Nokia Oy has been attracting much of the early attention at the Hannover CeBit fair with the 9800 Communicator from its Mobile Phones unit. As well as operating as a cellular phone, the Nokia 9800 Communicator enables users to send and receive facsimile messages, paging messages and electronic mail, and to access the Internet and corporate-network information. Nokia had help with Intel Corp and Geoworks Inc on the design, and at the heart of the thing is an iAPX-86 family processor running the Geos 3.0 operating system. In February last year, Nokia made a $7.5m equity investment in Geoworks and has a seat on the Alameda, California company’s board. The 15 oz device uses Intel’s SmartVoltage Flash memory and includes an electronic diary, address book and calculator. The Finn sees smart phones commanding as much as 50% of the cellular phone market by the end of the decade; the 9000 Communicator will be available in 59 European and Asian countries that use the Groupe Speciale Mobile digital cellular standard this summer.
