Nokia all set for Nano technology based water proof phones

No longer will the devices be ugly looking in order to make them water proof as the new technology will make the devices water proof without adding bulk.

During the Mobile World Congress 2013, Nokia announced its partnership with P2i, a leader in liquid repellent nano-coating technology to make devices water repellent. The fruits of this partnership are expected to be reaped within this year itself. According to Russian website mobiletefon.ru

Nokia will soon come out with water proof phones, according to a Russian website - mobiletefon.ru.

It is to be noted that Nokia had announced its partnership with P2i, a leader in liquid repellent nano-coating technology to make devices water repellent. The liquid repellent nano-coating technology is now expected to be used in the upcoming water proof handsets of Nokia. 

Out of the many devices that are likely to be released this year, the Nokia Lumia 1000, which was leaked sometime back, is most likely to be given the treatment first hand.Add caption

With Nano technology, devices would no longer be required to have bulky designs and protective coverings inside their cases in order to protect the sensitive electronics inside. In the Nano technology, a micro layer of protective material is layered on the electronic components that makes them water proof without affecting the thermal design of the components. This way a phone can be made as slim as any other phone while adding water resistance characteristics to it as well.

With the use of this new technology devices like Nokia Lumia 1000 would definitely gain size advantage and all the connectors which otherwise need to be heavily protected in devices to make them water resistant will not be done.

Nokia Lumia 520 is here with flashy colors and supersensitive screen

Nokia got on stage today to announce the Lumia 520, another one in its strategy to go downmarket with the Lumia brand, and bring Windows Phone 8 to the masses.

The Nokia Lumia 520 is the company's cheapest Windows Phone 8 handset, delivering experiences normally only found in high-end smartphones, such as the same digital camera lenses found on the flagship Nokia Lumia 920, Nokia Music for free music out of the box and even offline, and the HERE location suite. A four-inch super sensitive touchscreen makes for a more responsive and immersive content experience than can usually be found at this price.

As for the other specs, we get a 1 GHz dual-core S4 processor, 512 MB of RAM, 8 GB of internal memory and a microSD slot. The 5 MP camera is with f/2.4 aperture, capable of HD 720p video, and has some neat tricks up its sleeve like Cinemagraph and Panorama. The battery is generous 1430 mAh, good for 9 hours of talk time in 3G mode, and 6 hours of Wi-Fi browsing.

The Nokia Lumia 520 comes in five colors, with an estimated starting price of EUR 139 (~$184), before taxes and subsidies. Roll-out is planned to begin in Q1 2013 in Hong Kong and Vietnam, before expanding broadly in Q2 to markets in Europe, Asia - including China and India - Latin America and Africa. The Nokia Lumia 520 is also planned to roll out in the United States with T-Mobile as the Lumia 521.

LIVE: Nokia's MWC 2013 press-conference

Nokia is back here at MWC with a press-conference where we expect the manufacturer to unveil some quite intriguing devices. Last year, Nokia introduced the innovative 808 PureView and Lumia 620 to the world, and this year we're once again looking forward to a new camera breakthrough. Sure, the Nokia Lumia 920 already has that beautiful 8MP PureView Phase II camera, but we all know that's still light-years away from the quality of the good-old 808, and that's what we're all hoping to see here at MWC - the real PureView and Windows Phone - all in a single device. Of course, the surprises that Nokia's hiding up its sleeve might be completely different, so let's not hurry to get our hopes up too high.

Whatever Nokia is going to unveil, we're sure that it'll be quite exciting, so be sure stay tuned to us! This wonderful events starts at 2:30AM Eastern, 1:30AM Central | 12:30AM Mountain | 11:30PM Pacific (on the 24th) | 7:30AM GMT.

