[miffed]

Nokia has revealed plans to enter the 3G dongle market by manufacturing what it calls 'internet sticks'.

The Finnish mobile handset leader has clearly seen the explosive growth of 3G internet and wants a slice of the action. It will be going toe to toe with Huawei Technologies, which supplies dongles for the likes of the mobile network 3.

Nokia will ship the first of these sticks in 2009, and Tapio Markki, VP for hardware platform components at Nokia, told Reuters that the companies 3G know how and experience would be key to its success.

Rapid growth

"Leveraging these capabilities, we believe we are well-positioned to become one of the winning providers for HSPA modem solutions. The market for HSPA modems is expected to grow very rapidly during the coming years," Markki said.

Nokia declined to say how much the dongles would cost, but it's likely they'll be of a similar price to those already on the market thanks to impending deals with operators and service bundles.

By Gareth Beavis

( Source - http://www.techradar.com/news/mobile-computing/nokia-to-produce-3g-laptop-dongles-494639?src=rss&attr=news )

Interesting move , but not sure it'll be too significant - Maybe some people will prefer a Nokia badged dongle , but I certainly wouldn't pay a premium for one

[Hands0n]

Wow, they're really quick to market! :eek: How long a head start has Huawei had? It must be getting on for 18 months already!

[Ben]

Oh, yeah, I really fancy Nokia software and drivers being installed on my computer! Blimey!

Huawei have shown that both the hardware and software can be minimal and efficient. I'm not sure if Nokia can stay true to that without adding bloat.

[miffed]

I remember I had a Nokia Card phone 2 back in the day ..
To be fair , it worked quite well , it hammered along at around 14kbps - or was capable of HSCSD on Orange , giving a blistering 42kbps for the princely sum of 35p per minute !

The UI was very similar to what we see on the modern dongles , so hopefully Nokia will continue in the trend they set with their phones , and simply re-skin the same sorry old system.
An interesting feature that the Card phone had (and I have not seen on a dongle ) was the abilty to make and receive calls - you had a headset that plugged into the card , and could dial via the computer , I am surprised this feature has not been on any of the products since