BARCELONA // Nokia's chief executive envisions a future where the company competes as much with Google as it does with traditional handset makers, selling its internet-based services to users of rival devices.
The Finnish company's chief executive, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, spoke to The National on the sidelines of Nokia World, a two-day global briefing event for partners, analysts and the media.
He said it was simply "a question of evolution" that would determine when Nokia services, like maps and instant messaging, become available on competing handsets.
"The mobile industry has been very good at capturing value from adjacent industries," he said. "We have become the biggest camera manufacturer, the biggest music player manufacturer, and this will continue. In online services, the mobile industry is again capturing value, adding mobility to the -internet."
Mr Kallasvuo, who has been at Nokia for almost 30 years and was named chief executive in 2006, said a cultural transformation is underway at the company, known historically as a research and engineering powerhouse.
"We need to become more like an internet company - but I'm not saying we want to become an internet company, because that would mean saying goodbye to what we are, and that's not the point," he said. "We need to combine the new and the old, and old is not a negative word here."
In two keynote addresses today, Mr Kallasvuo and his colleague, Anssi Vanjoki, the executive vice president for markets at Nokia, laid out the company's ambitious strategy to redefine the internet as a platform centred around the mobile phone.
By allowing users to share their location and movements with friends and create electronic "tags" attached to physical locations, Nokia hopes its phones will become the central devices of an interconnected world.
"Instead of one internet, we will talk about billions of internets," Mr Kallasvuo said.
But the company is not the only major player moving into the internet services business.
Mobile network operators, keen to diversify their revenue streams, are also hoping to sell value-added services like music downloads and data storage to their customers.
Internet giants like Microsoft and Google are looking increasingly to the mobile phone to power the next boom in online advertising and spending.
"I look at the list of people who are active in our industry," Mr Kallasvuo said, "and I am saying to myself 'you can compete with some of them some of the time, but not all of them all the time'. The right partnering is obviously very important."
Nokia has forged partnerships with network operators in Europe to resell its web services, branded as Ovi, to their customers.
In the Middle East, it has partnered with the Cairo-based regional operator Orascom Telecom; Mr Kallasvuo said the company is looking to build more relationships with such networks. To emphasise the company's new direction, Nokia today launched its new flagship device, the N97, promising that it will be more closely integrated with the internet than anything else on the market.
The N97 uses a full touch-screen interface, like the Apple iPhone, its hugely successful competitor. But the screen slides upwards to reveal a full keyboard, similar to that of Nokia's other high-end competitor, the BlackBerry.
The company did not give specific details regarding when the device will be available in the Middle East. Many phones currently hitting the market, like the Sony Ericsson Xperia and the HTC G1, use a similar design.
But Nokia hopes that what will truly differentiate the device is the way internet services, like mapping and social networks, will integrate into the phone.
Users will be able to perform a "physical search" by pointing the camera phone at a nearby landmark. Using a combination of global positioning system location data and picture-matching technology, Nokia's point-and-find service will identify the landmark and provide information from the internet.
The N97 is also designed as a primary storage device for personal media like music and films, coming with a 32 gigabyte hard drive, larger than anything currently
available on the market.
Nokia plans to release the new phone in the first half of next year, at an estimated price of ?550 (Dh2,560).
tgara@thenational.ae
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A clear distinction between the residences and the Raffles hotel with the amenities operated separately.
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Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
The biog
Alwyn Stephen says much of his success is a result of taking an educated chance on business decisions.
His advice to anyone starting out in business is to have no fear as life is about taking on challenges.
“If you have the ambition and dream of something, follow that dream, be positive, determined and set goals.
"Nothing and no-one can stop you from succeeding with the right work application, and a little bit of luck along the way.”
Mr Stephen sells his luxury fragrances at selected perfumeries around the UAE, including the House of Niche Boutique in Al Seef.
He relaxes by spending time with his family at home, and enjoying his wife’s India cooking.
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
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How to register as a donor
1) Organ donors can register on the Hayat app, run by the Ministry of Health and Prevention
2) There are about 11,000 patients in the country in need of organ transplants
3) People must be over 21. Emiratis and residents can register.
4) The campaign uses the hashtag #donate_hope
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When is VAR used?
• Goals
• Penalty decisions
• Direct red-card incidents
• Mistaken identity
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Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
VEZEETA PROFILE
Date started: 2012
Founder: Amir Barsoum
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: HealthTech / MedTech
Size: 300 employees
Funding: $22.6 million (as of September 2018)
Investors: Technology Development Fund, Silicon Badia, Beco Capital, Vostok New Ventures, Endeavour Catalyst, Crescent Enterprises’ CE-Ventures, Saudi Technology Ventures and IFC
