Jonas Geust, a VP for Nokia in the area of Multimedia Computers, shared a few thoughts on the whole converged devices market as well as his thoughts on the iPhone. Geust told Long and his clients that Nokia believe the market for converged devices (phones with music, cameras, Web access and video) was 90 million units in 2006, and will grow to 250 million in 2008. I’m curious how he arrived at the estimation of 250 million devices for 2008.

Long went on to disclose that about 60% of users who have MP3 players on their phone actually use them. I have MP3 players on all my phones including the Treo 700, 750, a few Nokia handsets, but I don’t use any of them for music. That’s what the iPod is for.

Many execs gave their thoughts on the iPhone, and perhaps comments from Geust are the most interesting.

• Touch screens: Geust said that Nokia has heard some positive feedback, but also noted that some people have issues with keeping them clean, and that some people dislike the fact that they are hard to use with one hand. (Which makes them hard to use while driving.)
• Bandwidth: Geust says he does not think 2.5G technology (which is what the first iPhone will use) will be fast enough. He says devices should have 3G and/or wi-fi access for a rich user experience.
• Cameras: The Nokia exec said the sweet spot will be 3-5 megapixels.
• Storage: Geust says 4GB to 8 GB of storage should be enough for music alone but that 16GB or even 32 will be needed to store music, photos and video.

Nokia Exec Sees Huge Growth In SmartPhones; Assessing The iPhone [Tech Trader Daily]