Of all the Nokia phones I’ve owned the sturdy 2100 is the clear winner, that thing was a beast; not only was it impossible to break but one night I forgot it outside on the balcony in the pouring rain and all the buttons stopped working (of course I was too afraid to tell my dad), so I simply popped off the covers and put it on top of  the radiator over night… Next day it was as good as new.

Now of course as technology has advanced screens have grown in size, phones have become slimmer and a million new pieces of gadgetry have been crammed in… All the more things to go wrong. What truly surprises me is that not a lot does go wrong when it comes to modern Nokias, sure the body work gets messed up (will get to that later) but the main components of the phone seem to keep on truckin’.

I’m the last person in the world to whom the words ‘gentle’ or ‘careful’ can be applied, especially when it comes to emptying my pockets after a 6 hour lab, I’ve literally thrown my phones across the room; now alot of people do that but the difference is that with a Nokia you don’t run after it to make sure it’s alright, you either wait for it to bounce back to you or you pick it up in the morning on your way out. There is no need for excessive care that takes out the delights of what a phone should be, which in my opinion is ‘to make your life easier’; not to have you constantly worrying about what’s going to happen. With Nokias what’s going to happen to the phone in your pocket is an after-thought (if at all) rather than dictating your actions for fear of it’s safety.

The Body:

So we’ve established that dropping your phone probably won’t mess up your camera, or ruin your speaker; but what about the casing of modern Nokia phones? My past 3 Nokia phones have all faired nicely against the everyday test (which is basically living with me) but interestingly each one of them had it’s own critical design flaw. (starting in reverse order)

• N73- Amazing build overall (even-though it was just plastic) but the main problem was the joystick key in the middle, which would start to get screwy after a couple of months (not just in mine, more than 5 friends had the same problem).
• X5800- Sadly possibly one of the lesser quality Nokia phones as the plastic casing material felt ridiculously cheap, and  the Slider/Housing for the stylus was horrible; after just 3 days the stylus started falling out on its own. Plus the pins that kept the batter casing in place were also extremely flimsy.
• N8-00- (I don’t know why I bother with the ‘-00′ even though the N8 successor obviously isn’t going to be ‘-01′ ,but not the point right now) The casing on the N8 is a work of beauty, the Adonized Aluminum is truly a stroke of genius it absorbs more hits and damage than anything you could imagine, sadly the N8′s fatal flaw: the black plastic casing on the end-caps. I know the normal end-caps are there for increased reception-which is fine, sure they get a bit scratched but that’s only normal; however the black casing on both ends is just some REALLY thin and fragile, I mean this stuff just falls right off (I lost the part around the headphone jack when it fell from my pocket at the gym onto a carpeted floor- less than 2 feet! And I just noticed the part around the power button – FAIL). Also notice the hairline crack on the mini-HDMI port, if you head over to the Nokia forums you’ll see that loads of people (myself included) had that crack after just opening the port once. Another major problem I’m facing with the design of the N8 is the micro-USB port which doesn’t connect to my PC/Charger unless it’s set JUST right, meaning even the tiniest wiggle will cause it to disconnect; which of course makes it extremely difficult so synch or charge (not sure if this is only me or if it’s a common problem.)

Well that’s my take on Nokias build quality, let us know what you think about your recent Nokia devices, how do they stand everyday usage? do they have a “crucial Design Flaw”? What’s your all time ‘Best-Design Nokia”? (feel free to post links to photos of your phones, or even just tell us about a crazy Nokia survival story)

Side Note 1: I’m particularly interested in people with the E7, how’s that Hinge on the keyboard holding up?

Side Note 2: Regardless of all the N8s flaws I’m still hopelessly in love with it as a design (I think the camera bump on the back just gives it extra character)

Only hours ago, Apple announced their latest handset, the iPhone 4S. Not gonna go in-depth, but just list the relevant features for this post.

The iPhone 4s will have:

-A5 Dual-Core processor
- 3.5 ” RETINA display
- 8MP Camera
- 1080p HD Video recording
- BT 4.0
- iOS 5
- 16/32/64 GB options
-Black and White

As I’m sure we all know, the N9 sports:

- 1GHZ A8 processor (A8 and A5 are not the same type. A5 is Apple’s own)
- 3.9″ AMOLED screen
- BT 2.1
- 8MP camera
- 720p HD Video Recording
- MeeGo 1.2 – Harmattan
- 16/64 GB options
- Black, Cyan and Magenta

Firstly, aside from Tech Specs, the iPhone and iOS are popular in itself. Attaching the name creates instant popularity.

Comparing the hardware; N9 has a 3.9″ display, beating the 4S’ by 0.4″, most people wouldn’t even notice the difference. Dual-Core beats single every time, regardless of GHZ. People think there’s 2, it must be better. Both devices are on par in terms of Cameras which is surprising. Not in the sense that Apple couldn’t do it, but since they are now on par with most handsets. In fact, its ability to record in 1080p is better than I expected them to do. BT 4.0? I have no clue what’s so special. Probably a faster transfer rate. Pointless seeing as Apple doesn’t natively support file transfer over BT, and the apps that do, require an iPhone with the same app.

Down to the main deciders; Storage, OS and release date. For the first time, Apple are announcing a 64GB variant of their iPhone. The N9 matches it, so that’s not really an issue for most people. (In my opinion.) However, with iOS 5, cloud storage comes into play on the iPhone 4S, and that may win over a few people.

As I said before, the OS itself is popular and known, and, well let’s face it, MeeGo is not known to those outside the dev community, or the hardcore techies.

The release date won’t make it any easier either. The iPhone 4S id set to be released on October 14th (Limited release, some countries will launch on October 28) and, after talking to a local dealer yesterday, the N9 is to be released that same week. (Oct 13 in Finland, October 15 in Aus. Not sure of other releases.)

