Do you remeber when in 1996 Nokia launched its first Nokia Communicator? Besides SMS and Voices Services, the Communicator came with Internet, Email, Fax and many other business features. It was THE mile stone in the Evolution of mobile business devices. The very successfull communicator series was continued and 2008 Nokia released its 6th model of this series, the E90. But now things are changing. There is a new competitor – from Nokia. The E75. Lightweight, Stylish, Fast and Compact are only a few characteristics of this new device. Well, and now I have one myself ;-)

 During the last 6 Month I was using different smart phones from Nokia, where as my main use is business communication, which means: voice, text, mobile email, documents and navigation. I spent the summer with the 6220 Classic, then switched to the E71, had some quite good experiences with the N85, but switched back to E71, tried the 5800 and – again – switched back to E71. From my point of view, the E71 is the best device Nokia ever made. So, let’s see if the E75 can do better.

The E75 – from a software point of view – has the same features as the E71. Both are using Symbian OS/Series 60 Version 3.x, which make it easy for Nokia users to switch between different models. Both devices come with the same camera, the same display and the same communication capabilities. An advantage of the E75 over the E71 is the possibility to use “normal” head phones with the 3,5mm-Stereo-Connector in like in the 5800. Thus for listening to music, you don’t have to use the ordinary headset. The E75 (139 g) is slightly heavier than the E71 (127 g), but in day-to-day life you will not notice that. Actually I like the “heavy” weight of the E-Series devices in comparison to the 6220 (79 g), which felt like “nothing”.

The most special feature of the E75 is the slide mechanism and the full size query keyboard. The slider mechanism is solid and works very well. Comparing it to the N85 (which felt a bit cheap), the mechanism of the E75 is impressive. As I’m already used to the small keyboard of the E71, typing on the bigger one of the E75 is quite different, but after some days you will get used to it. When opening the keyboard, the display automatically switches quickly to horizontal view. Also the seperate telephone keyboard of the E75 is of top quality (not like the one of the 6220). So, there is actually not much of difference between the E75 and the E71.

So, you simply have to decide if you like the look of your device. The E75 is – due to the full size keyboard – “fatter” than the E71. The E71 still is very charming and comes with this nice leather cover to protect its premium class surface. And – one important thing: The battery of the E71 (1500 mAh) last longer than the one of the E75 (1000 mAh).  To sum up, I’m switching again back to the E71. The handling is good, the uptime is fabulous, it is extremely stable, it has all the business features you need and it looks impressive. From my point of view, the Nokia E71 is still the best device Nokia every made. But decide for yourself.

Last Friday Nokia announced it’s forth fully NFC enable handset, the Nokia 6216. The most new and sophisticated thing about this device is the fact, that secure element is placed on the UICC (Universal Integrated Circuit Card, SIM Card) and using SWP (Single Wire Protocol) to communicate with the NFC Chip. This is the major difference to the older devices like the 6212, the 6131 as well as the 3220. Although there are already different prototypes from other manufacturers like Sagem’s my700x or phones from NEC and LG, Nokia is there first one to offer such a device commercially. In the presentation Jeremy Belostock, Head of New Technology Introduction, said that the device will be available in Q3/2009. Addtionally it was mentioned, that is this is the last dedicated NFC phone from Nokia – in the future MNOs will just have to tick in their specifications if they require NFC functionality in a mobile or not, as the NFC chip will be part of the upcoming Nokia platforms.

Technology behind the scene.

The Nokia 6216 uses Series 40, 5th Edition as an operating system now supporting also the SATSA/JSR177 (APDU und Crypto-Package) to use the secure element’s functionality. For developers building J2ME applications, there is actually not much of a change, as the platform itself stays the same as the 6216, with some slight differences for the P2P modes, which is not used widely as far. So I suppose there will be not much of difference in the new SDK.

If you are also using the secure element using Mifare or Java Card OS functionality, you might run into some issue, as in the new models, there is no more embedded secure element (!), only the UICC as the secure element is possible. Thus, if you would like to load secure applications in to the UICC, you will need the keys of the UICC, which are only available to the Mobile Network Operator (MNO) and there will be no more unlock-MIDlet for such a UICC-based device. Hence, if you would like to use the UICC for you application, you will have to talk to the MNO. That’s the game. And as I always said: The secure element is not a playground -- try to avoid using it for "simple" applications. Because putting a secure applet into the UICC is much more difficult (from an administrative point of view) than it was in the past with embedded smartcard chips.

The NFC Chip inside the mobile phone therefore supports SWP (Single Wire Protocol). At the moment there are two IC-Manufacturers offering such products: Inside Contactless as well as NXP Semiconductors. Although is was no officially said, I’m quite sure, that Nokia uses NXP’s Platform (PN544) as all the former devices came with NXP Chips was well. But let’s see. Besides the NFC Chip, also the UICC needs to support SWP. Therefore “old” SIM Cards can not be used for NFC use cases which are based on the secure element. This will result in MNOs changing their SIM Cards. Currently there are products from all major UICC manufacturers offering such functionality like Gemalto, Oberthure or G&D for example. From these players there are special SDKs available for their SIM-Cards. If you want to start using the SIM-Cards in your apps, you will need to get these SDKs as well. (as wel as the Keys from the MNOs!)

The Solution to all problems?

There was lot of discussion in the past, about the Chicken-and-Egg-Problem in the World of NFC. But with this device, Nokia satisfies the needs of the GSMA (Global Association of all MNOs) and allows the MNOs to manage the applications in the UICC. Therefore the TSM (Trusted Services Managers) will be like to be closely working together with the MNOs to get this business quickly up and running. (eg. All Swiss Operators recently decided to team up and head for one country wide solution for NFC payments).

From my point of you, Nokia made a very important step and offing such a device commercially, which is important to the NFC ecosystem. In the past, most players blamed the Handset Manufacturers for not offering NFC/SWP enabled devices – but honestly, the silicon simple was not available and MNOs did not order devices with embedded secure element.

Now it is up the industry (payment & ticketing) to start rolling out services, so that there is demand for devices and UICC. This will help MNOs to order such devices and UICC (which is quite some investment) and start with NFC service.

• Nokia S40, 5th Edition SDK
• Nokia 6212 NFC SDK
• Standard on SWP (Single Wire Protocol) by ETSI