Now EVP of Markets, Nokia exec take the stage for some big reveals.
Anssi Vanjoki, Nokia's EVP of markets, has taken the stage in Stuttgart to talk strategy, and make some announcements. ME is here liveblogging: refresh to see the latest updates.
9.38: He kicks off with this opener: "We used to be a technology-driven organisation. Now we consider ourselves a consumer-led organisation."
9.39: Says it's just a matter of time, now Nokia has teamed up with Microsoft, that it'll be the leader in business services. But it's social media that's the biggest driver at the moment for services.
9.40: "Look at Twitter. It's grown its traffic 1,382% on mobile in the past year. And in this way, that is a good example of how we are weaving together the network of the virtual world with the presence in the internet of the people". Chew on that, for a second.
9.41: "We have been getting critiques that our smartphones will not be competitive, yet we are the completely undisputed leader in that space, with a market share higher in the smartphone space than in phones in general. And we are not giving up. We are fighting back. We are on the attack." That smartphone market share is falling, it should be noted - still leading, but being eaten away by Apple and RIM. Hence the fightback talk.
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9.43: Who had 9.43am for the first not-so-disguised pop at Apple? "We are making all these things a reality for the masses, not just for the elite of this planet"
9.44: The N97 is about to sell/ship its two millionth unit. Vanjoki says Nokia is getting plenty of feedback on the N97, and has adapted the device in updates - everything from memory management to user interface tweaks.
9.45: The N97 2.0 software will be available in October, but will be demoed here at Nokia World. But "we also need to put a little bit more hardware around this software, and that is exactly what we have done." Announcement imminent: Vanjoki unveils the N97 Mini, which is aimed at taking the N97 to a broader, younger base of users.
9.50: It's interesting because nobody's really nailed this maps-meets-social stuff on mobile yet. Google's Latitude is a start, and Apple letting developers use the Google Maps API in their iPhone apps is throwing up some interesting services too. Nokia clearly plans to be a big player in this new area too.
9.51: “We have developed the concept of lifecasting your life”. Er.. didn't a bunch of webcam-focused tech startups do that? Ustream and Justin.tv? Anyway, Vanjoki goes on: it's not just about streaming video – it's about photos being published to Facebook (Facebook is much higher profile in this demo than Ovi Share).
9.53: Nokia Maps has been integrated into Facebook – stuff you upload from your Nokia handset to Facebook can be clicked on to see a map of where you were when you uploaded it, in short. “We have worked with Facebook to start with,” he says, implying more partnerships could be on the way – Twitter maybe? YouTube?
9.54: “It's wonderful that the talk I've been giving for some time on the rich context and how we start to live in the media, it's there! It's not any more science fiction or talk, it's there!
9.55: The N97 Mini will cost 450 Euros SIM-free, but Vanjoki thinks operators will be giving it away with contracts in many countries.
9.56: He flicks up a clip of UK trio The Noisettes, who are the big secret (well, not secret any more) band playing tonight's Nokia World party. Which leads Vanjoki onto music as a service, and Nokia's investment in Nokia Music Store and Comes With Music - presumably building up to those two new music phones.
9.57: Stat! One third of downloads from Nokia Music Store are downloaded over the air - "it would be more but for the cost," says Vanjoki.
9.58: Ooh, an iTunes logo appears on-screen. "If I was to download the albums from the UK Top 100 using iTunes, I would end up paying nearly 1,000 Euros for this experience," he says, before seguing into Comes With Music where those Top 100 albums... Well, you see what he's getting at.
9.59: Stat! Singapore CWM users have downloaded more than five million tracks since launch. Is Nokia's unlimited music service doing better in emerging markets than in, say, the UK? Stats like that hint that possibly it is - which may be a reason for us Westerners to not write it off based on sluggish sales over here. That's me saying that, not Vanjoki, obviously.
10.01: New handset: Nokia X6, a new music phone that you CAN'T buy without Comes With Music. 32GB of memory, touchscreen.
10.03: And now another handset, the X6's "little brother" - the X3, which is another music phone with Comes With Music. Both out in Q4, and pricing at 450 Euros for the X6 and - no typo - 115 Euros for the X3. SIM-free and including Comes With Music? That's a big deal.
10.05: Now onto the previously-announced Booklet 3G netbook. "I feel very excited about this thing, and the consumers were the ones who told us make one, and put the Nokia know-how and Nokia name on this device, and I will buy one," says Vanjoki.
10.06: Booklet 3G pricing: 575 Euros. But operators will sell it for less with subsidies, and there's a swappable SIM-card slot.
10.07: "We have something else as well," says Vanjoki, before launching into a history of Nokia's operating systems, S30 and onwards. This is building up to Maemo, I think. "A true platform for the next generation of computers... We have what we believe is the platform that defines what computers have become." Cue the N900.
10.10: "A browsing experience beyond anything which you have experienced in a mobile device before". He's really talking up the browsing on the N900. And its price will be 500 Euros, but it'll be sold for less through operators. "We are incorporating a cellular engine in this product" - which begs the question of how the N900 will handle voice calls - just VoIP clients like Skype (in which case operators may get shirty), or a regular voice call over the mobile network?
10.11: "Nokia is not on the defensive," says Vanjoki as he winds up.
