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We’ve watch how hand phones evolve from something plain and boring that only lets you make calls, send text messages and maybe play the once popular game, Snake, to what it is today, packing all your communication need into one small device. Nokia recently invited us for a chance to see what goes on behind the digital design and you’ll be surprised that the design team consists of more than just designers – there’re anthropologists and even psychologists as well to observe how people use their phones all over the world.

Hit the jump for more information, including the much awaited Nokia N900 which will be arriving to South East Asia Pacific very soon.

While there’s a common conception that all Nokia phones look the same, having a similar icon is Nokia’s global language that lets users migrate to new phone easily. As the available features change throughout the year, the icons also have to evolve together with the feature like how a phonebook that used to be something that stores name and numbers have an icon of a phone on a book, to one that stores much more information now such as company name, position, multiple numbers, and email addresses, thus having a logo of a person on the book. Other functions such as music which uses a music note logo, and an envelope to symbolize message have maintain more or less the same throughout the years because it is a widely known symbol used around the world.

This may not seem as something very commonly used, but Nokia also have a team dedicated to studying gestures to give a more diverse way for users to interact with their phones. During the workshop, Yonghee Jung, Research Leader, Research Center Bangalore, India shared with us many interesting ways that you might be able to use on your phone for future devices such as covering your phone with your hand to silent it or waving it in the air to get your GPS location. As fun as this may seem, there are still many factors to consider before delivering it.

In late January 2010, Nokia made its Ovi Maps with Navigation free to the world, delivering a high quality mapping system for not only people navigating while in their vehicle, but also a walk navigation that believe it or not, is much harder to implement because of the many detour the user can take. Because Ovi Maps is available online and offline, it uses 10 times less data (compared to Google Maps), making it more energy efficient and cost effective. This service is available in Malaysia, covering up to 93,000km of roads in KL, and slowly expanding. Unfortunately though, currently, the service is only available for 11 existing Nokia devices, but at least it will be available to selected future devices. I know our roads gets changed very frequently, the maps will be updated about 3-4 times a year to ensure users are browsing with the most updated map.

The company also announced its plans to start selling the new Nokia N900 in SEAP during March. At the event, Nokia demonstrated its suite of solution offerings to over 150 media and guests from around the region, and gave deeper insights into its new version of Ovi Maps as well as the inside story of Nokia’s digital design as part of its programme for the media over the 2 day event.

“Today we are ‘Connecting People’ on a scale unimaginable back when the mobile industry started. Our recipe for success has some pretty simple ingredients: delighting consumers. Yes, we are in more places, serving more people, with more great content and services. True, more than a million apps are being downloaded a day from our store; Comes with Music is now available in over 27 markets and the Ala carte Music Store in 33 markets; and every second of the day, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, another person downloads our new Ovi Maps app. These are great achievements, but our goal is to delight hundreds of millions of consumers around the world – and we are well on our way.” -- Chris Carr, Vice President of Sales, Southeast Asia Pacific.

Nokia highlighted landmark achievements for its key service areas:

Location: Launched in late January, the new Ovi Maps features drive and walk navigation in 74 countries and 46 languages, as well as traffic information in many. All new Nokia GPS-enabled smartphones will include this great service, at no extra cost.
- More than 3 million Ovi Maps downloaded as announced on 15 Feb in MWC
- More than one download per second, 24 hours a day; around 100,000 downloads a day
- Rich functionality and the best mobile maps coverage in the world

Music: Comes With Music grew to 27 markets with recent launches in Malaysia and markets in the Middle East. Comes With Music will be next available in Indonesia in second quarter this year. People who own a Comes With Music device can download as much free music as they want from Ovi Music and, unlike other online music services, can keep them on their device forever. Music downloaded from the Ovi Music à la carte menu is also DRM-free.
- Ovi Music is in 33 markets, making Nokia the world’s most scaled global digital music provider
- The average person using Comes With Music downloads 500 free songs in the first few weeks of using the service, which would cost about USD600 from iTunes
- More than nine million tracks in the Ovi Music catalogue

Store: Launched in May 2009, multiple improvements have improved the browsing and search experience, leading to a significant increase in the number of downloads. According to a recent Evans Data report, Ovi Store is the store of choice for wireless developers in Asia Pacific. In 2010, Ovi Store will have more languages, billing support, improvements and of course, a lot more apps.
- More than one million downloads a day
- The number of people shopping on the store doubles every month
- Fully localized store in 18 countries supporting 30 languages, and serving 90 percent of Store visitors with their local language
- Integrated mobile billing from 60 operators in 18 countries

Messaging: Ovi Mail, a free email service especially designed for emerging markets has been extremely well-received. There are now more than 6 million Ovi Mail accounts created globally in just over a year after its launch. In the SEAP region, with highly populated markets and the lack of fixed infrastructure in many areas, Ovi Mail has been a tremendous success. This region makes up more than 30% of the Ovi Mail users in the world. Bangladesh, Indonesia and Vietnam for instance, are amongst the top markets for Ovi Mail worldwide.

Working closely with operators, Nokia Messaging, Nokia’s push email service and IM, is now signed up with 8 operators in the SEAP region, across Australia, Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, and continues to gain good momentum.