CAIRO: Finnish mobile phone giant Nokia gave a demonstration of its latest Nseries handsets Wednesday, the day after its Enterprise Solutions division signed a distribution agreement with Egyptian firm Silicon 21. The agreement gives Silicon 21 - a shareholding company providing technical and logistical support to clients in the Middle East and North Africa - exclusive distribution rights for Nokia mobility solutions (software and business handsets) in North and West Africa. On signing the deal, Jarmo Santala, general manager of Nokia North and West Africa, spoke of the agreement as a new milestone in Nokia s regional plan. The mobility market is growing in Egypt, he said, and Silicon 21 will allow us to fully address it. The following evening, in the opulent surrounds of Mohammed Ali Palace, managers and representatives from Nokia s Middle Eastern and North African operations discussed and demonstrated the N95, N93i and N76 models. Each device is an integrated multimedia system offering digital photo and video, music capability including MP3 and radio, and full internet connectivity. The most advanced model, the N95, offers several additional features such as mobile television and a built-in Global Positioning System (GPS). At a number of booths Nokia s representatives offered demonstrations of the handsets various features. One demo involved taking photos of people who had gathered at the booth, and uploading them onto an internet file-sharing website using the phone s WLan internet connection. Within seconds, the photos were available online. Another showed off the N95 s television function by tuning in to catch the latest news on Al Jazeera, and producing what must be said was quite a crisp picture. Judging by sales in Europe Ilkka Raiskinen, Nokia s senior vice president for Multimedia Experiences, expects the Nseries to be particularly popular among Egypt s technologically savvy (students, young professionals) and the business community. This is a full multimedia computer, he told The Daily Star Egypt. It has email, texting and calling; you can listen to or watch the news, and you can write and send reports [using a bluetooth keyboard]. This is a complete communications device in your pocket. In this way Nokia is looking to become not only the next generation of mobile phone, but also an eventual replacement for the laptop. That is our vision, says Raiskinen. Nokia is currently the mobile phone market leader in the Middle East and North Africa, and has been in the Egyptian market over 10 years. Its market share here is five times that of its nearest competitor. Its regional specifications, however, are still a work in progress. Thus far it has done a deal with a bilingual Jordanian photo and video sharing web site, has a number of Islamic applications and is currently in negotiations with EMI Music to secure rights to play Arabic music. Some local radio stations can also be received at present but expansion plans are ongoing. The N76 is being launched in shops across Egypt now, with the N95 and N93i models set to hit the shelves in the near future.
