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STOCKHOLM: Nokia, the world's biggest mobile phone maker, unveiled a new version of its Internet tablet device running Google Talk communications software.
 The deal between Finnish-based Nokia and Web search leader Google Inc. allows people to chat with other users of instant-messaging software via the Nokia Wi-Fi device, which relies on short-range wireless networks.
The Nokia 770 Internet tablet, introduced last year, offers wireless access to digital music and video, as well as access to e-mail.
The new version of the Internet tablet, unveiled in Stockholm, also has a full-screen finger keyboard.
Rather than using cell-phone networks, the 770 device relies on unregulated local wireless connections.
Ari Virtanen, of Nokia's Multimedia division, said the device had been selling well since its launch last year.
"The first months have been very encouraging," he told a news conference, adding that sales of the product had ramped up in November and sold out in the Christmas market.
The product reached its volume expectations for 2005 and Nokia was heading into mass volumes of the 770, he said, adding that the profitability target for the device was about the same as for other Nokia products.
Virtanen said Nokia did not see any direct rivalry between the tablet and regular mobile phones.
"I cannot see any direct competition between these two business domains. Of course, they always overlap, but we do not see any direct competition," he said.
(C) Reuters
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