NEW YORK-In tandem with the anticipated debut of Wireless Application Protocol services by American carriers in fall and winter, Nokia Mobile Phones Inc., Irving, Texas, plans to begin shipping its 7100 series WAP-enabled handsets.
Domestic operators already are testing the Nokia 7160, designed for TDMA networks, and the Nokia 7190, adapted for the American GSM standard, said Charles Chopp, Nokia’s GSM 1900 Marketing Manager. Although the phones are designed to use two different air interfaces, their form factors and features are identical.
“WAP reformats information. It’s a pure, text-based solution with nominal graphics,” he said.
“The value of WAP is transaction-based services. Access to WAP offers carriers a whole new revenue stream.”
Even without WAP, however, wireless customers still can access Internet-based information, provided they know the Web address. Carriers deploy safeguards within their network gateways to prevent improperly formatted information from reaching their customers’ handsets, Chopp said.
The Nokia 7100 series, including the 7110 released earlier for the European GSM market, have a browser that supports version 1.1 of WAP. The newer browser, announced in late August, will support WAP 1.2 specifications, but it is too new to be included in these phone models, Chopp said.
Nokia is trying to track down and verify unconfirmed reports that customers of the Norwegian company experienced handset jamming when a slew of improperly formatted messages were sent to their phones. The most likely culprits in such a scenario would have to be employees of a carrier or others who had or gained access to sensitive computer systems that screen and dispatch the messages, said Keith Nowak, media relations manager for Nokia.
He also said that some earlier versions of Smart Message Service, a variation of short message service deployed by some European wireless operators, caused some glitches on the receiving end in Nokia 7110 handsets.
“If the carrier sent just the right combination of messages at one time, the phone would freeze up,” Nowak said.
To prevent overload, he noted that Nokia’s 7100 series phones are equipped with a blocking mechanism to halt automatic download of new e-mail messages once a capacity threshold has been reached. At that point, the handsets alert users they must read and delete messages already received before others waiting in network storage can be forwarded to their phones.
In the 7100 series, Nokia has incorporated several new capabilities intended to facilitate ease of use in data communications, Chopp said. For easier reading, these handsets have a display screen that is 65-by-96 pixels, dimensions that are 80-percent larger than in previous models.
Quite literally under their thumbs and centered beneath the display, consumers will find the new “Navi” roller. It allows users to scroll through the menu, then press on it once to make a topic selection.
To simplify actions required for SMS and conventional e-mail, the new phones incorporate a “predictive text input” function. This built-in dictionary anticipates full words after a few letters are punched into the keypad. Because the phone reads those letters in sequence and combination, users do not have to use more than a single key stroke to identify a letter of the alphabet. If the first word choice the phone displays proves wrong, the user clicks on a desired alternative from several that pop onto the screen.
Predictive text input can reduce the number of required key strokes by up to 66 percent, Chopp said. These phones also include text templates for pre-configured, standard messages and voice-activated dialing tags for 10 different phone numbers.
As part of its efforts to recreate in a wireless phone many of the features available in personal digital assistants, Nokia incorporated a new filing system into its 7100 series. It allows consumers to catalog names connected to a listing of related information, including phone numbers, mailing addresses, e-mail address and notes. The sort-and-store system, which can hold up to three text fields per entry name, avoids the need to keep each item of information associated with an individual under a separate listing, said Phil Chelf, marking manager for classic/flagship products.
The units also offer a task list, which can hold several hundred “to do” items, and a calendar with the capacity for up to 660 appointments and anniversaries. These can be synchronized to a personal computer or Palm Inc. handheld device via the handset’s built-in serial cable and infrared ports.
Text information stored in the phones can be printed out. Consumers also can “beam” e-mails and business cards to other electronic devices capable of receiving them, Chopp said.
“We are not trying to displace other devices, yet these phones have paging and PDA capabilities,” he said.
“We want consumers to be able to manage and choose which devices are most appropriate to their needs at any given time.”
Each of the Nokia 7160 and 7190 models also is capable of downloading 35 different ring tones, “some delivered by carrier portal, some free, some not,” Chopp said.
The phones, with lithium-ion batteries as standard equipment, enable talk times of up to three hours and stand-by times of up to eight days, Chelf said. Optional features include lithium-polymer batteries and an “active slide,” a movable case that allows instant call answering and termination, depending on its position over the key pad. The handsets have a manufacturer’s suggested retail price range of $200-$300.