Live event tracker

02:27			And that's a wrap, folks, thanks for following!
02:27			"For Nokia the building blocks are in place, and now we have to make sure that all this capability and beauty and design...comes to market."
02:26			Elop says the shift away from them is happening at a fast pace indeed
02:26			Question: We have observed that QWERTY-based devies is clearly on a decline?
02:25			"Of course there's a lot more to come. We're very excited about what we announced today."
02:25			When are you bringing 808 PureView camera to Windows Phone? "PureView stands for more than anything a great photographic experience."
02:21			"We have to rapidly innovate at the high-end. It turns out...some of the hardest work is taking some of that innovation and making it cheap"
02:21			Can you give us your thoughts on how you will continue to invest at the high-end?
02:18			City Lens gets mentioned as a "whole new array of experience"
02:18			Q&A time now, asking about Augmented Reality going forward
02:17			"Today I know that every Nokia and every Nokia fan is proud that we are now fielding the most innovative portfolio of products ever."
02:17			Wrapping it up: "Without question we have remained focus on our strategy. Market first innovations to people at all prices points"
02:16			Sports Direct, Foxtons, Coca Cola, Kone, KPN, and Mall of America moving to Lumia because of the synergies with Microsoft
02:14			"With Lumia on Windows Phone 8 we can deliver a great Microsoft business applications and service experience."
02:14			"We're also getting bolder as it relates to business."
02:13
02:13
02:12			"We're opening up our core technologies and APIs to developers."
02:11			"We've achieved the level of 130,000 Windows Phone applications."
02:11			HERE Maps will become available for the new Firefox OS from Mozilla.
02:10			The HERE navigational suite is coming to non-Lumia Windows Phones, so HTC and Samsung are doing a jig and dance now
02:09			China Mobile will be carrying the Nokia Lumia 520 and 720, pretty ambitious rollout
02:08			The Lumia 720 will roll out in Asia this quarter, then expand to Europe for EUR 250
02:08
02:08
02:08			Lumia 520 coming this quarter in Europe and Asia, in the US with T-Mobile and in Latin America for EUR 130
02:08
02:07
02:07			Nokia 105 and 301 (EUR 65)coming in Q2
02:06			Single tap puts the phone in the holder, it starts charging, and gets yo to your destination, no more dead phones because of the GPS app
02:05			Nokia wireless charging car holder gets announced, combining it with navigation!
02:04			Lumia 720 has the same battery from the 920, and wireless charging, too!
02:04
02:04			"Once again we want to bring sight and location to more and more applications." so 3rd party apps are also invited
02:03			You can use the viewfinder to find places around you and then navigate to them
02:03			"We're really bringing the user interface of sight across the portfolio with HERE Livesight"
02:01			Place Tag, is new app app to tag photos and turn them into postcards
02:00
02:00			Wide-angle frontal camera, fitting up to four people in the frame
02:00			F/1.9 aperture, great low-light performance, here is a sample
01:59			"The real surprise in this mid-range smartphone is the camera."
01:59			"We're also launching and rolling out HTML5 support for bigger screens and browsers.This all for less than 4 euros a month."
01:59
01:58			Talking about software now - "So Nokia Music+ is an upgrade as a subscription for people who already use Nokia Music."
01:57			First Lumia unibody with microSD card support
01:56
01:55			4.3" ClearBlack screen with curved glass, operated with gloves, great sunlight visibility
01:55
01:55
01:54			Time for the heavy-hitter - Nokia Lumia 720, made for non-LTE markets, aimed for broader reach

Nokia Set to Go Cheap, Releasing Bargain Smartphones

Nokia will reportedly announce cheap feature phones and smartphones, unlike its flagship Lumia 920 (above), at MWC in Barcelona.

Nokia wants to regain its power position within the cellphone business and plans to flood the developing world with cheap phones to do it.

The once mighty Finnish company is set to announce a number of cheap feature phones and smartphones at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next week in a bid to turn itself around, according to Reuters. Nokia posted six consecutive quarterly losses before returning a small profit last quarter. Still, the company has been soundly thrashed by Apple and Samsung in the smartphone space and sold just 4.4 million Lumia smartphones last quarter, compared to 79.6 million feature phones. It’s clear where Nokia is making most of its money, and it plans to capitalize on that.

