A London taxi driver yesterday walked away with the first Nokia 9000 Communicator combined mobile phone and personal organizer to be sold in the world, for a mere 90 British pounds. Stephen Franklin drives one of the fleet of London taxis painted with Nokia Oy’s corporate branding, and had just delivered Nokia executives to the launch of the Nokia 9000 Communicator (CI No 2,881). He was invited, along with members of the press and the public, to take a ticket for a prize draw. As the winner, he got to buy the phone for 90 pounds, a discount of some 910 pounds, as well as getting 9000 complimentary minutes of airtime, free connection and a year’s free subscription to the Cellnet Mobile Communications Ltd network. On being handed his prize, he, to the chagrin of the unsuccessul journalists and tecchie enthusiasts, said what do you do with this then? The Nokia 9000 is available immediately through select retail outlets worldwide.
