Nokia To Release Their First UMA Capable Phone Later This Year

July 24, 2006 – 10:39 am

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I recently had the opportunity to do a 6 question interview with Keith Nowak, a representative from Nokia Corporation. Nokia is the largest cell phone manufacturer in the world. As a cell phone news blog, we provide timely and interesting information on developments within this industry. We decided to ask Nokia what hot new products they were releasing this calender year. In this interview Mr. Nowak gives a glimpse into the Nokia 6136 phone and UMA networking.

1. What Nokia product are you most excited about?

That’s almost impossible to answer - it’s sort of like asking who your favorite child is. We are certainly excited about many of our new enterprise devices, like the Nokia E61, which combines a popular design with Nokia’s successful S60 platform and great push e-mail capability as well as many of our new N-Series devices, like the Nokia N93 with its 3.2 megapixel camera and optical zoom and the Nokia 91 that can store thousands of songs on its 4GB hard drive.

But, I am personally really excited by a new technology that will begin shipping this year on our Nokia 6136 phone - UMA. UMA (Unlicensed Mobile Access) will allow the cellular network to hand calls over to a Wi-Fi access point in your home or office. While the new VoIP services are great, this is really interesting to me since it is integrated into the cellular system - it’s almost like your mobile operator has erected a little base station - just for you - right in your living room.

2. What makes this product different from other Nokia products?

UMA really helps to change the way that people think about mobile phones - Nokia or otherwise. Many people still think of a cell phone as their ‘road device’ and their landline as their ‘home device’. Indoor coverage can still be spotty in areas, which keeps people from realizing the potential of having one phone number that goes with them everywhere. UMA changes that - allowing people to think of their wireless device not just as their “cell phone” but as their “phone”, period.

3. How much time, manpower and efforts were put into the development of this Nokia product?

All of Nokia’s products are the result of years of effort of Nokia’s more than 50,000 global employees. It’s really almost impossible to pinpoint that one single phone took X number of months and X people to build - the product development process is much more fluid and inclusive than that. On a device like the Nokia 6136, the look and feel of the device, and the user interface, draw from all of the Nokia devices that have come before it - it’s all part of Nokia’s DNA, that makes one Nokia device so familiar to anyone who has ever used one before. And the UMA technology was the result of a standardization process that brought people together from different companies in the industry to develop this new industry standard.

4. How will this product improve peoples lives?

For many people, UMA technology will mean that they will have the freedom to have one number, whether at home or away, fulfilling the promise of your phone number not being tied to a place, but instead being tied to a person. After all, when you call someone, it’s because
you want to connect to them - not to their house.

5. How important is customer feedback when developing/designing Nokia Cell Phones?

Customer feedback is extremely important. Recently, Nokia talked to 41,000 individuals to build an all-new segmentation model that will allow us to best design and produce devices that will fit the needs of a variety of users - whether it is a first-time user in a developing market or a technology aficionado looking for the most cutting edge new device. Also, we take feedback that comes to us through multiple channels - including our new Nokia Flagship Stores - and deliver the information back into the product development process so that we can best serve our customers.

6. Is there anything else that you’d like to add that wasn’t specifically asked above?

I would invite anyone who is interested in wireless to visit our new Nokia Flagship Store in Chicago, or in September, the new location in New York City. Our customers have really enjoyed the opportunity to see, try out and buy the largest selection of Nokia devices anywhere. Not only that, they can interact with the Nokia staff on hand - each of them are great to talk to about all sorts of wireless topics. They have all had weeks and weeks of training with Nokia product experts, and can talk wireless with the best of them. For anyone interested in mobile devices, it’s a great place to spend time.

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