Nokia
121

The Nokia 121 was a business centric variant of the Nokia 101 and was described by Nokia as a “microportable cellular phone”. The physical design of the two devices differed with regards the colour of the keypad and other cosmetic details. To cater for business users, Nokia 121 had an external antenna connector on the base of the phone to allow it to be connected to an integrated car-kit. When used in a vehicle, an auto answer capability allowed the Nokia 121 to automatically to answer the phone after a pre-defined number of rings. If this feature was not selected, users could answer calls by touching any key--not just the SEND key.  There was also an optional voice recognition dialler that make it possible to initiate hands-free calls and control basic operations. The voice sensor built into the phone was able to recognise two different voices and up to 50 names could be stored in the memory per user. The voice activation was a nice idea, but the performance was poor and was frustrating for many users. The phone could also mute the car-radio when a call was received. These were considered advanced features for a car phone at the time. Another business-centric characteristic of the device was the ability to send and receive mobile data and faxes using an optional Cellular Notebook Link to a laptop. When used with the Compaq SpeedPAQ 144 modem PC card data could be transmitted at up to 4,800 bps. The theoretical speed could be increased to “more than 11,000 bps” through data compression. Faxes could be sent and received at 9,600 bps. A further, little known, difference was that the keypad LED's were different. On the Nokia 101 the whole keypad lit up whereas on the Nokia 121 each individual key was lit (which was also the case with the Nokia 232). This was achieved by using a different and more expensive silicon keypad that made it possible to block all unwanted light on the silicone keys thereby only allowing light to pass through on the graphics. The phone was designed to support several three different mobile network technologies: the Advanced Mobile Phone Service (AMPS) key the US market, Total Access Communications Systems (TACS) which was deployed in UK and other markets, and Nordic Mobile Telephone (NMT) in Scandinavia and Eastern Europe. The battery life for the Nokia 121 when using the standard 380-mAh battery delivered 45 minutes of talk time and 11 hours' standby. Many users opted for the extended-life nickel-metal hydride battery provides 120 minutes of talk time and 24 hours' standby.  Nokia also offered a ”private label version” of the phone (the PT128) that was be available to other device makers and resellers. Good examples are the Technophone 405 and Technophone 407. Another very important part of the story associated with the Nokia 101 and Nokia 121 was the influence the phones had over Nokia’s future naming conventions for it mobile phones. Prior to these devices, Nokia had been using names such as “Cityman”. According to designer Frank Nuovo, by using just numbers, Nokia was able to have “a more neutral and flexible identity and consumer association” as well as having a less gender specific naming architecture. It was also important for Nokia to distance itself from Cityman given its potential association with Sony’s “Walkman” brand. Frank Nuovo, who was a consultant to Nokia at the time, but went on to be the company’s chief designer, worked closely with Nokia colleagues Juha Pinomaa and Phil Brown assessing the options for naming an also colour options for the new products in the UK. Ultimately, the work on naming the Nokia 101 and 121 when on to shape Nokia’s naming conventions for the foreseeable future. Phones for use on analogue networks were named “in the hundreds" range (e.g. 101, 121, 232) and digital designs in the "thousands" range 1100, 2100, 2110 and beyond. The design ethos of the Nokia 101 and 121 was described by Frank Nuovo as using “human friendly shapes and forms” with the emphasized display being the "eye into the soul of the product". But the phones also had to be “human centric and pocket friendly” with elements such as softer corners to fit comfortably into the palm of one’s hand. Frank Nuovo regards the Nokia 101 and 121 as the beginning of “all things that were at the core of the design vision work” he led and delivered with the Nokia design team over the 15 to 20 years. He describes the philosophy of “great hardware being at the core of Nokia’s leadership” and this helped Nokia get the right blend of “human centric high style with the best selection and execution of high performance features”.