It's also a phone!

TECHNOLOGY: Nokia is optimistic about the E90 despite its steep price and network bottlenecks.

Nokia's Communicator line, launched in 1996, has come a long way. And with its latest launch "" the Nokia E90, a PDA (personal digital assistant) that promises to make laptops redundant "" the Finnish giant has got a shot in the arm.

In a survey conducted among Communicator patrons, 50 per cent said they were willing to upgrade to the E90 despite its steep price-tag of Rs 40,499.

Converged devices comprise only 10 per cent of the 175 million Indian cellular subscriber base. But Chakrapani G K, country general manager (enterprise solutions), Nokia, is unperturbed.

"The Nokia E90 is more than just a mobile phone, it is also a mobile communication centre, opening up into a very handy palm sized computer."

Interestingly, Nokia's enterprise solutions arm, which has close to six business phones at present, has been steadily picking up marketshare from established PDA-maker, Blackberry.

In first quarter 2007, Nokia notched up total mobile devices volumes, across categories (including mobile phones, multimedia and enterprise solutions business groups) of 91.1 million units, representing 21 per cent year-on-year growth.

The converged devices industry (for example, PDAs) increased to about 23.5 million units, compared to around 17 million units in first quarter 2006.

Nokia's own converged devices volumes rose to 11.8 million units, compared to 8.5 million units in first quarter 2006. Nokia shipped close to 8 million Nokia N series and more than 1 million Nokia E series devices during first quarter 2007, according to Nokia's financial report for the first quarter of 2007.

With net sales for the E series more than doubling year on year in Europe, Latin America and Asia-Pacific, Chakrapani says confidently, "Enterprise solutions is one of the faster growing business groups, primarily with mobile users upgrading their phones for slicker and efficient converged devices. The group has showed improved results, bolstered by sales of the new Nokia E65." Nokia could be looking at breakeven for enterprise solutions in second quarter 2007.

Nokia made the first notable offshoot for its enterprise solutions when it acquired Intellisync two years ago. Essentially, Intellisync's device management solution helps carriers move beyond BlackBerry-style mobile email and offers a wide range of applications to their mobile business customers.

In the event of loss or theft, for instance, enterprise IT managers can shut down and wipe clean devices from a variety of manufacturers, running a wide range of operating systems. With E90, Nokia is hoping that its device management system, which equips enterprise customers with tools to manage mobile devices across various networks and platforms, will pay off.

"Though enterprise mobility offerings afford higher margins and average revenue per user than the consumer market, Indian carriers have been relatively slow to roll out compelling solutions "" largely as a result of security and management concerns," laments Chakrapani. Management concerns regarding limited adoption of new mobile applications such as CRM, salesforce systems, and mobile workflow management, hopes Nokia, will be addressed capably through E90.