The occasional scrivener

My first thoughts on the Nokia E-series

Nokia sprung a surprise on us today with then announcement of the E-series business phones. You can get the skinny on the devices over at Jim’s wiki:

• Nokia E60: small, full featured S60 phone.
• Nokia E61: a phone with a full QWERTY keypad and its sights set directly on the BlackBerry
• Nokia E70: a S60 “wing” phone with the QWERTY keypad deployed on either side of a screen.

All phones share the following features:

• GSM and UMTS wireless
• Integrated Wifi
• Bluetooth and infrared(!)
• platform-agnostic email push (see Carlo’s thoughts for more)

With a line-up like this, the recently announced Sony-Ericsson P990 suddenly pales. Sure, it too has Wifi and a smartphone operating system, but it’s not part of an integrated business solution that Nokia has built around the E-series. It’s basically a stand-alone device, marketed by a company with a strong consumer focus.

The E-series can be used as VoIP terminals with certain commercial switches — and you can bet that support for open source products like Asterisk will follow. This opens up another line of attack for Nokia trying to gain market share. Think about it: you can have one device that works as a VoIP terminal internally; you can ensure that the mobile worker has access to email and data at decent speeds nearly everywhere; and you can get this product from one company that provides tools to manage the complexity.

Microsoft was supposed to clean BlackBerry’s and Nokia’s clocks with their Exchange server email push component and their plethora of Windows Mobile devices. But these devices are fragmented among almost as many manufacturers, none of which have the clout to make a concerted biz push like Nokia. And as for the server component, we still haven’t seen it where we are (we’re an Exchange shop.)

On a personal note, either the E61 or the E70 can be my dream device. Forget the Communicator; these phones have all I want and more.

So, once again, Nokia has sprung back, keeping everyone off their toes with a really strong product line. I must say I’m surprised at this — I thought Nokia had dropped the ball on corporate messaging and the biz phone market. But this changes everything. It’s up to the competition (I’m looking at you, Microsoft) to up the ante or fold and leave the table.

Posted at 22:51, in the comm » mobile category. Comments [2]
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