Nokia actually had a big event last year where they outlined their internet plans. It's definitely more than just talk, they've put down $8 billion to buy the mapping company Navteq (which is still going through the regulators), and over the past few years they've also bought up other service companies like Twango, Smart2Go and Sega's online gaming division. They've launched a new brand called Ovi ("door" in Finnish) which will eventually provide a unified log-in to their existing file-sharing, mapping, music, gaming and other services.

If you want an explanation why they are doing this, here's my take:

Nokia is almost 150 years old as a company. It started out with wood products, then got into electrical cables when they became a hot new thing, then moved into tyres, rubber boots and electrical goods, then computers and modems, and most recently into mobile phones and pocket computers.

They've stayed profitable by reinventing themselves periodically, getting out of industries that are going stale and entering new industries that are just getting started. I think they're considering what to do after mobile phones go stale, which could happen in the next 10 or 20 years.

Phones aren't going away of course (electric cables and wood products didn't), but they're becoming increasingly difficult to make a large profit from because the prices are tumbling so quickly. The average sale price of a phone now is about 100 dollars, and that's the retail unlocked sim-free price without any subsidies from operators. You can now buy a mobile phone for about 40 dollars and a smartphone for about 200 dollars (again, all unsubsidised no-contract prices). If this trend continues the phone-making business will become almost entirely about cheap low-profit models which have every feature most people would ever want.

In short, I think Nokia talking about itself as an internet company now is premature, but it's a reflection of where they want to be if/when the phone industry goes stale.