Nokia starts to sync
To expedite the unveiling of a broader online offering, Nokia is purchasing a number of established internet services.
The company purchased Navteq, a digital maps firm, for $8.1 billion last July. 10 smaller firms have also been absorbed.
"We're not done," emphasized Niklas Savander of Nokia in an interview with Reuters. Future targets shall include small firms whose services Nokia had planned to offer in the future.
Yesterday Nokia debuted Files on Ovi, a service whose technology Nokia bought when it acquired Avvenu last year. The offering enables users to store files over the web — a service rivaling existing offerings from Apple, Google and Yahoo, among others.
The company also launched a personal information management synchronization service for tasks, notes, contacts and calendars. Moving forward, users will be able to sync ever-changing daily data between their mobile units and Nokia's internet services site.
"Information that is contained on device is becoming more and more critical to people," Savander said, adding that Nokia would tighten ties between itself and social media sites like Facebook. The company is already offering games on the popular networking site, but it also hopes to integrate more of Facebook's features in future handhelds.
Over time, Nokia's gaming service N-Gage will be integrated with its navigation services, digital music offerings and overall internet services. Currently, people using more two or more of the above services must log on separately to each one.
Integration is key to realizing Nokia's ambitions, Savander said. "When will it be perfect? Never. When will it be better? Very soon […] In six months it will be dramatically better than it is today."
The company did not reveal how many users access its internet services, but revenues from April-June totaled about $170.7 million, a 42 percent increase from the quarter before.
Over the summer Nokia announced plans to launch a touchscreen phone to target "mid-range" markets left unserved by iPhone and the Samsung Instinct.
