So the great CES 2010 in Las Vegas is officially over.  So how did Nokia get on?  Well they had a keynote, and wheeled out the big guns like OPK onto the stage, but general opinion has been downbeat.

Right off the bat, no new handsets were announced.  This is always a disappointment when a massive company, such as Nokia, has literally nothing new to show off.

However, as Nokia are now trying to re-gig themselves into a services company, surely they had some new stuff to brag about in this arena?  Err, nope.

So what was their keynote about?

Well, it would seem that the keynote was about two things.  Firstly, how many Nokia devices they have shipped.  Nokia love bragging about this, because they are number one.  No other company in the world ships anyway near as many devices as them, and they love that fact.  Kudos to them, they deserve it.  I would say that self gratification is not, in my opinion, particularly interesting.  Just because Apple does it, doesn’t mean everyone should follow suit.



The other main item on the agenda was how Nokia is leading the industry of ways in which to help people in developing countries use mobile devices and services help with their life and businesses.  Ovi Mail is many peoples first viable access to an email account, Nokia Money is helping people transfer money who do not have viable access to a bank,  and how they are bringing location services to the masses not just by GPS but also by cell tower triangulation.

So that was the main crux of the Nokia keynote at CES, and there has been some very mixed reactions this.

If you want to see the live feed of the Nokia keynote at CES, Engadget has it in a great bullet format, with some good images HERE.

Now, we look forward to MWC, and what can we expect to see.

MWC (Mobile World Congress) is being held in Barcelona between the 15th and 18th February.  This is the big mobile show.

Now, I am blissfully aware that Nokia are not specifically going to be at MWC.  However, they are going to be just down the road.  Some people are predicting that Nokia will not announce anything in February because they are not going to MWC.  Whilst this fact is true in the minutest detail, the fact that they are in town, at the exact same time as MWC was no accident.  MWC would have charged Nokia an absolute fortune to host an event within the MWC realm, so a way of Nokia cutting costs is to hold their own party just down the road.

There has been lots of speculation that because Nokia didn’t announce anything at CES, there is going to be an onslaught of new devices showcased in Barcelona.

I would be wary about predicting too much, but I think we should be in line for at least one new device in E, X and N Series line ups.  Possibly even the N900′s Maemo successor, but that would be pushing the limits of reality a little too far.  I would predict that the E Series will be another S60 handset, with maybe the X Series moving to the new Symbian Foundation platform to test the waters for the N and E Series coming later in the year.  As the X Series brand is so new, a complete failure on Nokia’s part to implement the Symbian Foundation OS properly is not going to do too much damage to the venerable N and E Series monikers.

Aside from that, I’m sure we will see the next iteration of Ovi Maps, and possibly a move towards the mainstream of Nokia Money, with possible integration into a NFC (Near Field Communcations) device so that you can pay for items in high street stores using your mobile phone.  There is some speculation around that the next iPhone is going to have NFC capabilities, so Nokia getting there first will be a relatively big scalp for them.

So there we have it.  They are my predictions for MWC in Barcelona next month.  Do you disagree?  Let us know in the comments.

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