Nokia Connection 2010 - Event Proper Update

Here's what's happening in Nokia Connection 2010 live --

930 AM - delegates and participants are now seated, waiting for the opening remarks



935 AM - Opening remarks by Chris Carr highlights Nokia's efforts to come up with innovations that answer the new needs of today's consumers. Things that were thought to be impossible to put in a mobile device just a few years ago are now a reality. He also noted that amidst the global financial crisis, Nokia experienced continued success, selling 432 Million devices worldwide -- more than combined sales of Nokia's top 3 competitors combined.

Chris Carr
Vice President, Sales, Southeast Asia Pacific
Nokia

Chris Carr was appointed Vice President, Sales, Nokia Southeast Asia Pacific effective January 1, 2008. Chris is responsible for the business performance, customer engagement and sales activities of the sales cluster comprising Australia, New Zealand, Emerging Asia (Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and Maldives), Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Indochina (Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia).

In his previous role, Chris Carr was General Manager of Nokia Singapore from November 2005 to December 2007. In this role, Chris was responsible for all device business and related operational functions including sales and marketing, retail, service, finance and logistics. He also took a very active role in building alliances and managing the Nokia brand, making Nokia the most successful mobile phone company in Singapore.

Since joining the company in Australia in 1991, Chris has worked for Nokia in both Asia and Europe. From 1991 to 1995, Chris was the Management Accountant supporting the sales of transmission equipment in Australia.

In 1995, Chris relocated to the UK to support the management in the sales and delivery of the cellular network as the Mobile Networks Management Accountant. In 1997, he moved back to Australia to take on the company controller role.

In 2000 Chris took on a new role as the Finance Director for the Network business group for Asia Pacific based in Singapore.

From 2003 until 2005, Chris was working as the Asia Pacific Finance Director for the device business. In this role he was responsible for many of the day to day financial operational issues of the APAC business, whilst working with his fellow members of the management team in the formulation and deployment of the APAC device strategy.

Chris is married with four children.

940 AM - Keynote by Jo Harlow highlights the fact that despite Nokia's leadership in the mobile industry, the company is not resting on its laurels. Instead, it continues to introduce innovations and focus on the more advanced needs of consumers such as mobile computing and rich multi-media features. Jo also introduced Nokia X5, a music-centric slider phone with a squarish form factor (photos in a while) and Nokia N8, the company's new flagship device running on Symbian^3. A more affordable 8GB version of the successful music-centric handset, Nokia X6, was also announced in the event.

Quoting Jo,

"At Nokia, we aim to satisfy a broad range of customers around the world. MeeGo is our platform for high-end mobile computers. In mobile phones, we will continue to bring affordable access to mobile communications and services to hundreds of millions of people, connecting them to the Internet for the first time on a Nokia, powered by Series 40."

"With Symbian we are bringing smartphone functionality to the mass market quickly and more affordably. The beauty is that we can reach many different audiences with this scalable, open source platform. It is allowing us to truly “democratize smartphones”. The new Symbian^3 will deliver a very robust feature set and consumer experience. The Nokia N8 is our first smartphone based on the Symbian^3 software, and we believe it is a great device for people who want to create amazing content, connect to their favourite social networks and be entertained with the latest on demand Web TV programmes and Ovi Store apps," she added.

Jo Harlow
Senior Vice President, Smartphones

Jo Harlow currently serves as Senior Vice President of Smartphones. She is responsible for providing vision, leadership and strategic direction to the Smartphones product development organization globally. Her role includes developing the mid-term strategic portfolio that meets consumers’ needs, as well as beautiful, high quality products that deliver Nokia’s financial and market share expectations.

Jo was previously the vice president of the Live category of mobile devices. She joined Nokia in 2003 as the vice president of mobile phones marketing for North America and has also held the position of Senior Vice President of Mobile Phones Marketing.

Prior to joining Nokia, Jo was with Reebok and Procter & Gamble in various sales, marketing and general management roles.

She earned a bachelor of science degree in psychology from Duke University and captained Duke's women’s basketball team.

Nokia is the world leader in mobile communications, driving the growth and sustainability of the broader mobility industry. Nokia is dedicated to enhancing people's lives and productivity by providing easy to use and innovative products like mobile phones, and solutions for imaging, games, media, mobile network operators and businesses. Nokia is a broadly held company with listings on five major exchanges.

NOTE: TechPinas got the whole opening remarks and keynote on video. Yes, you'll get to watch it first hand -- only here in TechPinas! I'll upload it on Youtube today -- as soon as I get the chance to do it. :)

UPDATE: As promised, here's the video of Nokia Connection 2010 Opening Remarks by Chris Carr and Keynote by Jo Harlow




Video quality may improve after the clips have been processed by Youtube.



UPDATE: Here are the photos of Nokia X5 slider phone. It looks great.





BONUS: Here's how Nokia N8 looks in the hand --


Svelte, eh? For Nokia N8 specs and official press photos, click on the link.

Look at how how thin it is --



For music lovers, Nokia X6 8GB will enter the market within this year with a price tag of roughly 225 Euros or only Php 12,500 with current conversion, prior to taxes and other subsidies.



Here are its specifications:



1030AM - Nokia Connection 2010 Showcase commences. All participants and delegates went to the showroom. Uploading photos now so you can see how the showroom looks like.

UPDATE: As promised, here are a few photos (I'll be adding a lot more soon):









11AM - Nokia Show and Tell Sessions has just started. Here are the topics and the corresponding speakers:

11:00am Product-related by Gary Chan
11:30am Messaging by Antony Wilson/Timothy Hou
12:00nn Ovi Store by Nelson Wee

Keep tuning in for updates. I'll be constantly adding more info to this post as the event progresses.

Again, follow @nokiasg account and #nc2010 hashtag on Twitter to get the latest on Nokia Connection 2010.

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