrate on global R&D activities, focused opportunities like Vertu, as well as further development of Nokia’s sourcing activities,” said Timo Ihamuotila, Executive Vice President, Nokia.
These plans will impact approximately 10% of Nokia Japan employees.
Global R&D, Sourcing and Vertu activities to continue
In Japan, Nokia has an important R&D center, which plays an integral part in Nokia’s global product development. These global R&D activities will continue unchanged. Nokia will also continue its significant sourcing activities in Japan. Japanese manufacturers are important partners who play a critical role in Nokia’s global supply-chain strategy and with whom Nokia continues to develop its world class logistics operations.
Vertu, Nokia’s exclusive line of handcrafted mobile phones, will also continue operations in Japan.
People use mobile devices to share their lives with friends and family and with this in mind, Nokia introduces the Nokia 6260 slide. The phone call is the most obvious way to use the new handset to connect with people, but it will also be used to share photographs and videos, check on a friend’s social network status or be guided to a restaurant to meet up with a loved one. The Nokia 6260 slide features quick access to search engines and points of interest straight from the home screen and the new 360° navi-key allows a great mobile Internet experience.
Uploading images and videos taken by the 5Mpix Carl Zeiss camera is possible at lightning-fast speeds over both cellular, HSUPA and HSDPA, and Wi-Fi networks. Combined with the range of Ovi services on offer, Nokia brings a compelling mobile Internet experience to a huge group of consumers.
In addition to the photo, music and sharing features that come packed in the Nokia 6260 slide, Nokia Maps and the assisted GPS provide a great navigation experience. The Nokia 6260 slide brings GPS into the Series 40 software platform for the first time, really signifying navigation arriving in the mass market.
The Nokia 6260 slide is expected to begin shipping at the beginning of 2009 for an estimated retail price of €299, before taxes and subsidies. Press materials and photos can be found at www.nokia.com/press.
Nokia won the Best Green Internal Communications category with the ‘Power of We’ campaign, and subsequently the overall Grand Prix award at the third annual Green Awards for Creativity and Sustainability. The Green Awards were established to emphasise the importance of informing people about green issues, products and lifestyle choices, and to recognize creative work that communicates the importance of Corporate Social Responsibility, sustainable development and ethical best practices.Nokia’s ‘Power of We’ was nominated for its internal communications campaign which encourages a wider discussion about environmental issues within the company. “We wanted to raise awareness around our environmental performance, also internally to encourage debate and discussion around our future targets, and to engage an increasing amount of our employees in environmental actions and practice in everything we do” says Kirsi Sormunen, VP of Environmental Affairs.
“To bring this approach to life, we created the concept called the Power of We which represents Nokia’s attitude towards environmental issues and brand approach. We believe in the power of the individuals together to make a real change and help the environment, starting from ourselves as employees of Nokia”, says Anastasia Orkina, Director of Environmental Marketing.The campaign set the target to inform at least 50% of Nokia’s global workforce about Nokia’s environmental programme, and to engage a minimum of 1,000 people as active environmental champions during its first year. As environmental issues at Nokia are imbedded in everything we do, five main pillars were created to illustrate the ‘Power of We’ in more concrete ways– we:evolve, we:create, we:energise, we:recycle, and we:support. In addition, Nokia’s internal environmental website was renewed to support the campaign and became the core communication hub surrounding Nokia’s internal discussion on environmental affairs.
The ‘Power of We’ campaign has had concrete impacts at Nokia as well. The recycling rate of used phones and accessories among Nokia employees has increased 600% compared to previous efforts. Over 1200 we:champions have signed up and helped organize local events/eco actions, and Nokia employees worldwide have already made 4000 eco-pledges on their own actions with the number growing each day.“This award is very encouraging for us as there is a strong commitment to continue building internal and external engagement around environmental issues - we are definitely on the right track now” says Anastasia.