Nokia and IBM on Monday unveiled the first product in their year-old alliance: a new Communicator phone aimed at mobile professionals such as sales and support staff.
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"It's the first business phone that delivers on all the needs of a corporate customer, in one device," said Imran Waheed, IBM's European sales manager for wireless e-business.
Nokia's latest Communicator, model 9500, will sport features considered essential to business phones but that until now were lacking in the Communicator line-up, such as the ability to connect to the world's three GSM networks, including versions with the fast EDGE data channels.
"The world's No. 1 in e-business services hooks up with the No. 1 in mobile devices. This tells me Nokia is serious about developing products for enterprises, which I wasn't sure about before," said analyst Andy Brown at research group IDC.
IBM is the globe's largest computer company, while Nokia makes almost two out of every five phones sold worldwide.
The new phone, which will sell at around 800 euros ($1,000) and is slightly shorter and lighter than earlier Communicators, flips open to unveil a keyboard and also has the ability to connect to wireless local networks, known as Wi-Fi or Wireless LAN.
Nokia and IBM announced their alliance one year ago, at the same 3GSM trade show where they are now showing their first product, which is currently on trial with several dozen employees at U.S. drugs maker Pfizer, Japan's copier producer Ricoh and German car manufacturer DaimlerChrysler.
Block Microsoft
The companies expect products to be commercially available in the third quarter, also promoting it as an alternative for companies that do not want to use only Microsoft software.
"Enterprises want choice. This is an open system. It is not just restricted to (IBM's e-mail program) Notes. It is fully compatible with Microsoft (software)," Waheed said.
With its dominant position in office applications on desktop computers, Microsoft already offers a range of familiar-looking mobile software to enterprises, including wireless e-mail and software for mobile phones and pocket PCs.
But IDC's Brown said 40 percent of enterprises run IBM's e-mail software and, until now, had no secure possibility to beam e-mails to mobile devices. "It's going to be an interesting battle. This is by no means tied up by any one player."
Nokia and IBM said their product is more versatile than Research in Motion's popular e-mail device Blackberry, since it can run heavy-duty enterprise software applications.
Enterprise planning software and sales-force software from Siebel and SAP have been miniaturized to fit on the Communicator. IBM built security and device management software similar to the type companies use to protect laptop computers.
The new Communicator runs on an operating system from Nokia-controlled Symbian, a rival to Microsoft's Windows Mobile, as well as Nokia's Series 80 application software.
"This product also shows that Symbian is ready for the enterprise, and is not restricted to consumer phones" said Panu Kuusisto, head of alliance development at Nokia Enterprise Solutions.
Story Copyright © 2004 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
