By James Ratemo in Stuttgart, Germany
The giant handset manufacturer finally launched its first mini-laptop on Wednesday in Stuttgart Germany, marking the foray into the personal computer segment.
Nokia president and CEO, Live webcast, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo said Nokia has had to diversify its products to survive the increasingly volatile industry.
"We consider our service based applications critical for our future. It is a huge chance for us...with global recession, competition that has seen phones move to most remote parts of the world, change is no longer optional," he said.
Speaking in Stuttgart during the Nokia World 2009 Fair, he said Nokia has so far distributed 1.1 billion devices with 55 million active users of Nokia mobile phone applications like Nokia Ovi music store and email services wand.
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At Sh61,525 (575 Euros), the laptop, called Nokia Booklet 3G runs Microsoft Windows 7, sports a 10-inch screen and weighs 1.25 kilogrammes.
Notebook category
That puts it squarely in the notebook category pioneered by AsusTek Inc, and copied by virtually every notebook manufacturer since.
The Booklet 3G features a hot swappable SIM slot, and is bundled with a 3G mobile broadband service.
Anssi Vanjoki, Executive Vice President, said with an inbuilt 3G, wi-fi and bluetooth, the gadget can keep you connected almost anywhere.
"Technology needs to mould itself to the benefit of users. Windows 7 premium delivers an improved PC performance to the Nokia booklet 3G" said Vanjoki.
