Nokia recently launched what it calls the first super-camera smartphone, the Nokia 808 PureView.
While the USP of the handset is its 41-megapixel sensor camera, it overshadows the fact that with the PureView Nokia also entered into an exclusive partnership with Dolby Laboratories.
We caught up with Mr Vipul Mehrotra, Director and Head of Smart Devices, Nokia India, and Mr Pankaj Kedia, Country Manager, Dolby Labs , India, to find out what the partnership means for the consumer.
Tell us a bit about the choice of going with Dolby and vice versa.
Vipul Mehrotra : When we started building the new device (Nokia 808 PureView), of course, the imaging was at the forefront. But, we quickly realised that this needs to be a comprehensive smart device. It had to be something that people would use on-the-go for more than one reason. So, we had to pack in something more into it and that’s when Dolby and we got together. Dolby Digital Plus delivers 5.1 surround sound cinematic sound on-the-go experience but that again was not enough. So, we worked closely with Dolby to deliver the Dolby headphone technology. With these, you can load up any stereo music file on the device and connect any headset – a headset that could cost you anywhere between Rs 30-3,000 and you are assured stereophonic sound.
Pankaj Kedia : From our perspective, we’ve been covering cinema sound, DVD, broadcast and bringing surround sound to the theatre and to the home for a very long time. What we saw was the fact that there was a lot of content consumption on smartphones or any other portable device, for that matter.
One of the things that we found out through our research was that 78 per cent of the people were unhappy with the quality of media playback they were getting on their phones. At that time, we were working on this technology of how to bring the experience that you get in a cinema hall onto headphones. Technologically, it’s a big challenge because the space is not there. Nokia had said they wanted something similar, so it was a great match, I guess.
Nokia has had a line-up of music phones in the past. Did you receive any feedback or sense discontent with the kind of experience people had?
VM: The choice to integrate Dolby is more from an improvement perspective. In the domestic market, a lot of consumers told us that they would want better sound through the handset. So, we were not too happy about the quality of sound reproduction on the devices, especially on the go. They wanted surround sound and at the same time not feel locked in when it came to choice.
So, instead of giving them a headset you give the consumer the choice to use any headset he wants. Of course, the costlier the headset, the better sound and noise isolation it’s going to deliver. But, for us it was more about improving what we got to the market.
What’s the kind of competition you see from tie-ups like HTC and Dr. Dre Beats and when it comes to laptops ASUS and B&O?
VM: Well, from a strategic perspective, it’s great news because it re-emphasises our strategy of building ecosystems. Right now, our ecosystem consists of partners like Microsoft, Carl Zeiss and Dolby. The winners in the future will be the ones who can build and manage an ecosystem efficiently. So, the other partnerships too are revalidating and confirming our choice of strategy.
Has Dolby been approached by other companies for similar partnerships?
PK: We have licensed some of our technology to other manufacturers, technology that works towards audio enhancement. But the combination of Dolby Digital Plus, which gives you what we call discreet surround sound and Dolby headphones which give you virtualisation is exclusive to Nokia. We also work with a lot of other OEMs. But it mostly just involves taking the audio and enhancing it in the device. It’s not a surround sound experience.