While the success of the Nokia physical stores wasn’t that impressive, then the new offer of Nokia USA on-line store can be called majestic. The major handsets, including N97 mini, X6,5230,5800 and E72, you can get in “Drivers Editions” version. The package of the offers includes free power converter, in-car cradle, free voice-guided navigation for around 70 countries via Ovi Maps.

In addition to all of this you’ll get a chance to win a free ticket to Paris. This means that Nokia has some plans to introduce the GPS abilities of the Nokia device to the U.S. customers.

Let’s wait and see how will the American customers react to it.

In January of this year the “Ovi maps” have become free for new Nokia models. Within three months users have downloaded more than 10 million copies of the program and this is not the limit. The new version has recently been released.

According to the official statement, the new “Ovi maps”  application operates more quickly (quickly determines the position of users regardless of location), better (in collaboration with Lonely Planet, Michelin and the local “Yellow pages” new point of interest have been added, the Qype program has been included) and has become more personalized (function of recording voice commands).

Another important news concerns the completion of Nokia smartphones. A car charger and a car holder have been included in boxes with the N97, N97 mini, 6710 Navigator and X6 for already two weeks. Soon the 5800 XpressMusic, 5230, E52 and E72 will be completed with a car holder.

Last month, Nokia announced three phones for modern communications – Nokia C3, Nokia C6 and Nokia E5. Each of them offers QWERTY-keyboard. The producer called the E5 the follower of E63, E71, E72 and announced that its sales will start in the third quarter of 2010. But apparently, the Chinese users have received the smartphone earlier.

According to Chinese media, Nokia E5-00 has been noticed in one of the electronic stores. The features correspond to  the announcements, and therefore the likelihood that the photos represent an ordinary model of it is low. Let us remind that E5 is equipped with a 2.4 inch display, 256 MB RAM, 512 MB RAM, a 5 megapixel camera, GPS, Wi-Fi, microSD, 600 MHz processor.

The first Chinese devices of E5 will cost 2,999 yuan ($ 441).

According to the official press release, Microsoft and Nokia have released a corporate client Communicator Mobile for Nokia.

Communicator Mobile application will show who of the user’s colleagues is online and will give the smartphone owner an opportunity to communicate with multiple methods of communication. Thus, a user can send SMS, e-mails, instant messages and make phone calls from one client.

Owners of Nokia E Series, E72 and E52 smartphones, will get the first opportunity to set the client. The Communicator may be downloaded on Ovi Store. This application is free for the users of Office Communications Server 2007.

This was the first decision made within the frameworks of partnership between Microsoft and Nokia. The announcement about the creation of an alliance to develop new applications was made by companies in August 2009.

At that time it was reported that the companies plan to create mobile versions of Microsoft Office applications. The development of business applications and products for joint work for smartphones based on Symbian OS was also announced.

Previously, Microsoft applications were available only for the  smartphones based on WinMo OS. However, due to  the lower popularity of the mobile platform Microsoft had to promote its solutions on other operating systems.

Thus, Microsoft Office Communicator Mobile package can be installed on a number of Nokia smartphones running Symbian S40 and S60 operating systems, as well as for one of the Motorola devices- Motorola Razr.

Nokia has released a new firmware update (version 31.023) for smartphone E72. Apart from correcting the most of existing errors, the new firmware includes several new applications, along with opportunities for updating the present applications.

The new firmware contains:
- New pre-installed applications: Ovi Sync, Advance Communication Manager (which provides additional features, such as the creation of black lists), Smart Connect and Internet radio.

- Ovi Maps (a free version of the navigation), Web (full support for Flash Lite 3.1), Ovi Store (v1.5.436), Share online (v4.3.10.02), My Nokia, Start up and Email wizards (v2. and v2.05, respectively) were updated.

At present , the new firmware will be available only through the Nokia Software Updater, which means that you will need to connect Nokia E72 to a PC to update it.

It was reported that the Nokia Application Ovi Store of the Finnish manufacturer, which has recently been optimized and redesigned get a load of more than 1.6 million programs downloaded on a daily basis.

Ovi Store offers content offered in over 80 countries. The most successful publisher has become the developer companyof Digital Chocolate games  – its products have shown interest in the amount of 4.5 million downloads.

It is alleged that at the moment more than 100 models of Nokia phones are compatible with the Ovi Store, while more than 60 devices are Symbian-based smartphones.

The most popular among the visitors of Nokia Ovi Store are the following models: Nokia X6, N97, N97 Mini, 5800 XpressMusic, 5530 XpressMusic, E66, E71 and E72.

There are more that 66 operators offering the integration of billing with shopping through Ovi Store in 19 countries in the world.

