Nokia is losing its technological edge

ONE REASON behind Nokia's commanding position in the mobile handset market is its reputation for technological leadership.

Yet the INQ has noticed that its crown is slipping. The best example of this comes from Italy. Nokia has very forcefully backed the DVB-H standard for mobile TV and pointed to Italy as a prime example of its adoption.

But Hutchison 3 Italy has launched what is probably the first commercial DVB-H service - certainly, the first operator to target all of its subscribers.

And what handset has 3 Italy launched with? The LG u900.

More telling was a comment made yesterday by Grahame Riddell, O2's head of content marketing. He was refusing to reveal which 'leading' handset vendor is on the verge of supply his company with i-mode compatible handsets.

Everybody guessed that it was going to be Nokia. Which forced Riddell to confess that Nokia already makes i-mode compatible handsets but they don't yet meet O2's 'design criteria'.

In other words, Nokia can't offer a swish i-mode compatible phone right now. The INQ also bets that O2 is after a second supplier of 3G compatible i-mode handsets besides Samsung. Another case of Nokia lagging behind.

Even Motorola is getting in on the game. The INQ got the chance to play with two Motorola i-mode phones. One was very definitely the SLVR L7 handset and the other may have been the SLVR L6.

The difference between the two is that the L6 appears to have a lower resolution (VGA) camera while the L7 has 1.3 megapixel camera. Both are due to become available within the next two weeks.

Nokia still has a very dominant position in the handset market but its 'hot' image is very definitely eroding. µ