Tero Ojanpera trains his guns on Apple at MEM 2010.
Nokia's EVP of sevices Tero Ojanpera took a shot at Apple this morning, saying that there is more to mobile entertainment than iPhone.
"The future of entertainment is not simply about apps and multi-tasking," said Ojanpera, speaking at the MEM 2010 conference in London.
"It's about devices that offer truly connected services and learn your habits so well that they can give you what you want."
He also criticised "single apps that work in silos" - another pop at the iPhone ecosystem. "Say goodbye to the apps phone, and say hello to the predictive context device," he said.
Ojanpera's keynote address focused on big-picture stuff: Nokia's view of connected services and location-based content.
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"The revolution is already underway: just think about the World Cup," said Ojanpera, citing research from Nielsen indicating that 21% of football fans will be keeping up with World Cup games on their phones. "Up from practically zero in 2006 when the last World Cup happened," noted Ojanpera.
Nokia has a partnership with Pepsi around the World Cup, offering real-time updates, streaming media and football games to users of its Ovi Store.
Ojanpera also cited figures from IDC predicting that one billion people will be accessing the internet through their phones by 2013, up from 450 million today.
"We are moving to a place where your mobile device will be able to offer a limitless amount of context and personalisation in real-time," he said.
"Your phone will track your location, your friends' location, your schedule, your social graph, what you were doing before, and what you are likely to be doing in the near future."
Ojanpera also focused on entertainment inflection points from the past, including the transition from radio to black-and-white TVs; the point where cable TV went mainstream tipped by the famous Ali-Foreman 'Rumble In The Jungle' boxing match; and the web browser going mainstream.
"We are now seeing the same thing happening with the mobile internet," said Ojanpera. "Location awareness is the hot new feature that we are seeing in the industry, especially now it's being combined with the capability to continuously transmit your location to friends and family around the world."
Ojanpera said that social location presents a huge opportunity for brands and retailers, citing Foursquare and Facebook check-ins and status updates as hugely important.
Nokia is working with McDonalds, Dolce & Gabbana and other retailers on delivering coupons to Ovi Maps users, and Ojanpera promised hundreds of similar campaigns in the months ahead.
Ojanpera also described the "unending appetite for music" from mobile users, but stressed that in the future: "It will not just be about experiencing the music you already know about."
He also talked about his excitement about alternate reality games, Nokia's partnership with Heroes creator Tim Kring - "who I happen to know personally very well" - on something called Conspiracy For Good - see yesterday's story on ME for the details.
"What makes it really cool is that the players help the creator create a storyline that will ultimately benefit a school in Zambia," he said. "By playing the alternate reality game, you will have a real-world impact."
Ojanpera also talked up Nokia's Location Aware Gig Finder application, which lets users find concerts near them, buy tickets and get directions to the venue using Ovi Maps.
He also said Ovi now has the "world's largest digital music footprint", offering music in 36 different countries - something Apple may disagree with, based on its iTunes Store.
In a comic touch, Ojanpera compared the future of mobile phones to Batman's butler Alfred. "That is our future!" he said.
He also addressed the current trend for operators to axe their unlimited data tariffs, saying that Nokia is pitching Ovi Maps to operators and consumers as a data-saving service - because it preloads maps on devices, rather than streaming them in over the network.
"Ovi Maps uses less than a tenth of the data than navigating with Google Maps," claimed Ojanpera.
He finished off by restressing Nokia's line that "the future is beyond standalone apps" and more about connected services.
