Nokia tweaks cell phones for businesses

Nokia on Monday unveiled several tools and interfaces aimed at giving cell phones a greater role within corporations.

Some of the new tools from the Finnish cell phone maker are designed to enhance security for workers connecting to corporate networks remotely; other products are intended to help manage privacy.

Nokia also introduced interfaces for creating new Web services applications. The company's first mobile Web services interfaces for the Nokia MMS (Multimedia Message Service) server are designed to bring Web services into the mobile domain. The company hopes such services will act as a bridge between mobile network servers and Web application servers.

In the Web services concept, espoused by leading technology companies, business applications are designed to connect to one another over the Internet. Most businesses are either still investigating Web services or are just beginning to use the software to link their internal systems.

One of the company's security tools, Nokia Mobile VPN, is designed to allow workers to securely connect to enterprise network systems. Another product, the Nokia Security Service Manager, is made to address the challenge of managing over-the-air handset security. The company said that with this product, enterprises can convert business applications that normally run over cables and wires to mobile applications while maintaining tight security.

Nokia's iGMLC Privacy Manager allows subscribers to retain full control over what location information their cell phones transmit.