Nokia Press Bulletin Board

The making of Snakes Subsonic for N-Gage viral campaign

Snake, the most iconic mobile game franchise of all time, was the inspiration behind what could be arguably the world’s longest human snake. The streets of Lisbon, Portugal set the scene for the stop-motion film titled ‘Get out and play’ where more than one thousand volunteers took part in forming the famous snake.

The film begins with a young man sitting down for breakfast when he suddenly becomes part of a human snake game. While making angular movements throughout his neighborhood, he runs into people on the streets that then join the rapidly-growing snake. As he continues his journey, the snake grows substantially to include a flying cheerleader, a postal worker, office staff and many others.

The idea behind the film was to bring the playfulness and ease-of-use of the latest Snake incarnation to life. To accomplish this, the creative team sought inspiration from home-made stop-motion animations. With the create-it-yourself spirit of the internet, the film was shot frame by frame in stop-motion without digital effects.

“It is the simplicity of gameplay that first made Snake ideal for mobile phones,” said Oskar Bård, director of HobbyFilm. “Stop-motion animations are very basic and you can make extraordinary things happen without a lot of digital tinkering. The same concept applies to the new Snakes Subsonic for N-Gage.”

Snake first came to the market in the late 1970s and its popularity grew in the late 1990s with integration into Nokia mobile phones. A handful of Snakes products have since been released for Nokia devices and the improved 3D version Snakes Subsonic is now available through the new N-Gage mobile games service at http://www.n-gage.com

“Snakes Subsonic delivers the next evolution in mobile puzzle games,” said Dr Mark Ollila, head of games publishing, Nokia. “It’s an exciting combination of accessible gameplay fused with stylized presentation, resulting in a rollercoaster ride in puzzle solving unlike anything else on mobile.”

View the Snakes Subsonic film and the full behind-the-scenes story at http://www.get-out-and-play.com

Also on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wH8gZYH3vrU

Nokia and Nokia Siemens Networks today pledged to donate a total of over RMB 53 million to earthquake relief, of which approximately RMB 18 million will be used to address the immediate and acute needs of those most affected. The additional RMB 35 million will be used to start the rebuilding efforts and for other longer term needs in the affected areas.

The devastation caused by the earthquake in Sichuan, China on May 12 was catastrophic. Within 24 hours of the disaster, Nokia and Nokia Siemens Networks had made an initial donation of RMB 3 million for use in search and rescue missions. Nokia also donated 5,000 phones with prepaid SIM cards in partnership with Sichuan Mobile. In addition, Nokia sent its Care Vans into the affected regions to supply power and telecommunications to survivors and rescue teams, as well as transport a 25-strong medical team. Nokia also helped in setting up an emergency medical hotline and company volunteer teams gave blood, delivered tents, food, water and medical supplies. Nokia Siemens Networks has established a 24-hour, on-site service for the local operator to ensure the integrity and effectiveness of its network, which is critical in relief and reconstruction work. And Zhiqiang Zhang, Nokia Siemens Networks head of the Greater China Region, visited Chengdu recently to assess what further practical assistance the company could provide in the relief effort for victims.

Longer term efforts will primarily focus in areas such as the offer of psychological/counseling services to school children; helping schools to strengthen knowledge about earthquakes (include providing teachers proper training); providing planning advice to schools on how to do the reconstruction; funding the building of new Hope schools; skills development for employability and re-building livelihoods; expanding the Nokia “Heart to Heart, Hand to Hand” program to ensure more resources for Sichuan; and extending Nokia’s “Touch an orphan’s Life” program to selected disaster areas.

“This disaster has changed the lives of many Chinese people and sadly ended many others. I am proud and humbled by the tremendous and spontaneous efforts and sacrifices our staff in China have made, as well as by the financial donations that have been made by our staff, not only in China, but in several other countries, such as Finland, USA, Canada and Denmark. We are matching these employee donations.” Said David Tang, Vice President, Nokia Greater China.

