Nokia phone adopts handwriting recognition

Nokia on Tuesday announced it plans to start selling a new smart phone capable of handwriting recognition.

The 7710 model features a touch screen, pen input, a digital camera, an Internet browser, a radio, video playback and streaming and recording capabilities, the company said.

The phone is among the new offerings that Nokia showcased at a news conference in Bangkok, Thailand. The company is expected to start shipping the gadget in Asia and China before the end of the year. The product will hit Europe and Africa in the first quarter of 2005. Pricing for the phone was not announced.

The phone maker has been losing market share and recently reported a drop in its third-quarter earnings. The company hopes the new products will help it plug gaps in its product line and win back market share.

"Smart phones are now at the heart of the industry," Anssi Vanjoki, general manager of multimedia at Nokia, said in statement. "Mobility is a powerful force. Not only are smart phones reaching the mainstream, they are drawing on cross-industry technologies to spur further innovation."

The 7710 also includes e-mail functions, VPN (virtual private network) software, user memory of up to 128MB, and an application that lets people connect to their Web logs. It is designed to run on the Symbian operating system.

The gizmo's visual radio function allows people to view information on the song and artist playing on the radio or participate in competitions, while the eBook software can be used to download and read books from eBooks.com, Nokia said.

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