After reading today's press releases issued by Nokia, one wonders where the Finnish giant is taking us, it is surely out of the virtual limits of the mobile environment, which is increasing at an exponential speed, and spreading itself onto the web, becoming completely virtual and web-based.

It is not only the N97 that was the great highlight of today's posts across the blogosphere, but also the services that come with it. With the advancements of connectivity options, and their subsequent price downfall, it was a matter of time for manufacturers to become focused on the web. Nokia has indeed become a web company.

One of the statements that does not directly relate to the "webification" of Nokia is the completion of the acquisition of Symbian. Nokia today announced that it has completed its offer to acquire Symbian. Such action, with participation from other companies, will be executed to make Symbian an open source platform for its growth and competitiveness. A clever move, considering that Google is gaining ground with Android, while Apple and Microsoft are losing developer appreciation owing to the difficulties to get applications across, and the lack of users, when compared to Symbian.

Nokia has clarified that it is playing in the internet business, by transforming "THE Internet into YOUR Internet". Such move involves the actual Nokia N97, which has "an 'always open' window to social networking sites and Internet destinations", for example; Maps on Ovi, which allow you to plan and synchronize your journey from the computer to the mobile phone; and Mail on Ovi and Nokia Messaging, which provide email access and instant messaging to portals such as "Yahoo! Mail® and Yahoo! Messenger®, Windows Live Hotmail, Gmail and Google Talk, and AOL Mail".

The Nokia N97 brings almost everything the web enthusiast, and the mobile phone addict are looking for in a device. I say everything, because the 5 megapixel camera is not competition for a 8 megapixel camera, generally speaking. The 3.5" touchscreen display with 360x480 pixels of resolution breaks free from the QVGA resolution existing in most Nseries phones, and keeps up with the competitors, while the 16:9 aspect ratio gives a multimedia-focus feel; the QWERTY keyboard gives a real key feel to the user, while haptik feedback touchscreens are still in development; The massive 32GB of built-in memory with microSD memory card support suffice any high-end user; the usual connectivity options such as WLAN, Bluetooth, and HSDPA live up to the Nseries name; sensors such as for proximity and the accelerometer are used to turn the display off in order to save battery and to rotate the screen, among other functions, respectively; built-in GPS has become a standard in Nseries phones; and the 1500mAh battery will once and for all shut NSeries users' complaints. It's not all red roses, the N97 has the same 5 megapixel camera with Dual LED present, a lack of advancement in that matter; the S60 software is notoriously buggy, hopefully things will change with the new version of the operating system.

Multimedia and social networking will be a major highlight of the phone, it is the very basis of the Nseries platform. The built-in 32GB of memory can be used to store NGage games, or music and video. The battery will last up to 37 hours playing music, or 4.5 hours playing video, that's two movies.

The "So-lo" concept (social location), will help the N97 to position the user in social networking sites and interact with location-based services, by using the built-in GPS and electronic compass. Widgets not only for social networking sites, but also for news, will be manageable in the home screen of the N97.

All in all, the N97 sounds as an excellent phone, and although the camera does not live up to my requirements, it is a candidate for my next phone. The price is 550€ w.s.o.t., which means that it should reach 900€ at the very start of sale. Planned release is second quarter of 2009, still far away. The N97 will be available in White and Brown colours. Some more images of the Nokia N96 at The Symbian Blog.

Maps on Ovi basically ports Maps to the internet and makes it accessible through the computer. From then on, the user can pre-plan the journey at home, synchronize it with the phone, and even share it with friends. Maps was also upgraded to 3.0, although it's in Beta phase. The new version incorporates 3D buildings for 216 cities; real-time information for events and movies in over 450 destinations; speed camera, and over speeding warnings; and introduces vibrations in GPS Walk mode, when a user needs to make a turn, the phone vibrates. Nokia's acquisition of NAVTEQ has brought benefits too: "The level of detail in the maps has increased to the point that you can view multiple entrances to the same underground metro station."

Mail on Ovi gives a user his own email address @ovi.com. The user will be allowed a 1GB of storage space, far less than the 7GB GMail offers, but the account will work with all Ovi services. The application will roll out in Beta phase in 12 languages during this month: English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Hindi, Bengali, Tagalog, Bahasa Indonesia and Bahasa Malaysia on all currently shipping Nokia Series 40 devices, with many more languages to be added later. The web access version will launch in February 2009.

The Nokia Messaging service is already available as a beta service for selected S60 phones, providing push email notification from many service providers. Series 40 devices will join the service on the second half of 2009, a date that is far for a technology that is needed today.

With the development of the Ovi portal out of Beta phase, and the release of more S60 5th edition phones, as well as cheaper mobile internet tariffs, we will see a strong convergence of social networking websites with phones, computers and other electronic equipment. We should also see the introduction of cloud computing, that should interact with Files on Ovi, and render useless the need of large memory chips on mobile phones.

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