But Nokia faces stiff competition to all of its products from dominant players like Apple and Samsung at the high end to lesser-known but still formidable Chinese firms like Huawei and ZTE on the low end. Taiwanese chipmaker Mediatek, for example, has its eyes squarely on the cheap smartphone market in Asia, India and Africa, where it plans to sell unsubsidized smartphones that will cost less than $200.

Nokia has already made sure to offer a variety of very basic smartphones in its Asha lineup. The devices tend to cost less than $100, priced to sell mainly in emerging markets like China and India. Nokia has also made sure that its Lumia lineup is more affordable, with devices like the Lumia 620, a budget Windows Phone 8 phone that starts at $250 without a carrier subsidy.

Making sure that it has the budget devices that appeal to emerging markets will be crucial to Nokia’s future business. But the company will also need to continue pushing its Windows Phone 8 Lumia lineup to catch up in more smartphone-penetrated markets like the U.S. and Europe. Whether it will all be enough to ensure Nokia its leading mobile phone maker position anytime soon is unlikely, but at least the company won’t need to slip further into the abyss.

Nokia to chase the entry-level market as well at MWC, preparing affordable devices to compete with Huawei and ZTE

Nokia is expected to launch a number of entry-level devices including both Windows Phone-based affordable smartphones and feature phones in just a couple of days at Mobile World Congress, according to Reuters. Nokia has allegedly decided to widen its presence in the low range amidst intensifying competition from Chinese manufacturers like Huawei and ZTE.

These rumors come after we have already heard other sources agreeing Nokia will launch a new Windows Phone flagship named Nokia EOS, a device packing the amazing PureView phase one technology that we’ve seen in the Nokia 808 PureView.

The upcoming affordable models will diversify Nokia’s porftolio and show that the company is now ready to look at the bigger picture after two tough transitional years the company spent laser-focused on bringing a competitive Windows Phone flagship.

There are no further details about those upcoming entry-level devices, but we expect even more of the successful Asha feature phone series.

Nokia sold a record 4.4 million Lumia smartphones in the last quarter of 2012, a one bright spot in an otherwise very turbulent Windows Phone ride which has put the company in the red this year. Still, Nokia would need to start much more than that in order to get noticed. Samsung in comparison sold around 50 million smartphones in Q4 2012 and Apple sold a whopping 48 million of its high-margin iPhone.

O2 says Nokia Lumia 920 is "coming soon"

The >Nokia Lumia 920 has been released for almost all mobile carriers in the UK. There is only one carrier that hasn't gotten the newest Windows Phone flagship device, and it looks like that may be changing. O2 has been the only carrier that hasn't released the device, but the O2 product page for the Nokia Lumia 920 claims that the device is "coming soon".

O2 has been the second largest wireless provider in the UK over the past couple of years, so not being on the carrier has been a source of trouble for the Lumia. But, O2 has consistently promised that the device would be released by the end of February, so that only gives the company about 9 days to make good on its promise. 

Nokia Corporation (ADR) (NOK) Comments On Leaked Tablet Image

In the highly competitive tablet market, companies are keeping their innovations close to their vest, but Nokia Corporation latest entrant may have been shared publicly a little too early.

At a recent Pakistan Nokia event to launch the Nokia 620 Windows 8 phone, an onstage screen showed an image of a tablet that appeared to be around seven inches. This was included with the new phone and a monitor–both run on Windows. Should this Nokia tablet really be this size, then it may incite interest for a less expensive Windows tablet option.

And with the alleged recent leak, it appeared that Nokia may have already made its mind up for the marketplace: a 7-inch Windows tablet.

But not so fast.

For the sake of argument, let’s say it wasn’t a leak. What did the image look like?

The mystery tablet did show a Windows 8 start screen with live tiles, reported TechRadar.com. It also included identical rounded corners and the bright yellow casing usually seen in Nokia’s Windows Phone 8 handsets.

