Nokia's New Family of Phones

• Email
• Share
• Print

Here's a scary thought. If cell phone users are blind to the world when they have a phone to their ears, think what will happen when they get a keyboard to do heads-down thumb-typing. Just imagine users of the Treo from Motley Fool Stock Advisor recommendation Palm (Nasdaq: PALM), or the BlackBerry from Research In Motion (Nasdaq: RIMM), on a larger scale.

Well, concerned citizens, that day has dawned at the world's largest cell phone manufacturer, Nokia (NYSE: NYSE). The company is announcing a new family of cell phones aimed at the "business user." Priced at more than $400 and up, these phones are way too expensive to set off a sales surge at the local high schools. But don't be surprised to see them become quite popular anyway.

Due out early next year, these are not your typical phones. They can connect your company's phone network and allow four-digit phone extension dialing. They also have features to waylay the corporate IT department's concerns about security.

Still, phones with keyboards -- Hewlett-Packard and Motorola (NYSE: MOT) have already announced their models -- are here, and like everything else electronic, what you see today for the special user will be commoditized and made available to the mass market in due time.

Nokia will benefit from trends like this that it can ride to sales glory, but investors should consider the opportunities that Internet-enabled phones provide for e-mail and other providers. Read yesterday's lament from fellow Fool Nathan Parmelee about what he missed after moving from Japan to the U.S., and you will see that it may pay to think well beyond handsets.

Mobile users will more actively use Internet sites, thereby boosting business for the entrenched winners. From Motley Fool Stock Advisor recommendation eBay's (Nasdaq: EBAY) auction sites to Yahoo!'s (Nasdaq: YHOO) news and email, the potential for continued growth looks promising. So, too, is the outlook at cell phone service providers like Verizon and Stock Advisor recommendation SBC Communications (NYSE: SBC), since users of such phones will be purchasing higher-margin service plans for the foreseeable future (though these, too, might become commoditized as phones of this sort proliferate).

One last thought. Motorola has announced that it has developed finger-writing-recognition software, so why do cell phones have voice-activated dialing systems but no speech-recognition software to bypass all of the keyboard thumbing? IBM, are you listening?

Are you looking for great companies? Let Motley Fool co-founders David and Tom Gardner find the next big winner for you. Subscribe to the Motley Fool Stock Advisor newsletter and find opportunities like eBay, SBC, and Palm.

Fool contributor W.D. Crotty owns shares in Verizon and SBC Communications. Click here to see The Motley Fool's disclosure policy.