Nokia Corp. unveiled a slim mobile phone, a mobile phone for bloggers and an updated wireless Internet tablet with VOIP capabilities at the CES show in Las Vegas on Monday. The new Nseries devices let users work with music, video and images over the Internet, as single-purpose mobile devices have become less attractive to users, Nokia said. The N76 is a 13.7 millimeter-thick clamshell phone that resembles Motorola Inc."s popular Razr phone. It contains a digital music player and 2-megapixel camera that can be operated while the phone is closed using buttons and a screen on the outside. With an optional 2G-byte microSD memory card, the N76 can hold up to 1,500 songs encoded by Nokia"s Music Manager software, or 250 songs encoded at a higher data rate by other software. It can play songs in AAC or Windows Media formats, including those locked by Microsoft Corp."s Windows Media DRM (digital rights management) technology.
The phone could help Nokia continue to grow its share of digital music player sales. During 2006, Nokia sold almost 70 million devices with music players, making it the largest manufacturer of portable music players, said Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, chairman and chief executive for Nokia, speaking Monday at CES. Nokia"s studies show that 70 percent of its customers who own music player phones regularly use the music-playing feature, he said. The N76 also contains Nokia"s Web browser software, and can send e-mail and instant messages. The phone should ship by March and have an unsubsidized retail price of €390 (US$507), Nokia said.