Nokia Conversations talks about the leaked N9/N950, innovations, sixth sense and Jessie’s girl.

NokConv's uses an image of theatre curtains - what's behind hem huh

Marcel and Jim tips a very intriguing post from Nokia Conversations that addresses the recently leaked N9 promo video (which today they subsequently pulled from YouTube).

There’s always plenty of rumours flying around about Nokia. Just a couple of days ago, a whole fresh crop appeared on a number of websites regarding a new mystery device. But it should be no surprise that new things are in the wings somewhere. Innovation is something that’s pretty much native to Nokia – if you go through our history of industry firsts, that should be readily apparent.

But what exactly is “innovation”? Let’s be clear. Something isn’t innovative just because it’s new. To be truly innovative, a product or service has to offer new value. So being able to download apps onto your phone is innovative; those individual apps may or may not be innovative, depending on what they do.

Ooh, so I’m taking this as N9 might not be new (we’ve known about it for quite some time) but that doesn’t mean it can’t be and it isn’t innovative.

One area of innovation that’s continually evolving is the ways in which a phone’s interface might be innovative. To offer new value, we can’t just be talking about a new set of icons or even more home screens. That’s not innovation, it’s just an increment. An innovation in interface design will make our interactions quicker, more natural or simpler – and so offer users value through the time and effort they save.

Great points. New icons, more homescreens, new folders, wallpapers, front facing cameras, that’s not really innovation. That’s just adding on stuff that should be there to begin with as other handsets have already had this. Though on point, not being innovation isn’t bad. Improvements are always welcome even though they might not be innovative. e.g. the stuff coming to Anna and Windows Phone.

Technology futurologists have been talking about ‘pervasive computing’ for a while, to give one example. The idea that we stop thinking about technology as being something separate from the rest of our lives. That it just blends in and becomes natural.

At the moment, of course, our technology is far from natural. There’s nothing natural about icons and drop-down lists and tickboxes. It would probably be better if you could just swipe through your apps, wouldn’t it?

So one of the things that our engineers are up to is making technology disappear. How we then control our devices is the tricky part: with possibilities like gestural control, contextual choices and – who knows? – thought projection – all up for possible consideration. If you’ve had a play with Beta projects like Nokia Situations and Nokia Bots, it shows one direction that might take.

Getting around the technology and making it disappear. Sounds like the iPad advert. But they’re right. We want some magic right? And to do that, according to Jobs, we make the technology INVISIBLE or gets out of the way so that things just work, naturally or in the words of Apple, “more delightful”.

Back in December last year we had a LOT of hope for MeeGo’s potential amazingness. It was possibly going to have a new paradigm in user interface. That was also around the time we suspected some possibilities with Windows Phone 7 (as they weren’t as quick to dismiss it as Android – and now look where we are).

This new paradigm is that whole new 6th sense thing. And what did Nokia have as the last image in that video? Two years ago, on something unrelated at Nokia I wished they did something like this 6th Sense thing. It was a whole new way of interacting – the anticipation of natural human interactions.  A month later, Nokia Conversations wrote about actual sixth sense stuff at Nokia. Very nice coincidence.

But the possibilities are endless… and very exciting. We can’t wait to show you more – maybe a sneak peek at “Jessie’s Girl” – in the weeks to come

Hell yes! If you’re wondering what that is, listen up. Sound familiar?

Now, what phone manufacturer has recently started calling their phone OS updates by girl names?

Jessie’s got himself a girl
and I want to make her mine
And she’s watching him with those eyes
And she’s lovin’ him with that body,
I just know it
Yeah ‘n’ he’s holding her
in his arms late,
late at night

You know, I wish that I had Jessie’s girl,
I wish that I had Jessie’s girl
Where can I find a woman like that
I play along with the charade,
there doesn’t seem to be
a reason to change

Category: Nokia