Can Nokia phones turn flash into cash?
But the news will likely be overshadowed by a financial report from the company. Nokia also announced Tuesday that net sales for the first quarter are expected to be slightly lower than the 6 percent to 10 percent drop already predicted.
In particular, networks sales are expected to drop by 25 percent from the previous, year compared with the 16 percent to 20 percent previously predicted. Profits, however, should be higher than expected.
Sales of cellular phones are expected to be within the 3 percent to 7 percent decline already predicted. The company will try and boost those sales with the series of flashy new devices, most of which will be available in the second quarter.
The deal with RealNetworks means that the RealOne Player, which supports RealAudio, Real Video and 3GPP (third-generation partnership project) media formats, will be included as a standard feature on Nokia's Series 60 technology and in Nokia phones based on the Symbian OS. The Series 60 technology also supports multimedia messaging (MMS), Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) and Java.
The new phones include:
• The 7210, which sports a color screen, MMS capability, Java support and a stereo FM radio. The phone works on five continents and uses multiple networks.
• The 9210i Communicator has the Opera Web browser with support for JavaScripts and a Flash player. It also includes the RealOne player.
• Two phones in what Nokia calls its "expression" category--the 3510 for the European, African and Asia-Pacific markets and the 3410 for the European and North American markets. (Different phone networks are used in different countries.) The 3510 allows customers to receive "value added services" over multimedia messaging, such as screen savers and musical ring tones. The 3410 supports Java 2 Micro Edition, allowing people to download Java applications. It also has a 3D graphics engine and a picture editor.
• The 3315, featuring short messaging services (SMS) chat and alerts. It also has an enhanced Chinese phonebook and support for Thai language input.
• The 6310i, a "tri-band" mobile phone that supports data access through GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) and HSCSD (High Speed Circuit Switched Data) networks, integrated and Bluetooth technology.