Ilari Nurmi is Vice President of Nokia Eseries. He’s a powerful man in the mobile world, selling business phones by the million every year. But he’s not impressed by recent moves to foist tablets on employees. Are slate computers the future of mobile business? Are they ‘eck, he told us this week.
We sat down with Ilari, who heads up marketing for Nokia’s portfolio of Eseries business smartphones, as well as driving Nokia’s business strategy, in a swanky London hotel. He wasn’t shy in facing our grilling. Sat behind a table laden with the Big N’s newest devices, he told us the future of smartphones is about simplicity not more devices, servers or proprietary software.
“I’m still using my laptop for business trips,” he said when asked whether we’d reached the point of no return for portable computers, rapidly being ousted by powerful mobiles and tablets. “But at the same time it’s not necessary to bring it to all the meetings you go to: you can leave it at your desk.
“With the capabilities that we have, you are able to survive a day without a laptop. Obviously, the large display and big keyboard are some of the elements you need for effective usage and nowadays. We’re coming close [to leaving the laptop at home].”
For some, the logical extension of leaving the laptop behind is a move to tablet computers. But not Ilari.
“We definitely understand that there is plenty of press coverage and noise about tablets,” he said. “Everybody seems to be creating tablets. But currently, we’re studying that market and today for a business professional I would recommend a Nokia E7.
“It has a big keyboard. Big display, but a pocketable size that you can easily carry with you. For a business users as a complimentary product to the PC, which you do still need, E7 is the perfect product.”
Seemingly, Nokia’s really not ready to make a tablet yet. Ilari described them as cumbersome, explaining: “You need a laptop bag to carry the tablet around.” And he’s got a point.
For businesses, tablet adoption is still very low. It’s something RIM is attempting to improve with the PlayBook, tethering it to existing BlackBerry handsets to provide e-mail and internet access, but RIM’s architecture is one of the main bugbears eating away at Nokia’s business boss.
Laying into RIM’s server-based e-mail solution, which needs extra investment from businesses beyond the handsets themselves he told us: “many companies are running RIM’s infrastructure. If I were a business decision maker paying those hefty fees, I would really question whether that’s a sensible thing to do or not. Today is the time to rip that infrastructure away and replace the RIM fleet with Nokia devices.”
By comparison, Nokia handsets don’t require a third party server to handle push e-mail. It’s clear Nokia’s gunning for RIM’s core market, but with the BlackBerry maker moving towards tablets, and Nokia staying true to its smartphone roots, can it unseat the Canadian e-mail giant?
Give us your thoughts on Nokia’s staunch smartphone stance in the comments section. Could the Big N make waves with a tablet, or should it stick to phones?
