Phones of the future will be just as powerful as computers

With help of wireless technology, sending messages, files and images on the move will be easier and faster too.

But the influential mobile boss admitted he still preferred text messaging over e-mail.

Mr Ollila revealed his visions of the future in an interview with BBC World's technology programme ClickOnline.

"In 10 years, which is a very long time ahead to see, we really will have very powerful devices, which will enable us to send and receive pictures, files, or documents.

"So what we do at our desks we can basically do through mobile devices which are easy to handle," Mr Ollila said.

Hand power

Even though the devices will get more sophisticated and powerful, the popularity of SMS which allows people to communicate simply and quickly will continue, he said.

Wi-fi is a very important complementary technology to cellular, and they will continue to live very well together Jorma Ollila, Nokia CEO

"People do want to check their e-mail. They don't necessarily want to spend a lot of time responding, but they will want to receive e-mail messages.

"They will want to send short e-mail messages and SMS messages in the future," he said.

He uses a lot of SMS to communicate to his management team because a large proportion of his time is spent in meetings.

"I check my e-mail, but I am not a big user and sender of e-mail messages," he explained.

'Year of 3G'

Although there are sophisticated multimedia devices on the market which have more processing power than many computers already, there are still technological barriers that prevent their widespread take-up.

These include issues around interoperability and the ability for devices to be able to communicate effectively with each other, connection speeds, and security concerns.

Wi-fi will complement mobile phones

With the promise of 3G technology as well as wi-fi - which allows broadband over the airwaves - Nokia is convinced that powerful handheld devices will combine both technologies.

"Wi-fi is a very important complementary technology to cellular, and they will continue to live very well together," Mr Ollila said.

There will be more products coming onto the market very soon that will make use of both mobile net and wi-fi, he said.

"In hotspots where wi-fi is available you can access that technology, but when you're on the motorway or at your home and you don't have wi-fi access, you hook up on to the cellular."

Although 3G technology that delivers bandwidth-greedy content like video has had a disappointing start, Mr Ollila has predicted 2004 will be different.

"2004 will be remembered as the year when 3G did start. The second half, you will see some interesting events on this front."