Amsterdam, The Netherlands - At the annual Nokia World conference today, Nokia outlined its vision for the mobile industry, predicting rapid change driven by the convergence of mobility and the internet, and the need for the industry to make an increasing contribution to environmental sustainability. In his keynote address, Nokia president and CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo highlighted Nokia's commitment to driving both trends.
Speaking to an audience of some 2,700 delegates who had gathered in Amsterdam to experience Nokia's vision of the mobility industry's future, Kallasvuo said: "We are at the dawn of a new era in mobile communications driven by the rapid convergence of the internet and mobility, and Nokia is setting the pace of change. But with market leadership in an industry of this scale also comes responsibility," he said. "We are committed to taking a leading role in increasing environmental awareness and performance right across the industry, creating further products and services that help people make more sustainable choices. It is both the responsible thing to do and it makes good business sense."
Nokia unveils "Comes With Music"
During the event the company announced Nokia Comes With Music, a revolutionary program that enables people to buy a Nokia device with a year of unlimited access to millions of tracks from a range of great artists - past, present and future. Once the year is complete, customers can keep all their music without having to worry about it disappearing when their subscription is over.
"We set out to create the music experience that people are telling us they are looking for - all the music they want in the form of unlimited downloads to their mobile device and PC," said Anssi Vanjoki, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Multimedia, Nokia. "Even if you listened to music 24 hours a day, seven days a week, you would still only scratch the surface of the music that we're making available. Comes with Music fulfils our dream to give consumers all the music they want, wherever they want it, while rewarding the artists who create it."
The program will launch with Universal Music Group International, and Nokia is in discussion with the remaining major international labels.
Universal Music Group International Chairman/CEO Lucian Grainge was at Nokia World to launch the program with Nokia. "It's fantastic to work with Nokia on Comes With Music," said Grainge. "We feel it's an innovative way for people to discover and enjoy new artists, while at the same time having access to the amazing depth of the Universal catalog. Comes With Music allows our artists to reach new audiences in a very easy and affordable way."
Ovi - your personal dashboard to life
Nokia also gave further details of the upcoming Ovi Internet services environment. Ovi, meaning 'door' in Finnish, enables consumers to easily access their existing social network and content, acting as a dashboard to a person's life.
"Ovi combines the mobile, PC and web environments into an easy to use experience with common user interface elements that provide consistency and simplicity," said Vanjoki. "We started the Ovi services rollout with the individual services in navigation, music and games, and the next step is to provide an integrated experience. The complete Ovi environment and new services will be rolled out continuously throughout 2008."
Towards greater environmental sustainability
Nokia also outlined its long heritage in addressing environmental issues and commitment to driving new initiatives in the mobile industry in areas such as energy efficiency, materials used in products, take back, recycling, and packaging. This was against the background of the launch of the Nokia 3110 Evolve, a mobile device with bio-covers made from more than 50% renewable material. The device is presented in a small package made of 60% recycled content and it comes with Nokia's most energy efficient charger yet, using 94% less energy than the Energy Star requirements*.
The Nokia 3110 Evolve is the latest in a series of environmental initiatives from the company. For example, Nokia was the first manufacturer to put alerts into its devices to encourage people to unplug their chargers. The power that could be saved globally by all Nokia phone users unplugging their chargers when no longer needed is equivalent to enough energy to power 100,000 average-size European homes. In February 2006, Nokia also introduced new compact packaging that reduced materials used by 54%, a move which by the end of this year will have resulted in 5,000 fewer trucks needed to distribute products, reducing fuel consumption and carbon emissions, and savings of EUR 100 million.
* Energy Star requirements: strict energy-efficiency guidelines set by the US Environmental Protection Agency and the US Department of Energy.