Nokia’s approach to dealing with disaster relief projects is to focus first on immediate disaster relief, and in the longer term to focus on collaborating with local and state governments, civil societies and NGOs to rebuild families, to offer development assistance to affected children, and to help support rebuilding efforts. This approach has been the same in a number of tragic natural disasters over the last few years, including the Thailand tsunami, hurricane Katrina in the United States and now the tragic Sichuan earthquake.

In 2007, Nokia initiated the over RMB 60 million “Heart to Heart, Hand to Hand” childhood development program in China. This long term program will continue and will now put extra emphasis on the Sichuan province.

Since the earthquake struck Sichuan, China on Monday, May 12th, it has become clear that the scope and scale of this catastrophe is indeed far worse than was considered initially.

Nokia has therefore decided to extend its commitment to help those in need in Sichuan and across China by providing an additional RMB 7 million (approximately EUR 646 000) and an additional 500 mobile devices to help the ongoing disaster relief efforts. The China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation will use Nokia’s cash donations in the most affected areas. The additional mobile phones are already on the way to those parts of Sichuan province where they are most needed.

Nokia’s total donation to-date stands at RMB 10 million and 5 000 mobile devices.

When the devastating earthquake first struck Wenchuan county it became apparent that communications in the region had suffered terrible damage and that this was impairing aid efforts. Nokia immediately responded to this crisis and together with Nokia Siemens Networks donated 4 500 mobile devices and RMB 3 million.

Nokia will continue to closely monitor the situation in the affected areas and provide support as necessary to help alleviate the impact of this catastrophe.

Nokia and Nokia Siemens Networks announced today they will make an initial donation of over three million RMB (around 300,000 euros) to help victims of the massive earthquake that hit China’s Sichuan Province on Monday. 

Nokia and Nokia Siemens Networks said that in addition to their cash donation, they would match any donations raised by their employees.  

Nokia has earmarked over 4,000 phones for immediate use in ongoing rescue efforts, with the first batch having already arrived, and Nokia Siemens Networks has established a 24-hour, on-site service for the local operator to ensure the integrity and effectiveness of its network. 

Nokia and Nokia Siemens Networks extend their condolences and sympathies to those affected by the earthquake, which to date has killed almost 15,000 people.

Hooked On: Creatures of the Deep for N-Gage has won the Meffys ‘Games Award’ for best mobile game, beating out three other nominees.

“Winning this Meffys award is a great honor,” said Dr Mark Ollila, head of games publishing, Nokia. “This award reinforces that offering original IP, rich graphics, and fun connected made-for-mobile games, makes a winning combination.”

The Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF) held the awards ceremony in Cannes to honor the best in the mobile entertainment industry.

Hooked On: Creatures of the Deep is available on the recently launched N-Gage mobile gaming service. Like all N-Gage games, this one too is free to try before buying.

Learn more at http://www.n-gage.com or http://www.mobileangler.com.

The Games Award

Winner:

Nokia — Hooked on: Creatures of the Deep

Runner-ups:

Hands-On Mobile — World Poker Tour: Texas Hold ‘Em 2

Konami Digital Entertainment — Metal Gear Solid Mobile

Konami Digital Entertainment — Pro Evolution Soccer 2008

Player X — Hollywood Hospital

Pangea Day is a global day of films, music and speakers that will be held simultaneously on May 10, 2008 in gathering places around the world. Inspired by the 2006 TED Prize wish of Jehane Noujaim, Pangea Day endeavors to bring the world together and promote understanding and tolerance. Pangea Day is a celebration of what unites us, rather than what divides us, via films made by the world for the world.  

On May 10th, millions of people all over the world will come together to watch a 4-hour program of short films, coupled with talks from CNN’s Christiane Amanpour and Queen Noor of Jordan, and with special musical guests. Through the Friends of Pangea Day page, anyone, anywhere can sign up and host their own Pangea Day event or attend an event in their local community. 

