Mobile phone and technology manufacturer Nokia has previewed its Nokia Booklet 3G in South Africa at its Way We Live Next event. The mobile computing device should be available in the country in 2010.

The booklet is 19,9 mm thin, uses the Windows 7 operating system and its 12-hour battery life allows for all-day computing. The device has built-in wireless local area network and wireless wide-area network connectivity, which allows Internet connection anywhere that a WiFi or cellular network connection is available. It can also be synced with a Nokia handset using the integrated Ovi Suite. The booklet includes a range of integrated Nokia services, such as Ovi Suite 2.0 and Ovi Maps.

Nokia product marketing manager Patrick Henchie says this is the beginning of a new era in mobile computing. People want an application-integrated device that works properly and, while hardware still attracts people, software and computers and how these can be integrated on a mobile device are becoming increasingly important.

Nokia has developed the Ovi store, where users can find content and applications for their Nokia mobile phones, and not only for the high-end devices. Ovi includes the Maps application, which supplies users with free maps of about 80 countries. The Ovi Maps Player allows users to make their own map applications, as Nokia wants people to take applications to a new level.

“Nokia is making new technology more intuitive, personal and relevant. It is also engaging with the world’s leading educational institutions and has run a local developers competition, Calling All Innovators, in South Africa, to promote development of local content for phones,” he says.

Specialist conference and presentation strategy company Missing Link founder Richard Mulholland comments that there is a new world order, where developers, rather than customers, should be placed in the centre of the technology universe. Developers are able to solve problems and develop applications, which means that design, marketing, products, strategy and customers should all revolve around the developer.

Mulholland points out that technology companies Apple and Blackberry only have about 5% of the world’s market share in the mobile phone market, but they receive about 50% of the market profits, primarily owing to applications.

Solutions for other mobile phone companies may include developing good hardware that allows people to carry out any function they want, but mobile phone manufacturing companies need to simplify their strategies. He says companies should market fewer devices to ensure that developers do not have to programme for too many standards or models.

Mullholland says that a truly open standard must be developed and one operating system should be used globally to simplify developing. Companies can differentiate themselves using innovation, without operating systems being in the equation.

Further, Nokia is one of the founding members of the Symbian Foundation, which is a single merged developing platform that is open to all developers. Henchie says that Symbian 3 devices will be available in 2010 and a new developers kit will be available soon.

He adds that Nokia’s Qt 4.6, which is a cross-platform application and user interface framework that allows users to write applications once and deploy them across desktop, mobile and embedded operating systems without rewriting the source code, will help deliver more attractive applications to users. These applications will be able to be used in the Symbian Foundation system and are a significant driver of innovation in the free software desktop and mobile device market.

“Developers can now develop for Symbian, Mac, Linux and Windows and source appli- cations across platforms. Everybody could possibly become a developer, as programming is moving away from the standard grids; the screen has now become a canvas where anyone can develop anything they want,” concludes Henchie.