In mid-January Nokia announced the transfer of navigation service Ovi Maps on a free basis. However the free walking and satellite navigation became available to owners only of relatively new models – N97, N97 mini, 5800 XpressMusic, 5800 Navigation Edition, E52, E55, E72, 5230, 6710 Navigator, 6730 classic, X6, N86 8MP.

The fresh press release shows that Nokia has taken into account the desires of  the users and has developed a version of Ovi Maps, compatible with former smartphones E71 and E66. However, not all features of new Ovi Maps have been implemented – there are no Guide Michelin and Lonely Planet premium services.

Ovi Maps for E71 and E66 are already available for downloaded from the Ovi Store.

Business smartphone of the Finnish company Nokia may appear in new color option for those who prefer colorful schemes.

Nokia E72 is one of the most popular smartphones for business today. Unfortunately, until now options for color solutions of cases have been limited to only 3 choices: black, grey and brown. Those businessmen, who look for self-expression, would be glad to learn that soon Nokia E72 will be available in purple as well.

As it has recently been reported, the new version of Nokia E72 will not differ from the previous one in terms of technical capabilities. The only difference is that the color of the shell will acquire a soft purple hue, which will certainly interest beautiful business women who have long wanted to buy Nokia E72, but something stopped them all the time.

A page with photos and a brief description of Nokia E72i model has appeared on the Chinese site of TENAA organization, dealing with certification of telecommunication equipment. Apparently, it is a version of the smartphone Nokia E72 (the name differs only by one character), designed specifically for sale in the Chinese market. The peculiarity of the smartphone Nokia E72i is the support for WAPI – Chinese implementation of wireless technology Wi-Fi. By appearance devices are not different – both are bar form factor phones with the horizontal QVGA display and a QWERTY keyboard.

Presumably, there are no other differences between the characteristics of Nokia E72 and E72i, except WAPI. Most likely, the Chinese smartphone, as well as its international counterparts is equipped with a 5 megapixel camera, accelerometer, GPS receiver, 250 MB of internal memory and support for third-generation cell networks and high-speed standard HSDPA. Nothing is yet known about the dates of release and the price of Nokia E72i.

Models with QWERTY-keyboard, made in a bar form factor stand out among Nokia phones. Nokia E71 is one of the most popular smartphones of the manufacturer. Last year it received a successor in the face of Nokia E72. So let us consider seven pros and cons of E72.

Pros:
1. Camera
One of the most obvious superiority of E72 over the E71 is the camera. The resolution is 5 MP instead of 3.2 MP camera of E71. In addition to quality pictures of the phone is capable of recording more or less good videos (320 x 240 pixels at E71 and 640 x 480 pixels at E72).

2. Internal memory
Usually Nokia E71 has about 110 MB of memory available. Nokia E72, in turn, offers 250 MB of memory. The difference is 140 MB, which is a big plus.

3. Flashlight
It is impossible to overestimate the function of a flashlight – it may be useful both in the dark on the street and at home, when suddenly the electricity is turned off. You can turn of the flashlight of E72 by simply pressing the space key.

4. A 3.5-mm jack, microUSB for charging
Unlike the E71, which has 2.5-mm jack, E72 offers a 3.5-mm audio jack, compatible with most of  the headphones offered by various companies. We are pleased that Nokia said “no” to adapters.
Nokia E72 can be charged via a standard connector, similar to E71, and through the microUSB connector. If there is a PC and an appropriate cable, the phone can be easily charged as well.
The phones have identical batteries – BP-4L (1500 mAh), but the devices operate at different times. The new model has longer talk time.

5. Music search
A lot of users want voicecontrol phone, but the E72 offers a convenient feature. By pressing asterisk (*) on your keyboard from the Home screen and saying the song title or artist, a music player finds the desired track. No need to manually scroll through the whole huge library. Of course, the accuracy depends on the voice and pronunciation, but the effort is worthwhile.

6. Position sensor
The accelerometer of the Nokia E72 can be useful to turn off the alarm, games, or for counting steps and calories with the program Nokia Step Counter.

7. Free Lifetime navigation
With the release of navigation software Ovi Maps 3.03 owners of a number of recent Nokia phones have a lifetime subscription to the automotive and pedestrian navigation. E71 IS not a new model in contrast to E72, so only owners of Nokia E72 can evaluate all the charm of satellite navigation.

Cons
1. Battery compartment
One of the main advantages of the Nokia E71 is the assembly. Nokia E71 in this respect is a reliable device. We can’t say the same thing about E72, because if you drop the device the battery compartment lid is constantly going up. It can open up during everyday usage as well.

