Wishful Thinking in a Time of Uncertainty
I must admit, I’ve been finding myself at a bit of a loss in light of recent announcements. I’ve had a strong interest in mobile devices for well over half of my life now, it occurred to me. It all started with my Psion Series 5, and progressed through to my Nokia N900 where I am now. I’ve explored other devices over the years – including my iPAQ running Windows Mobile half way through the last decade, and that even tempted to try it in a phone on one occasion.
In general, I found myself gravitating towards Nokia devices running Symbian, and I was expecting my next upgrade to be a trip back to Symbian. As well as all the obvious advantages that we’ve praised Nokia devices for on this site, I think there was an element of it being my comfort zone. Symbian devices have their roots in Psion’s EPOC, and you can still just about see those roots if you dig deep enough.
But to look back at my loss, I revisit a topic I’ve talked about before: that of the time it takes for new devices to actually become available. With Nokia’s new alliance with Microsoft, Symbian based phones are likely remain a good choice for the next year or so, purely based on their current positions in terms of hardware and software. However, it feels like it’s a platform that just as it was picking up speed (with app developers) is now going to find itself stalling once again while developers step back and reconsider the future of the platform. Perhaps as a ‘franchise’ it’ll find new ways to flourish, but I suspect that when I reach upgrade time in May, it will still be unclear.
However, we might have some progress on Windows mobile, with some devices on the horizon that actually meet my personal needs in a device. In a nutshell, I would like the following in a device, each to a high quality:
- Quality hardware
- Camera, and accompanying software
- Hardware keyboard (slider is fine)
- Large, good/high resolution touchscreen
- Exchange support, including email and calendar
- Large capacity storage
- Media player
- Web browser
- Apps…
- Future development…
There are a number of other little bits and pieces, of course, such as a Twitter client, games and so on – they all come under ‘Apps’.
Now, the only manufacturer to satisfy the hardware points in my opinion is Nokia, and that’s not likely to change any time soon. Sadly, it’s likely to be a while before all my points surface in a Windows Mobile device – though as a platform that may well be able to do things like Exchange better than Symbian ever did. And that last point about the future is a biggie, and with Symbian and MeeGo that’s not likely to reach a conclusion in the near future.
In short, I’m not ready to abandon Nokia just yet – I’m ready to be pleasantly surprised by what happens with Windows Mobile over the next year. However, I could end up skipping a mobile contract cycle (18 months) with Nokia. I’ve been thinking my expertise when it comes to Android is lacking, and I should give that a serious try.
But then again, MeeGo doesn’t seem to be quite dead yet. That presentation slide that showed Symbian being phased out specifically didn’t include MeeGo, and Stephen Elop keeps mentioning the ‘next disruption’, so perhaps there is a plan for taking MeeGo forward while Windows Mobile keeps Nokia afloat (whether I agree this was a good choice or not, I can certainly see why Nokia went this way).
Whatever happens, I will be following Nokia’s progress with interest. Jumping in bed with Microsoft was not entirely a surprise, given who is at the head of Nokia these days, but it’s still a bold move that make just give the mobile industry the sort of shake-up Nokia needs to get itself noticed in a positive light again and back on top, regardless of their choice of operating system.
So, I supppose it all hinges on what comes out of MWC over the next week, and what new devices actually hit the shelves between now and the end of Q2 2011…
Category: Nokia
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It’s interesting, isn’t it?
If Nokia do follow through on their commitment to maintain MeeGo (although hopefully the rebrand it) as a development platform (and there is some hefty projected future R&D spend there) that gives some credence to Nokia’s independence.
Think of it as doing a Samsung – use an external OS (Android) to promote the brand and capture share and sales value and then start transitioning their own OS (Bada) in with a very similar UI and clone apps. End result is Android gets jettisoned or marginalised.
Of course, this could be smoke and mirrors and just cover for a hostile takeover in all but name, but it’ll be interesting to see what happens over the coming months. One of the key things to me is that Elop was a lot more positive about MeeGo when Ballmer wasn’t there.
lol at elop being postive about meego when ballamer isnt there
i like elop now atleast nokia’s making headlines and getting somewhere although symbian is something to pay for but im sure they have thought more through and decided whats best
Although i dint understand why nokia couldnt just release the new ui symbian and meego now they wouldnt have stayed top for a long time :/ maybe its different from a buisness prospective
read this..
Rovio thinks ,Nokia beyond saving.. really !!!
http://www.intomobile.com/2011/02/13/rovio-nokia-beyond-saving/
Yaeh it’s all politics at Nokia now.
Elop is a major shareholder at Microsoft,& has planned very well all these dramatic moves.Many now see him as a Lunatic heading Nokia.’Well if the rooms too hot u beta move out’-Mr Elop addressing Employees.All this B$ was well planned.
His decisions at Nokia are not within the company’s best interest
-Nokia shareholders are loosing lot of money as shares continue on declining
-thousands lots their jobs at the company and more will be loosing them
-never mind Nokia customers ,Elop knows what u want & whats good 4 u & that’s WP7.
