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Nontawan Sindhvananda, head of multimedia business at Nokia (Thailand), said the trend of convergence will allow mobile users to experience many more multimedia applications. The six key mobile applications include taking photos, listening to music, mapping, gaming, watching live television, and accessing the Internet.

Most mobile-phone users in Thailand are young adults from a generation that is familiar with technology. This group is the target of the N-series multimedia phone from Nokia.

Even if the N-series represented only 19 per cent of the company's sales last year, the multimedia phone is playing an important role for the company as it is a rapidly growing segment. The remainder include standard mobile phones with 60 per cent, network devices with 18 per cent, and enterprise products with 3 per cent.

Nontawan said the all-in-one device, formerly known as the smart phone, represented by the N-series, will eventually replace the single devices that include game consoles, global positioning system (GPS) gadgets, digital cameras and media players. Last year, 500 million multimedia devices were distributed worldwide. The total market for all-in-one-devices last year was 80 million units, of which around 40 million units were Nokia.

This year it is expected that the total market for all-in-one devices will be 175 million units and grow to 250 million units next year. The N-series this year will generate more revenue for the company.

The N-series will lead Nokia to become an influential company in this market. Last year, the total mobile market was around 9.2 million units while last year the company's revenue reached a record high after eight years of establishment.

"To encourage the use of multimedia applications on mobile phones, Nokia plans to work with both global and local partners to bring users the experience of rich multimedia by ensuring they have a greater variety of applications," said Nontawan.

By 2010, it is expected there will be four billion people accessing the Internet through mobile phones. Recent Nokia in-house research reported that the top mobile application is taking photographs, followed by listening to music, playing games and connecting to the Internet.

 However, the global mobile-phone market last year was about 978 million units, of which 36 per cent or around 347 million units were Nokia phones.

Asina Pornwasin

The Nation