Nokia's 'what if' project could be the One

Nokia One product is device-, technology- and transmission-agnostic

When it comes to unifying communications systems, most vendors stick to what they know. Email companies make PC-centric, email-based applications.

Voice firms build add-ons to their own PBX devices that move voice traffic around with alacrity.

Somewhere in the middle is an increasingly sceptical customer. The latest pretender to the non-existent throne is Nokia One.

Born from a 'what if?' speculative project that was only intended to be used internally at the Finnish manufacturer, it is difficult to find people outside Nokia who know much about it.

Yet the speed and ease with which it can be adopted by companies such as Fujitsu Invia, and the fact that it is cheap to install, means that it is attractive to resellers, end users and mobile operators that are trying to bump up data revenues.

There is also no need to dispose of your voicemail appliances, change the branch office PBX or adopt an Exchange server.

Ian Dredge, Nokia's northern Europe sales manager for the product, said: "Nokia One is device-, technology- and transmission-agnostic."

This means any employee can pick up their voicemail, send and receive email or browse their company's phone book from any device or location.

If you can use a telephone handset, you can check your email. The instruction manual is a double-sided piece of plastic the size of a credit card.

"We started off with a 10-year-old mobile phone that could just about handle Short Message Service [SMS]," said Dredge. "Anything more advanced will be able to connect to and navigate Nokia One."

Calling in from a telephone allows you to check your email in the same way that you check your voicemail. Using SMS it is possible to get message headers before requesting mails.

As the software is scriptable, it is possible to strip out attachments and annoying disclaimers easily. Replying is also straightforward. In the case of basic SMS, long messages can be sent in a number of linking texts.

The vendor has kept Nokia One's existence low key. It is only now, after the appointment of mobile device integration specialist Data2Hand as distributor for a hardware-free version of the product, called Nokia One Starter, that Nokia One is getting closer to the channel.

Dredge said the firm intends to sign up companies for the full product, which involves hardware as well as software products.

"None of the things Nokia has done with this are revolutionary or new," said Keith Yaxley, director at Data2Hand.

"All the different technologies, such as text to speech, SMS and middleware, have been around for years. It's just that Nokia has put it together in a package that works."