Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) lifted the lid on nine new products today at its Mobile Internet Conference in Munich, leading to a news release frenzy that required the issue of a press release to note the press releases (see Nokia Launches 9).

Of greatest interest during a hurried presentation of the new devices were some of the more outlandish comments that accompanied their display.

Nokia Mobile Phones executive vice president Anssi Vanjoki kicked off with a neat generalization: "We now know that all voice is going to go wireless," he proclaimed during his presentation, without saying whether this would be any time this century.

He also revealed a very interesting looking device called the N-Gage, designed especially for gaming, including the capability, using Bluetooth, for multiple users to play games with each other using their short-range connections. Frustratingly, Vanjoki added that no more details would be available on this device until February next year.

Of the new 6100 model (color screen, tri-band, MMS), he said that "one race that never stops is to see who has got the smallest and the lightest." (This writer's somewhat painful schooldays do not quite back that up, but we'll let that pass.) "It's tiny and slim," Vanjoki said of the 6100, "and when you get it in your hand you will see the mobile phone has been perfected." That's known as laying it on a little bit too thick, in our opinion.

— Ray Le Maistre, European Editor, Unstrung www.unstrung.com