Nokia Launches Mobile Chat Application

Gearing up for a new era in mobile messaging, wireless communications guru
Nokia Networks Friday introduced a new
mobile chat application to allow mobile operators to offer new messaging
services for their subscribers.

Dubbed simply Nokia FriendsTalk, the tool offers discreet and instant
communications tools by providing multipoint messaging, public and private
channels and individual user profiles.

What mobile chat paves the way for is a new medium of interactive
communication, where a user can go about his or her business — perhaps
running errands or shopping while not missing a beat with his or her
friends. The key difference is in the plurality, as users can
converse with multiple users simultaneously.

Part of Nokia’s philosophy holds that, in the ever-evolving
online age, people are becoming busier and busier. Mobile computing devices
allow people to accomplish things and keep wired to their world — a zenith
of multitasking capability.

“In the mobile world, the use of Short Message Services has risen
dramatically, becoming a driving force for many new mobile services;
according to estimates around 8 billion SMS messages are sent every month in
the world,” said Pekka Oranen, senior vice president, Mobile Internet
Applications, Nokia Networks.

“Mobile chat combines these two and takes the SMS culture a step further,
increasing customer-loyalty, bringing new revenues for operators and new
services for subscribers.”

Nokia FriendsTalk is now available for USSD and SMS technologies and it is
designed to support other protocols, such as WAP and GPRS, allowing seamless
chatting between users, regardless of the terminal.

Though no Big blue yet, cell phone leader Nokia employs more than 60,000
people and garnered net sales of $19.9 billion last year.

Though nowhere near as advanced as Nokia in the mobile realm, Amazon.com Inc.
Friday made its own wireless play with the launch of
Mobile Auctions, which gives cell phones the ability to search for new
auction items, enter and monitor bids and track sales directly from a
handset.

In addition, customers can create their own custom alerts to be sent to
their handsets or pagers notifying them of their auction status.