There have been a lot of rumors about a potential Nokia tablet. Back in December, there were rumors  coming from the supply chain of a February launch for a 10″ tablet. But it was delayed as Nokia decided to focus on its smartphones.

Then there’s the recent remarks by Nokia Corporation CEO Stephen Elop. He suggested a few weeks ago, while visiting Sydney, Australia, that a Nokia tablet was in the works. He said at the time, “We haven’t announced tablets at this point, but it is something we are clearly looking at very closely. We are studying very closely the market right now as Microsoft has introduced the Surface tablet, so we are trying to learn from that and understand what the right way to participate would be and at what point in time.”

Elop didn’t rule out that the company would also consider an Android option for the tablet, but Microsoft Corporation seems like a natural partner. He added, “When you think about the Lumia 920 running on Windows Phone, having a Windows tablet or PC or Xbox is something that will give us the opportunity to have a pretty integrated experience.”

And just to add some more fuel to the fire for the tablet, there is the upcoming Mobile World Congress. It will take place from February 25-28. Rewind back to a year agom and Elop was already taking about a possible tablet.

Is 2013 the year it will be introduced?

Nokia: two years after the Windows Phone adoption

It feels like yesterday when we heard Nokia chief executive Stephen Elop shock the industry with his announcement that the then world’s largest feature and smartphone maker will adopt Windows Phone as its main smartphone platform, and jump off the ‘burning platform’ Symbian.

The exact date was February 11th, and the announcement came with the usual Microsoft aplomb, this time adopted by Nokia:

"There are other mobile ecosystems. We will disrupt them.
There will be challenges. We will overcome them.
Success requires speed. We will be swift.
Together, we see the opportunity, and we have the will, the resources and the drive to succeed."

How well is that going? Two years after it started its huge transformation, it’s time to recap Nokia's situation and face the facts. Two years ago, Nokia said 2011 and 2012 will be the transitional years, and now in 2013 it can no longer blame that transformational period for slow sales.

Nokia's smartphone market share has dwindled drastically in the past two years.

The company has ‘optimized’ workforce (a bureaucratic term for cutting jobs), sold non-core assets (like Nokia’s headquarters in Finland, which the company is now leasing), slashed R&D, and saw a huge outflow of top-level management and talent.

Nokia’s camera guru Damian Dinning has left, Nokia’s sales head quit and the whole management was reorganized.

All of that has happened in a monumental effort towards Nokia’s Windows Phone Lumia smartphones. Unfortunately, the fruits of that labor are little. Nokia sold a record 4.4 million Lumias in the Holiday quarter, but that record looked paltry against 47.8 million iPhones sold in the same period, ten times as many as the Lumias.

Actually, looking at the whole of 2012, you’d still see Symbian, the 'burning platform', outsold Windows Phone-based Lumias by a huge margin. Nokia sold around 21.8 million Symbian devices against only some 13.3 million Lumias in 2012.

Reality struck catastrophically in 2012 as Nokia posted record losses, only swinging back to a slight profit in Q4 2012. Once the undisputed leader and innovator in smartphones, often considered creator of the smartphone, Nokia’s market share collapsed to 5.1% of the market cannibalized by Samsung that rose by more than 50%.

From a market leader with 33.7% of the smartphone market in 2010, Nokia held only 5.1% of the market in 2012.

2012 Smartphone market share by vendor

Data courtesy of Communities Dominates Brands.

What’s worse is that its main platform, Windows Phone, grabbed a measly 2% share of all smartphones sold in 2012. BlackBerry, Symbian and even bada all outsold it this year. We’re not even comparing this with the market leader Android and the only close runner-up, iOS.

Nokia has tried to refocus on the North American market, but even at its best, the company sold only 1 million Lumias in a quarter when Apple sold 18 million iPhones in the same period. That is outselling Nokia 18 to 1, a number that leaves comments out.