-those waiting 4 updates don’t worry you’ll be getting WP7 as the major update 2 yo Symbian phones-be ready 4 that coz engineers are almost done with the new WP7 update 4 S^3,but u’ll have 2 pay 4 the update.
-Microsoft will in near future buy Majority of Nokia shares so as to have full control of their new division-Nokia
As 4 me,it’s time 4 Intel now,it’s all intel+MeeGo,never thought i would say this but feels great saying it-’RIP Nokia & Microsoft’
There’s only 1 solution left,Nokia shareholders should vote Mr Elop out @ next AGM in May 2011,vote him and his associates out of the board otherwise we are yet 2 see the worst.
We can only hope meego will reach its full potential and that nokia wont give up on it.
“Some men see things as they are and say ‘why’? Others dream things that never were and say ‘why not’?
Sure, Elop was much Meego friendly whith Ballmer out, But not now!! Microsoft don´t like any OS competitors! Meego is a complete OS for use in(Phone, Tablet PC, Notebook, PC Software, Cars Control, Internet Multimedia/TV etc..) and this it not good for Microsoft Monopolic Egemonic Dictator Control!! so Meego will be buried!!
i totally agree i still love nokia even though it abandoned symbian they still give hope and light towards it unlike the samsung i8910 i had it was left in the fuc*ing cold.
i still like nokia but my next phone wont be a nokia sadly since its not my type YET i will surely buy a nokia again in the future again in a few years when they get back up on their feet and im sure they will they have experience and its the thing they do best.
ill be back nokia again maybe meego1.2?/2? maybe wp8?/9?
This will only happen if they fire Flop in 2012. That Microsoft TROJAN HORSE must be ejected!!!!
Jay Ur trying very hard not to believe what has happen and because you don’t support the other platform you don’t know which one to move. Let me guide you.
I am a Nokia fan and still wld be, I would yearn for Nokia Fons and try out their greatest fon. Now is the tome to jump into another camp. I think HP WebOS might not be bad. I have been using an iphone 4 for the past 4 months it is not but but severly crippled in terms of functionality. My Htc Desire dies on me every 6 hours. So HP WebOS is where my hope is now.
MeeGo
im gonna boot my computer with meego to experiance meego soon.
look at the mwc many great phones there decide after tomorrow
Guys, read this
blog.heapmemory.net/?p=31
It’s a blog entry from a Nokia employee working on MeeGo.
He tries to explain both the problems of Symbian and Meego.
Great article.
Thanks for bringing that to our attention.
the good news, Nokia will finally reach the 1GHz mark! Lol
you haven’t used the n900 yet have you lol
n8 can if we overclock
1ghz will be old in a few months nokia needs 1.2 ghz
dual core
I mean by default/out-of-the-box.
But yeah, they should go all out on their next products.
I thought that green was going to show Android lol
I hope Nokia dies and becomes a cautionary tale.
I think that if the Meego phone that’s to be released does well, at least critically if not economically then they’ll revisit making more phones with it.
Last I heard Intel and Nokia were experimenting in 3D interfaces for Meego, what could be a better disruption than that?
LG optimus 3d? :S already unveiled at MWC in Barca…
Plus – with nokia wanting to make good on their WP7 deal.. they are not going to put any money into marketing it..
plus i heared a few feeks ago when the n9 cancelled rumours were floating around that the device shipping this year would be like the n900 (more of a community dev phone) and that they would only make 90,000 of them…
It could be worse. You could have called this site, MySymbianBlog!
But I feel your pain. I’ve knocked around Nokia on my site, but more for hubris than devices, of which many have been very good. There will be lots of Symbian devices to choose from over the next 18 months or so, and you will have the option of Nokia WP7, or iPhone, Android, or Blackberry.
0nce symbian will be extincted ,what will happen to nokia’s low end or lower mid end phones eg, 5800 or c6-01 today ? ? As far i know ,WP needs gigahartz processors, whick makes it difficult to bring phones in that low or mid range.
This is like me liking Muse years before the americans even heard of Muse. But then Muse made a song for the shitty twilight movie and suddenly all over America Muse became a hit. Although their songs are becoming shit.
Nokia entering America, it must be the same.
I still dream that Nokia is just buying time for MeeGo to mature. They will use Windows until that day, and then take the future back into their own hands…
Don’t u see Micro”SOFT” lightning @ Nokia place …
3 died – MeeGo, symbian and loyal nokia fans…!!!!
no after 2011 meego will be old and too mature
if they want to release it now it will be best when its the most user friendly right now
Nokia previous plan for future disruption has obviously failed (note that Maemo has been around for years before iphone 1.0 came out).
So clearly, Maemo preempted the i-smart-phone phenomenon but Nokia sat on it until it’s all too late.
The same will happen with Meego, and whatever future disruption platform Nokia is investing in, until Nokia pulls its act together and become a trendsetter again, not a trend follower.