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Nokia made news today at CeBIT 2004 in Germany with the announcement of its first smartphone, the 7610, to integrate a megapixel digital camera, delivering the ability to capture, print, store and send photo-quality images and videos.

The Tri-band Nokia 7610 will come in two flavors, both GSM. One will be able to run on 900/1800/1900 networks, while the other will be compatible with 850/1800/1900 networks. It runs version 7.0 of the Symbian operating system with Nokia's Series 60 running on top.

The Series 60 interface allows for single-handed navigation as well as business and productivity tools such as email, over-the air synchronization of PDA data, a fully integrated Internet browser (HTML 4.01, XHTML/CSS and WML), SMS, MMS and compatibility with third-party applications. Most smartphones that are bought today run the Symbian OS, while the majority of these run the Series 60 platform.

According to Gartner, in 2003, more than 6.67 million smartphones based on Symbian OS were shipped worldwide. While this is a drop in the bucket compared to the over 520 million mobile phones sold worldwide last year, the overall sales of smartphones are expected to grow exponentially over the next few years.

The Zelos Group predicts that by 2008 sales of full-featured handsets, mobile phones or smartphones that incorporate full-featured operating systems such as Symbian, Windows Mobile, Palm OS and Linux, will grow to about 290 million, or about 43% of global handset sales.

With the 7610's camera users can take images up to a 1152 X 864 pixel resolution. The camera has a 4x digital zoom and a self-timer. The 7610 can also capture images in low-light conditions. There's an application called Kodak Pictures on the smartphone that allows users to upload pictures to a photo album on the Web for viewing and sharing online.

An integrated video recorder with an audio function allows users to take video clips up to 10 minutes long. Video can either be taken at 128 x 96 or 174 x 144 pixels. With the Movie Director application on the smartphone, users can combine video clips, add music, or change styles with colors, texts and objects. Several clips can be merged into a single movie or be sent via MMS.

Other features of the 7610 include 72MB of memory as well as a 176 x 208 resolution and 65,536 color display. The smartphone comes with a 900 mAh lithium ion battery for up to 180 minutes talk and 10.4 days standby time. It weighs 4.2 ounces (118 grams) and measures 4.3 x 2.1 x 0.7 inches (10.86 x 5.3 x 1.87 millimeters). The 7610 is slated to ship in Europe during the second quarter for about €500, which is around 460 dollars.