New Nokia smartphones in India, harness NFC technology

29th September 2011
New Nokia smartphones in India,  harness NFC technology
TS Sridhar,Regional General Manager, South, Nokia India with former Miss India finalists Ekta Chaudhry & Neha Hinge at the Bangalore unveiling of Nokia's Symbian Belle & NFC Smartphones , Sept 29, 2011

Smallest, brightest, loudest...

September 30 2011: Nokia has announced three new smartphones for India -- all powered by the Symbian Belle operating system and its ’Just Tap’ Near Field Communication (NFC) technology.
Each of the smartphones offers some world-beating special features:
The most compact touch screen monoblock smartphone in the world (Nokia 700); the world’s brightest mobile display for indoor or outdoor use (Nokia 701)and Nokia’s loudest entertainment smartphone (Nokia 600)
The NFC ecosystem is just about set to evolve in India -- with a huge potential for branchless banking and mobile money transactions... so the Nokia launches seem niceley timed to ride the wave. With the launch of these products, Nokia now has four NFC-enabled smartphones in the market in addition to NFC enabled accessories.

Says T. S. Sridhar, Regional General Manager- South, Nokia India said, “The smartphone market in India has rapidly evolved and is at a very interesting stage. Consumers are looking beyond the basic functionality of the smartphone. They realize the importance of form and shape of a device packed with innovative technology and look for the same in all smartphones. We believe our latest range of smartphones powered by Symbian Belle, with path-breaking technology in the form of ‘Just Tap’ NFC, will push the boundaries for future devices in this segment. ” 
To showcase the power of Symbian Belle, Nokia along with Divum, a Bangalore based developer firm, worked on a project to control an ‘All Terrain Vehicle’ using the Nokia 701 ( see photo) - a perfect blend of powerful hardware, software, electronics, electromechanics & robotics. The App running on the Symbian Belle device allows users to steer the vehicle through WiFi and lets them control the drive from anywhere on planet Earth. The camera fitted on the vehicle streams live video back to the Nokia device. This also brings motion sensing technology to real life, enabling users to steer and maneuver the vehicle by simply tilting the device.

Details of the launch:
Nokia 700/ Rs 18,099

At only 50 cubic centimetres, weighing 96gm and at 110 x 50.7 x 9.7 mm, the Nokia 700 not only becomes Nokia’s most compact smartphone in the Symbian range, it is the most compact touch monoblock smartphone in the world. with single-tap NFC sharing and pairing capabilities, a 1Ghz processor, 3.2 inch AMOLED screen ClearBlack display, 2GB of internal memory (with the option of using a 32GB microSD card for a total of 34GB), HD video capture and 5MP full focus camera with LED flash.
Nokia 701/Rs 18,999 The Nokia 701 incorporates the world’s brightest ever mobile phone display, based on a 3.5 inch ClearBlack display that makes it perfect for indoor and outdoor use. It also has active noise cancellation for the clearest sound quality and, like the other new smartphones, provides single-tap NFC pairing and sharing capabilities, allowing content to be shared and sound to be streamed wirelessly to headphones and NFC-enabled speakers.The Nokia 701 smartphone also has a 1GHz processor, 8MP full focus camera with dual LED flash and 2 X digital zoom, 2nd front-facing camera and HD video capture. It comes with 8GB internal memory and the possibility to increase to 40GB by installing a 32GB microSD card.
Nokia 600/Rs. 12,999 The Nokia 600 smartphone is Nokia’s loudest at 106 Phons. It comes with built-in FM radio antenna for listening to radio without headphones and FM transmitter that makes it possible to broadcast music from your phone to any FM radio. Offers 60 hours of music playback time, a powerful external loudpeaker and the ability to also stream music wirelessly to NFC-enabled accessories. The Nokia 600 still comes with a 1 GHz processor; 5MP full focus camera with LED flash and HD video capture, and 2GB of internal memory with ability to increase to 34GB using a 32GB microSD card.

About Symbian Belle Symbian Belle is the latest in a series of planned software updates to the Symbian platform, which started with Symbian Anna and will continue into 2012. Symbian Belle increases the number of home screens from three to six providing more room to display applications and services. One of Symbian Belle’s special features is the single-tap NFC sharing and pairing capability. This allows contacts, videos and images to be shared with other NFC-enabled devices and smartphones, as well as pairing with NFC-enabled mobile accessories such as speakers and headsets. Gaming fans also benefit from the NFC capabilities of the new handsets with the ability to unlock additional levels in Angry Birds or find a hidden blade in Fruit Ninja just by touching two NFC-enabled devices together. On the Nokia 701 smartphone, which comes preloaded with Asphalt5, two friends can even pair to compete on the same racetrack. Sep 30 2011