2. RAM
Both phones have 128 MB of RAM. However, E72 consumes an average of 25-30 MB more. As a result, E71 can be comfortable to work with 6-7 programs, while the E72 has difficulty digesting 3 – 4 simultaneously running applications.

3. Space Problem
The space key of Nokia E72 stops working from time to time. Restart helps to solve the problem, so the issue is of the software nature and should be treated with a firmware.

4. No podcasts
The new Eseries phones have no Podcasting and Internet Radio. For some owners, these can be important functions to lose.

5. Optical trackpad
Not all the new features are useful and optical trackpad may be one of them. Theoretically, it should be easy, but those who, for many years enjoyed the usual five-way button, can have some problems with addiction. Perhaps it makes sense to use an optical joystick only for the browser.

6. Keymap
Nokia has decided to dilute the lower number of extra keys, reducing the gap. Now it seems that the keyboard is too overloaded with buttons. Inconvenient to switch layouts are also worth noting.

7. Speaker
The speaker of Nokia E72 is not loud enough. It’s location (on the reverse side) does not make sound louder as well.

Nokia E71 Specs:
Network: GSM / GPRS / EDGE (850/900/1800/1900 MHz), WCDMA / HSDPA (900/2100 MHz),
Platform: Symbian OS v9.2, S60 3rd Edition, Feature Pack 1
Display: 2.36 inch, 320 x 240 pixels, 16 million colors
Camera: 3.2 megapixel, autofocus, flash, QVGA video recording
Additional camera: 0,3 Mp
Processor: ARM 11 369 MHz
RAM: 128 MB
ROM: 256 MB
Internal Memory: 110 MB
Expansion slot: microSDHC (up to 8 GB)
Bluetooth 2.0 EDR
Wi-Fi (802.11b / g)
A-GPS
microUSB 2.0
2,5 mm jack
Audio: AAC, AAC, AMR-NB, AMR-WB, eAAC, M4A, MIDI Tones (poly 64), Mobile XMF, MP3, MP4, RealAudio 7, 8, 10, SP-MIDI, True tones, WAV
Video: 3GPP formats (H.263), Flash Video, H.264/AVC, MPEG-4, RealVideo 7,8,9 / 10
Images: BMP, EXIF, GIF87a, GIF89a, JPEG, JPEG 2000, PNG, TIFF, WBMP
Battery: BP-4L, 1500 mAh
Hours of talk time: up to 10,5 hours in the networks of GSM, up to 4,5 hours in WCDMA
Hours of standby time: up to 408 hours in the networks of GSM, up to 480 hours in WCDMA
Hours in music mode playback: up to 18 hours
Dimensions: 114 x 57 x 10 mm
Weight: 126 grams
Form factor: bar with QWERTY
Type: Smartphone
Date of announcement: June 2008
Release Date: 2008

Nokia E72 Specs:
Network: GSM / GPRS / EDGE (850/900/1800/1900 MHz), WCDMA / HSPA (850/1900/2100 MHz),
Platform: Symbian OS v9.2, S60 3rd Edition, Feature Pack 1
Display: 2.4 inch, 320 x 240 pixels, 16 million colors
Camera: 5 megapixel, flash, autofocus, video recording VGA
Additional camera: 0,3 Mp
Processor: ARM 11 600 MHz
RAM: 128 MB
ROM: 512 MB
Internal Memory: 250 MB
Memory Card: microSDHC (up to 16 GB)
Bluetooth 2.0 EDR
microUSB
3.5-mm connector
FM-radio
A-GPS
Wi-Fi (802.11b / g)
Optical joystick, position sensors, compass
Audio: AAC, AAC, AMR-NB, AMR-WB, AU, eAAC, M4A, MIDI Tones (poly 64), MP3, MP4, RealAudio 7, 8, 10, SP-MIDI, True tones, WAV, WMA
Video: 3GPP, Flash Video, H.264/AVC, MPEG-4, RealVideo 7,8,9 / 10, WMV
Images: BMP, EXIF, GIF87a, GIF89a, JPEG, JPEG 2000, OTA, PNG, WBMP
Battery: BP-4L, 1500 mAh
Hours of talk time: up to 12,5 hours in the networks of GSM, up to 6 hours in WCDMA
Hours Standby time: up to 384 hours in the networks of GSM, up to 528 hours in WCDMA
Time running conversation on VoIP: up to 13,6 hours
Hours during playback of audio: up to 37,5 hours
Hours during playback of video: up to 13 hours
Hours in video mode: up to 6,4 hours
Dimensions: 114 x 58,3 x 10,1 mm
Weight: 128 grams
Form factor: bar with QWERTY
Type: Smartphone
Date of announcement: June 15, 2009
Release Date: November 2009