Back in February 2011, Nokia’s chief executive stated numerous times “It’s now a three-horse race.” The reality of the situation however could not be further away from the truth. Globally, Android is running the smartphone show and Apple is playing catch-up.

Nokia has lost key markets like China, and could not conquer the new ones it wanted like North America. Windows Phone is also not getting much traction with customers.

Nokia is preparing to finally deliver its supposed savior, a true PureView smartphone (where by true we mean one with a huge sensor and unmatched all-around quality like the 808 PureView) for MWC, but the situation has changed. As exciting as it sounds, it could be too little and too late for the company to claim back its spot in the lead.

2012 Smartphone market share by platform

Data courtesy of Communities Dominate Brands.

Nokia delivers with Lumia 620, a cheap phone rich in features

BUDGET phones can be miserable affairs. Poor screen and camera resolution, terrible keyboards and hand-me-down technology can make a user feel like the character in Barbra Streisand's 60s hit Second Hand Rose.

This isn't so with Nokia's new Windows 8 Lumia 620. With up-to-date features such as Near Field Communication (NFC), a digital wallet, Microsoft Office, and some not seen in the premium Lumia 920 model, such as a removable battery and micro SD card slot, budget users may make premium customers jealous.

The Lumia 620 is one of the best budget phones we've seen. At $329 it offers the latest software and connectivity made available through Microsoft's Windows Phone 8, a raft of great add-ons from Nokia, such as free worldwide maps, turn-by-turn car navigation and Nokia music, and social networking integrated in the People Hub.

Weighing 127g and 11mm thick, it is a smallish and lightweight phone that's easy to carry and easy to use no matter your hand size. Nokia says the 620 has a "youthful appeal". With its brightly coloured interchangeable back covers, you can have a blue day, lime green day, orange, magenta, yellow and cyan days, and change the screen theme colour to match.

But this trivialises the 620's youthful appeal. The fact it runs Windows Phone 8, integrates with Office, Skydrive and Office 365 means enterprises might choose this phone to issue to staff.

Being feature-packed yet cost-wise in the ambit of what users are prepared to pay, Nokia's Lumia 620 is the best ambassador Microsoft and Nokia have for popularising the Windows Phone 8 platform in the mass market.

Some corners are cut to keep costs down. The 620's Snapdragon 1.0 Gigahertz dual core processor is less powerful than the 920's 1.5GHz dual core one. But go a few months back, and no Windows Phone had a dual core processor, not even the expensive ones. The previous Windows Phone 7 version worked only with single core processors.

WP7 also didn't permit microSD card storage. In contrast the 620 excels here. It is the first phone we've reviewed with a microSD card slot that can add up to 64GB of additional storage. You will need to buy a 64GB microSD. They start around $60.

Throw in 8GB of internal storage and 7GB free in the cloud with Skydrive, and you have potentially 79GB aboard. That's not bad for a cheapie phone.

The 620's 3.8-inch screen isn't the quality of the iPhone's Retina display. Its 246-pixel resolution falls short of the 326 ppi on the iPhone 4S and 5. Yet images seem sharp enough. In size, the screen is a tad larger than that on the iPhone 4S.

And the 1300 milliampere hour battery is smallish, juice-wise. Yet we did manage to get more than six hours of battery life watching locally stored movies. Windows Phone 8 is efficient power-wise and, with moderate usage, you'll get through the day. Heavy users may be challenged. At least the battery is removable, so you can insert a spare.

The cameras too are average: 5 megapixels on the back and VGA at front. There's no image-stabilising PureView camera found on the premium Lumia 920. The biggest negative is the availability of apps for Windows Phones. Microsoft's Store now has 125,000 apps but many popular ones are yet to be added. Buyers should first check the Microsoft store.

Overall, the 620 makes compromises to be a cheaper phone but its rich features, usability and coupling with Microsoft's latest Windows Phone 8 we think will make it a hit. The 620 is available from February 22 from JB Hi-Fi, the Good Guys, Dick Smith, Harvey Norman and Allphones. Its recommended price is $329 but you can get it at discounted prices locally for about $280, or less.

