Pierce recalls sitting in front of a German fashion retailer with a collection of new designs from his father's company, Glen Ross, and watching the buyer select from among a dizzying range of samples with trademark Teutonic speed and efficiency.

"He would just point and say 'ja', 'nein', 'ja', 'nein' and I had to remember which ones were 'ja' and which ones were 'nein', " says Pierce.

These days Pierce is responsible for parading Nokia's dizzying array of phones in front of retailers and consumers and making sure Irish customers give them an enthusiastic 'ja'.

The sock experience has clearly stood to him. Last year Nokia broke the Euro200m sales barrier in Ireland for the first time.

"It was a record year in net sales and a record year in total volumes, " he says. He won't reveal any other figures but in a year in which Nokia increased its global market share from 34% to 36%, it seems likely it has also strengthened its grip in Ireland. Industry sources who are prepared to make an educated guess put its share of the Irish market at over 60%.

Mobile penetration, the number of phones per person, has passed the 100% mark in Ireland but growth continues to be strong. A young population structure combined with a steady influx of migrant workers means a healthy supply of new users each year.

Pierce says the first half of last year saw record demand for what those in the industry refer to as "entry-level handsets". Cheap, basic models that will be used for nothing more than talking and texting are still a significant part of the market. But while Nokia may be happy to see entry-level handsets fly off the shelves, ultimately it has its sights set on more sophisticated users who are willing to buy high-end phones.

"Volume doesn't equate to revenue. For me to have a successful business I need to have a good mix, " says Pierce. To explain how Nokia will do that he echoes recent comments by the company's overall chief executive, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, when he says, "Nokia is an internet company and it will be an internet company".

That means selling phones with the capability to access the web on high-speed mobile networks such as the 3G services offered by Vodafone and 3 in Ireland. It means selling phones with multimedia capability including integrated video cameras and music players and it means investing in technology to enable live mobile television broadcasting. Above all, though, it means Nokia making a big effort in concert with mobile operators to convince customers to use all those services.

"I think we have a superior portfolio and we just have to make sure that it hits home with operators, retailers and, most importantly, with consumers, " Pierce says.

Nokia is taking this internet focus seriously. It has partnered with Vox, for instance, to provide a social-networking and blogging platform similar to Bebo or Myspace for its users. "It's user-generated content that we're driving at, " says Pierce.

Last August , meanwhile, the company spent $60m to acquire digital music specialist Loudeye to enhance the music-playing and downloading capabilities of its devices.

Nokia has also stood four-square behind network operator 3's mobile broadband offering, X-Series, which will see internet services from Google, Skype, Slingmedia and other terrestrial internet titans made available to mobile subscribers. The Irish launch of XSeries is due to take place before summer.

The mobile industry is in transition. Operators across the US and Europe have seen mobiles reach saturation point and voice and text usage hit their peaks. Even in Ireland, traditionally a cash cow for operators such as O2 and Vodafone, average revenues have begun to decline and competition has intensified.

The voice and text revenues which have supported networks are no longer sufficient.

The only way to grow is to offer new services.

That is where 3G networks are supposed to come in, enabling the mobile internet to take shape.

For handset makers also, that throws up challenges. Phones need to be feature-packed to command a premium but if users aren't bothering to avail of the services they will see little point in buying a phone with all the bells and whistles. Pierce's goal is to impress on the common phone user just how much they can get out of their handsets. To prove his point he proudly shows off the inbuilt GPS system in his new Nokia N95, which pinpoints his location at the Four Seasons in Dublin within seconds. Needless to say it also comes with a camera, email capability and a powerful MP3 player.

Despite spending over Euro230bn on 3G licences and building out networks across Europe, operators haven't yet convinced the masses about this brave new mobile frontier.

Moreover there are now question marks over whether 3G is the way to go. Other technologies, such as the Wi-max network being rolled out by Sprint Nextel in the US and by Irish Broadband in Ireland, offer their own compelling mobile internet opportunities.

As far as Nokia is concerned, however, it makes little difference which type of network carries the data. "I think there's a place for them all, " says Pierce. It's the services that he believes are the key.

Some of those next generation services are beginning to take hold but the revenue hasn't yet begun to pour in from mobile subscribers. There are some encouraging signs.

In the consumer market, for instance, music downloads have started to become popular.

More than half of the singles charts in Ireland are now digital downloads and the majority of those are mobile downloads. Vodafone alone accounts for 18% of the top 40 singles sales. It sold 650,000 tracks last year in Ireland.

Pierce wants both manufacturers and operators to build on this momentum. "The most important thing for the industry is to push multimedia services, " he says.

For its part Nokia is cranking up its sponsorship of music events around Ireland. It will have an increased presence at summer festivals, including Electric Picnic which it cosponsored last year, and will continue its sponsorship of the Nokia New Music Tour.

He admits to no fears about what impact the recently unveiled Apple iPhone will have on the mobile music market.

"The launch of the iPhone just emphasised and endorsed what Nokia has been doing for the past two years in multimedia, " he says. "We are technology leaders."

Pushing the boundaries of both phone and mobile internet technology is what Pierce believes will keep Nokia at the head of the pack. He notes, with some sympathy, the recent travails of competitor Motorola which is set to lay off 350 workers in Cork after missed sales and profit forecasts and a terrible fourth quarter last year. Motorola had made huge market-share gains with its successful RAZR flip-phone range, a triumph of style over function.

More recently, though, it has found sales harder to come by. A round of price cuts in the run-up to Christmas boosted volumes, but not nearly enough.

Pierce believes that, in part, Motorola is a victim of the mobile internet revolution. Style is still important, but increasingly the phone is just a gateway to an online world ripe with possibilities. Either embrace the mobile internet revolution, in other words, or die.

Pierce himself is embracing those first signs that phone users are starting to get into it. "It's going to be a very good year. I'm looking forward to it."

CV CONOR PIERCE Age: 36 Position: General manager, Nokia Ireland Family: Married with three children Background: Dublin-born Pierce graduated from UCD with a commerce degree which he later augmented with a masters in international marketing from the Smur"t School of Business. He put that to good use when working for his father's hosiery company, Glen Ross, heading to Germany to build the Glen Ross brand.

Pierce has also worked with Premier Dairies and spent a short period selling insurance for Woodchester Brokers before he "rst entered the mobile industry with Ericsson. He spent an exciting period in "countries where you wouldn't want to take a holiday" handling accounts in emerging markets in Africa, South America and the Middle East.

He joined Nokia as sales and marketing manager for Ireland in 2004 and has since been promoted to general manager, heading its Irish operations.

Hobbies: A keen traveller, Pierce does annual sponsored hikes in far-"ung corners of the world to raise money for the Dublin Simon Community. This year's destination is the Indian Himalayas.