Video: Stephen Fry says Nokia (and Sony Ericsson) are way behind the curve

In this video interview, UK celebrity, high profile tech personality and self confessed mac evangelist, Stephen Fry talks briefly about smartphones.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cb6qSgtolc]

Fry:

“It’s a shame for dear old Symbian which has not kept up with the times at all, and Sony Ericsson and Nokia are revealling themselves giants as they were to be so behind the curve in this department they may suffer as a result”

Interviewer: It’s a shame, I love my Nokia

Fry:

MMMM!

Interviewer: A car run over mine

Fry:

“We all owed so much to Nokia. I mean, they sort of set the standard to so much that we came to expect from…I remember when the move to GSM came, and Nokia suddenly were really innovating all the time and just proves the endless truth that you can’t sit still in this business”

I’m not sure when this video was taken, but it was at least on or before 22nd October (check out other clips in the series). Although uploaded on the 4th November, being a dated video, there’s no mention of the newer upcoming releases from Motorola (Droid/Milestone), Nokia’s Maemo 5 Mobile Computer N900, or Sony Ericsson’s new delicious android X10 which at least for Nokia and S.E. do counter Fry’s statements that they’re behind the curve.

Fry’s last take on a Nokia smartphone was on the Nokia N97, which he called a “crushing disappointment”.

As a N97 user, I know the N97 is a decent smartphone, but in reality, at the high end where it was perched and so relative to the competition, it was and now even more an embarrassment (mainly caused by stupid hardware compromises which hampered the user experience, and also the non-touch-intuitive UI that is S60 5th) .

I’d be interested in Fry’s take on the Maemo 5 powerhouse,  N900, though I don’t think he’ll be too pleased again at seeing a stylus (N900 has a very responsive resistive display, though I still cannot deny that the benefits and the slickness of a capacitive screen far out weighs any perceived “accuracy” of resistive displays)

Tags: aPPLE, Nokia, Nseries, S60, Sony Ericsson, Stephen Fry, Symbian

Category: Nokia, Rant, Video