Nokia actively supports the Pangea Day mission by connecting people across the globe. Through the power of mobile technology, Nokia gives people a voice as well as platforms to communicate and share every day. For the Pangea Day broadcast on May 10th, Nokia made it possible for people to capture their stories by distributing free video-enabled Nokia mobile devices to film schools and refugee camps, where stories of universal human truths—like love, laughter, sorrow or hope— transcend background and place to bring people closer together. 

Nokia organized the 2008 Nokia Mobile Filmmaking Awards which ran from March 19 to April 30. During that period people could submit their short videos to ovi.com/pangeaday. On May 6th, Nokia announced the five finalists in the 2008 Nokia Mobile Filmmaking Awards which will be screened during the Pangea Day broadcast. The winners will be flown to Los Angeles to attend one of the live Pangea Day events on Saturday, May 10th. In addition to the trip to the Los Angeles event, the winner will receive a mobile filmmaking trip of a lifetime to the Rwandan Gorilla Reserve and a production budget to record their trip.  

Though submissions for the 2008 Nokia Mobile Filmmaking Awards have closed, images and films will live on at www.ovi.com/pangeaday where you can continue to share your experiences about this special day. 

For more information about the Pangea Day and the 2008 Nokia Mobile Filmmaking Awards, visit www.ovi.com/pangeaday.

Nokia today has donated 350,000 euros to the Finnish Red Cross to help victims of Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar. There is an urgent need in the South East Asian country for housing, and the donation will allow for the provision of thousands of temporary shelters as well as a significant amount of tools and materials to help in the rebuilding of homes. The Red Cross says that in rural parts of the country up to 95 percent of all homes were destroyed. 

“The devastation wrought by Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar has been truly shocking. We wanted to move as quickly as possible to help provide relief for those affected, so the Red Cross was a natural choice,” said Martin Sandelin, Vice President, Corporate Social Responsibility and Community Involvement, Nokia.

Nokia’s advanced design team today shared “Homegrown”, a long term research project looking at how Nokia can help people make more sustainable choices. The team is exploring specific environmental and social issues including recycling, energy and how to make the benefits of mobile technology available to more people. 

The project is being run by the same team who created Remade – a concept first shown at the Mobile World Congress earlier this year and that explores how recycled materials may be used in the future to make mobile devices. At today’s event in Nokia’s London design studio the team showed for the first time some of the other concept they are working on. These are: 

Zero Waste Charger concept - this explores ways to reduce the energy that is wasted when chargers are unplugged from a mobile device but left plugged into a live mains socket.  

People First concept – this concept takes three human universals of the way people think about communication – time, lists, and people – to inspire and examine new user interface ideas.  

Wears in, not out concept – as more services become available on our mobile devices this concept explores how people could potentially upgrade their devices digitally rather than physically in the future, giving people an additional choice on how they use and update their mobile phones.  

The design team developing these concepts works on a time frame of looking three to five years out into the future. By sharing some of these ideas and stimulating a discussion they hope to develop innovative new ideas that can be used both within Nokia’s own business but also more broadly to drive environmental improvements.   

Photos of the concepts 

Video of the Remade concept

 Press materials and photos from the London event www.nokia.com/press

Closure by June 30, 2008

Nokia GmbH and the company’s works council have signed the social plan agreement on the closure of the Nokia Bochum site on April 23, following their agreement on the key elements of the plan on April 8.

The affected employees will be informed about the details of the social plan agreement by Nokia and the works council in a town hall meeting today.

The total amount of the social plan is 200 million euros – including severance payments and the establishment of a transfer company. Employees affected by the closure have the opportunity to move to the transfer and qualification company for 12 months, facilitating their search for new employment.

Thus, the aim to reach a fair and reasonable solution for all affected employees has been achieved. The Nokia GmbH Supervisory Board has decided on the closure of the Bochum site. The site will be closed by June 30, 2008 as planned.

S60 on Symbian OS is the world’s leading smartphone software. It is under continuous development by Nokia and licensed by some of the industry’s top mobile device manufacturers. Read more about S60 www.s60.com.

Please find attached the press backgrounder:

s60_press-backgrounder_web-2-0.pdf