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To: im a survivor who wrote (26186)	7/21/2000 9:05:45 AM
From: Dealer	Respond to of 35685

RNWK--Doing the wireless wiggle July 21, 2000 by Rex Crum A visit to the Nokia Corp. (NOK) home page tells you that the company wants to deliver "The World at Your Fingertips." It's a slogan made for the new, wireless world that promises everything will eventually be interconnected. And Nokia wants its phones to be the devices that start those connections around the globe. The home page of Nokia's Scandinavian neighbor, Ericsson Telephone Co. (ERICY), proclaims to offer "The Power of Mobility." Wherever you want to go, Ericsson will make sure you remain in control, and giving you control over your life seems to be what wireless companies are all about. For Ericsson, that control comes from putting its name on as much of the wireless infrastructure as possible. On the surface, Nokia and Ericsson appear pretty much the same: two telecom companies from an area of the world best known for cold winters and warm vodka. But Nokia and Ericsson are also like two kids at a high school prom. While they are listening to the same song, the steps they are taking are just different enough to set each other apart. And those differences will go a long way to determining who will still be on the dance floor when the prom is over. Nokia's beginnings The story of Nokia is well known in the telecom space: Manufacturing and production giant with fingers in a lot of different businesses promotes a new chief executive officer, Jorma Ollila. The CEO then sees the future and it's in the billions of hands around the world that need to be holding wireless phones. The company and CEO pour nearly everything into wireless and in six years, Nokia becomes the world's largest maker of wireless phones. "From what I can tell, we've got a momentum going," said Haroon Alvi, Nokia's director of business development in the Americas. "We're doing well largely because we got into wireless data back in 1995." The company seems to feel that wireless data is still the way to go as seen by several high-profile deals of late. In less than a month, Nokia has announced three partnerships that go a long way toward setting up an all-encompassing web to support and deliver what are often called "third-generation" wireless technologies and services. Key partnerships On the content side, Nokia and London-based Cable & Wireless Plc. (CWP) are building what is basically a wireless application service provider (ASP) that will deliver information to mobile network operators. The ASP could end up benefiting from an agreement between Nokia and Real Networks Inc. (RNWK) that will add Real Networks RealPlayer technology to certain Nokia smart phones and other devices. That deal will let those Nokia products run programs with Real's audio and video technology. And then there's Nokia's partnering with AT&T Wireless Group (AWE) to build a new line of mobile phones that will be capable of streaming music, high-speed Internet surfing and running other services. Analysts say Nokia's recent activity reflects the company's philosophy ever since it made wireless phone production its main priority. "Nokia has a great ability to see what consumers want and need," said Bryan Proehm, an analyst with Gartner Group's Dataquest. "It's been easy for them to see the results when they're successful because they seem to be doing the sexy things in the marketplace."