At Nokia World in London the handset manufacturer shared its vision and strategy as it unveiled a new line of smartphones and new initiatives to help Ovi developers monetize their applications.

The 2010 edition of Nokia World is already unique in Nokia?s history due to the recent appointment of Stephen Elop as the new CEO and the resignation of Anssi Vanjoki, currently executive vice president of Nokia's Mobile Solutions unit. Needless to say there is lots of speculation about Nokia?s future.

?In the U.S., Nokia is less on the radar of marketers than Android, Apple and some of the other players due to its limited market share in the U.S.,? said Thomas Husson, Paris-based senior analyst at Forrester Research. ?However, if you look at Nokia from a global perspective, it is truly a global local company?it sells more smartphones than anyone else.

?Regarding the high-end smartphones in Western Europe and the U.S., Nokia had to play catch up, but from a marketing perspective, they provide things that marketers are interested in?reach and scale,? he said. ?They can target a significant segment of customers via their devices.

?Nokia can provide scale and scope and it is well aware of developer needs, as it will provide new tools for developers to monetize apps distributed via Ovi, including in-app purchasing and operator billing, which is key to monetizing the application ecosystem.?

Nokia claims that every day more than 1.3 billion people connect to one another with a Nokia device, including mobile phones, smartphones and mobile computers.

Nokia is integrating its devices with innovative services through Ovi, including music, maps, applications and email.

Nokia's Navteq is specializes in digital mapping and navigation services, while Nokia Siemens Networks provides equipment and services for communications networks worldwide.

Design, develop, distribute
The newly announced smartphones include the Nokia E7, C6, C7 and N8.

Nokia launched a number of developer tools with the goal of making it simpler and more lucrative for people to build applications for its Ovi platform.

The company made enhancements to the Nokia Qt Software Development Kit (SDK), resulting in a 70 percent reduction in the number of lines of code required when developing for the company's family of Symbian smartphones.

Developers can distribute applications to approximately 175 million Nokia Symbian smartphones.

Qt is preinstalled on all new Nokia smartphones and is downloadable to millions of smartphones people are already using.

The Nokia Qt SDK is a tool to help developers build their applications with a shortened workflow, simplified development and intuitive user interface libraries.

In addition to the refinements with the Nokia Qt SDK for smartphones and mobile computers, Nokia also announced an SDK for Series 40 Touch and Type, which the company claims is the industry's first touch SDK for mobile phones. 

Nokia also made changes to the Ovi Store user experience to make it faster and making applications easier to find.

New opportunities for developers will include in-application purchase, enabling a wide range of application pricing options in Ovi Store such as subscription models, micro-transactions or try-and-buy.

In-application purchasing also lets developers build added value into their applications such as the sale of virtual goods, additional levels for games or enhanced or localized in-application features. 

Mobile entertainment agency skyrockit claims that its Romplr music remix application is the first to debut in-application purchases with Nokia's Ovi store.

Nokia?s goal is to lower the barrier of entry and provide increased monetization opportunities for developers, including free Java and Symbian signing, in-application purchases, improved revenue share and advanced developer analytics.

In the case of carrier billing, developers will get 60 percent, while carriers will get 40 percent.

?Operator billing is really an easy way to stimulate impulse purchases and one way to make payments on mobile devices more convenient, especially in markets where credit card penetration is not as high as it is in the U.S.,? Mr. Husson said.

?Nokia used to have some mobile inventory that they?ve sold to third parties, but for now they are primarily focused on the payment options and some business model tools, not necessarily providing the kinds of advertising tools that Apple and Google are,? he said.

?That being said, Ovi is about engaging with consumers on the mobile platform, and if they are able to prove the appeal of the Ovi store, then advertising dollars will likely follow.?

Nokia's acquisition of Motally provides in-application analytics for developers and publishers to better track, report and monetize their content (see story). These capabilities will be extended to Qt, Symbian, MeeGo and Java platforms. 

?Moving forward, Nokia will also start providing developers with customer insights as part of the Motally acquisition,? Mr. Husson said. ?They want to know the profiles of app users and device users to be able to better target their audiences and fine-tune their product offerings.?

New direction
No one should be surprised to see other departures as well as the arrival of new executives close to the newly appointed CEO, according to Mr. Husson.

Nokia?s real challenge is to make sure these changes are implemented quickly enough?without totally disrupting existing processes?to keep pace with innovation.

The simple fact that Nokia appointed a non-Finnish CEO, coming from the U.S. and from Microsoft and the software industry, is another acknowledgment that Silicon Valley has become the new mobile innovation hub, per Mr. Husson.

Nokia?s cultural heritage is precisely to constantly reinvent itself, according to Forrester.

Mr. Husson said that tectonic shifts are shaking up the traditional mobile ecosystem, and Nokia needs to be much more agile to compete with the likes of Google and Apple.

New consumer
The U.S. consumer has placed the mobile phone at the center of their daily lives.

They have a previously unheard of amount of choice today, choice in devices, networks and services and their expectations are increasing exponentially.

U.S. consumers today are using their mobile devices and the accompanying services to augment their engagements within every aspect of their life: personally, professionally and commercially.

"[Mr.] Elop?s mandate should be to develop a platform to show the U.S. consumer how Nokia enabled-mobile solutions can enrich their life, that is, how Nokia-powered solutions make their engagements easier and more convenient," said Michael Becker, San Francisco-based managing director of North America at MMA.

"Moreover, he should consider talking directly to the publishers, content and application solution providers within the marketplace and show them why they should realign some of their attention and investment away from the marketer leading North America mobile platforms and experiences?for example, Apple, Google, RIM and Microsoft?toward Nokia solutions," he said.

The company should invest and optimize its offering for the Nokia mobile experience.

Nokia has been trying to make a dent in the U.S. smartphone market.

The first step is to create awareness of the Nokia phone within the consumer?s minds and show how the experience on a Nokia smartphone can be more enriching than that of the other leaders within the market, for example, Apple, Google?s Android, Microsoft and RIM-powered devices.

"Moreover, Nokia should provide details on how they can easily support an integrated life, how their offerings can easily bring together a consumer?s contacts, friends, social media engagements, music, documents, books and commercial transactions," Mr. Becker said.  

Final Take
Dan Butcher, associate editor, Mobile Marketer