Text-messaging propels change

By ADAM GIFFORD

The number of text messages sent worldwide in October 2000 was 15 billion.

By the end of 2002, the best guess is that the total will have exploded to 200 billion a month.

Nokia's global director of mobile e-business, Heikki Heinaro, told Asia-Pacific journalists in Sydney last week that there had been a misconception that internet on mobile phones would somehow replicate the browsing experience of desktop computers.

Instead, services were evolving to suit the limitations of the phone handset.

There was a youth subculture growing around messaging which the phone vendors were trying to cater for. Examples were giving users the ability to send text messages to multiple recipients, to send chain messages, and to add pictures, sounds and other attachments to text messages.

Many of the new services were likely to be an extension of messaging. One taking off in Japan was the "virtual friend," which had almost one million subscribers, mainly men. For a fee, they chose from a range of girlfriends, and then exchanged text messages with their "idoru" (idol).

Nigel Rundstrom, Nokia Mobile Phones' Asia-Pacific vice-president for strategic marketing, said the slower-than-expected adoption of WAP (wireless application protocol) applications was not upsetting Nokia's plans to sell more WAP-capable handsets.

Market research to identify barriers to WAP had not revealed anything Nokia should worry about, he said.

Twenty-six per cent of people asked did not want a WAP handset because they were happy with their present phone. "With the normal upgrade cycle, that means in 18 months to two years that problem will be solved."

Sixteen per cent said the connection fee was too expensive, and 14 per cent said user fees were too high.

These problems should disappear with the rolling out of GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) networks, which allow "always on" connection to the internet and will necessitate different billing systems from the present time-based regimes.

For the 15 per cent who said the screen was too small, Mr Rundstrom said successful WAP services would be optimised for that format.

To get the internet on to mobile phones, Nokia is supporting a new language standard, xHTML, which can create content for either the internet or mobile phone microbrowsers.

"With this technology we merge the best of the web and wireless world."

Nokia will license the technology to other handset manufacturers, mobile phone operators and service providers.

Mr Rundstrom said Nokia intended to incorporate an xHTML microbrowser on all handsets by the end of the year, replacing its WAP browser.

Nokia's sales pitch is a mix of technology and "lifestyle" marketing. Its first GPRS phone, the 8310, is being pitched as "the new style icon of the fashion crowd," complete with FM radio. Those who still think their phone should be a status symbol can splash out on "The Gold Edition" 8850.

Nokia has also joined the market for MP3 players with its HDR-1 Music Player accessory, which plays downloadable audio files as well as including an FM radio.

* Adam Gifford attended the Nokia Technology Summit in Sydney as a guest of Nokia.