Overview
2G Network GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
3G Network HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100
SIM Micro-SIM
Announced 2012, December
Status Coming soon. Exp. release 2013, Q1

BODY
Dimensions 115.4 x 61.1 x 11 mm, 76 cc (4.54 x 2.41 x 0.43 in)
Weight 127 g (4.48 oz)

DISPLAY
Type TFT capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
Size 480 x 800 pixels, 3.8 inches (~246 ppi pixel density)
Multitouch Yes
- ClearBlack display

SOUND
Alert types Vibration; MP3, WAV ringtones
Loudspeaker Yes
3.5mm jack Yes
- Dolby headphone sound enhancement

MEMORY
Card slot microSD, up to 64 GB
Internal 8 GB storage, 512 MB RAM

KONEKTIVITAS
GPRS Class B
EDGE Class B
Speed HSDPA, 21 Mbps; HSUPA, 5.76 Mbps
WLAN Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, dual-band
Bluetooth Yes, v3.0 with A2DP, EDR
NFC Yes
USB Yes, microUSB v2.0

CAMERA
Primary 5 MP, 2592х1936 pixels, autofocus, LED flash
Features Geo-tagging
Video Yes, 720p@30fps
Secondary Yes, VGA

Platform
OS Microsoft Windows Phone 8
Chipset Qualcomm Snapdragon S4
CPU Dual-core 1 GHz Krait
GPU Adreno 305

Fitur
Sensors Accelerometer, proximity, compass
Messaging SMS (threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Email, IM
Browser HTML5
Radio No
GPS Yes, with A-GPS support and GLONASS
Java No
Colors Lime green, orange, magenta, yellow, cyan, white, black
- SNS integration
- Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic
- MP3/WAV/eAAC+/WMA player
- MP4/H.264/H.263/WMV player
- 7GB free SkyDrive storage
- Document viewer
- Video/photo editor
- Voice memo/dial
- Predictive text input

BATTERY
Standard battery, Li-Ion 1300 mAh (BL-4J)
Stand-by Up to 330 h
Talk time Up to 14 h 40 min (2G) / Up to 9 h 50 min (3G)
Music play Up to 61 h

Vodafone commits to Windows Phone 8 with launch of five Nokia and HTC smartphones on February 6

Telecommunications company Vodafone has announced today that it will be offering some of its first Windows Phone 8 devices in the UK from February 6. The “army” of devices that will be available both online and in physical stores include the Nokia Lumia 920, 820 and 620, as well as the HTC 8X and 8S.

Vodafone confirmed some of these devices in a blog post published in October last year, following Microsoft’s initial unveiling of the Windows Phone 8 operating system. The Nokia Lumia 920, arguably the flagship device for Windows Phone 8 users, was later confirmed in December.

The Nokia Lumia 920, alongside the HTC 8X, means that Vodafone has plenty to offer users on the high-end. The HTC 8X offers a slimmer form factor, more attractive bezel and lighter overall weight – but the Lumia 920 still has the advantage of exclusive software such as Nokia Maps and Nokia City Lens. Together, they should offer a good balance for the UK network operator.

In fact, Vodafone has hit pretty much all pricing tiers here, although the absence of the Samsung Ativ S has been duly noted. The device features some fairly impressive technical specifications, including a 4.8-inch Super AMOLED HD screen and 2300 mAH battery, but it’s failed to spark the imagination of both consumers and carriers due to its unimaginative software and traditional hardware aesthetics.

Rival carrier Three is already stocking the HTC 8X and 8S, as well as the Nokia Lumia 920 and 620. Meanwhile, 02 stocks the HTC 8X, 8S, Nokia Lumia 820, as well as the aforementioned Samsung Ativ S. The first 4G network operator in the UK, EE, is offering only the Lumia 920 and 820.