Will the N9 do as well as its potential suggests? Or will it be clouded by the iPhone 4S? (No pun intended on cloud.) We’ll see next week.

Michael

Life is an endless mystery we constantly debate why we are here and we are constantly debating our future. One thing in life is for sure; though we all die or go away in some sort of way or we come back in another way. Anyway same happens in business companies come and go. Products come and go. The topic of Nokia’s downfall has been a hot topic lately and I have been constantly finding ways to piece all the puzzles together. Now there have been a whole host of reasons and very strong opinions but I am not going to go there. I am more looking at Nokia as a brand perceived by the average customer, which is far more important than we geeks, analysts journalist think.

This idea of Nokia’s time being over has crept over into my mind too many times recently; my heart says Nokia can pull through this time but my head just says what chance have they honestly got whatever strategy they choose ?

In business there is something called the Product life cycle.

The chart explains the lifetime of a product from its early idea through its various sales stages as well as its inevitable death. Now this chart also funnily enough mimics the lifetime of a business. Now you are probably saying well how come there so many old companies still alive then ?

Well companies reinvent themselves Nokia being a prime example. They started of manufacturing paper after that they dabbled around with rubber, supplying electricity (nearly going bankrupt !) footwear including rubber boots, military communications equipment, I think you get the idea now and then finally going into telecommunications.

There are also companies that where once pioneers, monopolies, strong competitors now in the oblivion or frankly irrelevant. Some examples include Sega, Sony and IBM – I am sure you have some as well.

It’s becoming increasingly clear that Nokia is moving into the decline stage.

Nokia primarily develops devices that are there to make calls. And they have been very successful at it dominating the world in the 90’s and early 2000 until…………well the iPhone stole the show in 2007. They obviously struggled and still are transforming themselves into a company that develops mobile devices that take the internet more into account. Companies doing well at the moment in the smartphone business are primarily involved in the computer market in some sort which does give them the slight advantage, but the again Nokia did sell a Netbook and some half hearted attempts of tablets.

Nokia have been trying desperately trying to gain some attention mainly from US based journalists bloggers for some attention and failed multiple time.

I guess what I am trying to say is, “what if it is some else’s turn to dominate the market?”. What if it is nature taking its course? What if Nokia is just passing along the torch to the next bearer/leader, the bearer being Apple or Google with Android?

What if Nokia’s downfall is due to the fact that people have just moved on to other brands out of curiosity, change of environment……… human nature?

A lot of people have come up with reasonable ideas and conclusions but none of them consider the fact that people move on from brands from time to time. What if Nokia has gone through the Product life cycle and hit the decline part and for the final time they can’t reinvent themselves.

Doctor who regenerating ie cheating death

A funny analogy would be Doctor Who not being able to regenerate himself.

Maybe it doesn’t always have to be the fault of the product. In this case its obviously a contributing factor.

BUT……..

I mean you don’t go through life wearing the same shoes from the same company, write with pens from the same company or drive a car from the same company all your life or do you ?

I just think a lot of people have been looking at Nokia’s downfall based on technical aspects rather than other influences such natural human behaviour. I dont claim to be a psychologist or something, but in Product design we often talk about the emotional and psychological impact of products; Apple are prime experts in that field.

So when I say Nokia are too late its probably because people are resigned to accept as Apple and Android phones being the future not because they are better maybe because they are just moving on. Just as they accepted Nokia was the brand to be with in the 90′s and 2000′s

One thing is for sure the younger segment have without shadow of doubt moved on from Nokia, most of them remember Nokia as a phone they got as their first phone notably the 3310.

I have had this in my mind for some time and needed to get this out of my mind what do you guys think is it just Nokia’s time is over or am I being just weird ?

With rumors circling the internet that the final, release version of the N8 firmware is scheduled to be finished by next week (crosses fingers) The latest video that I found on the site, http://tv.mediaprovider.se should hopefully give a pretty clear insight into the sort of performance and applications (read: games) we can expect to see when the N8 is FINALLY released. From the little available here, there should be few doubts in anyone’s mind as to whether this device will be sluggish, unperforming and underwhelming at release.

Give it a look and tell me what you think!

Youtube link to the 1st video! Thanks NeNoRmAl!

Update: Another video was taken on the 25th of August, just 2 days ago. The video demonstrates a few of the normal features available with the OS.

Give it a look.

Via

The all knowing Eldar has posted another preview of a Nokia device, this time the S^3 powered C7. As is customary he speaks little to the functionality and more to the flashiness of the interface, once again stamping on it’s lack of novelty or spice.

His conclusion?

“Those who are accustomed to Symbian and know this OS will find the model attractive. It offers few interesting games, austere and outdated interface. Taken together it means that Nokia C7 will not attract new customers, but Nokia fans will choose it quite consciously. After all it is the best value for money on Symbian S^3.”

Give it a read if so inclined at the link below.

http://www.mobile-review.com/review/nokia-c7-en.shtml

thanks to KaiwanGailan for the heads up !!!

via Parttimereviewer on youtube

I visit the Ovi App store at least once a day ( I know call me sad) but I have noticed that in the last few months I have noticed here has been an increase in the number of useful apps on the Ovi store and I am happy about that, and that should increase with Qt and the powerful N8 coming.

via zomgitscj.com

Rafe Blandford from the brilliant Allboutsymbian website recently visited the Nokia N8 developer conference where Nokia showed of a preview of the new Ovi store client which will ship on the N8 later in Q3. The main changes come in the design of the overall look and feel of the store. The app is written in Qt and is according to Rafe offers a significant boost in performance which is nice to know. Future versions of the app will also include application updates (yeppiii), subscriptions (take that el jobso) and in-app billing.

From what I am seeing this is a huge improvement over the current one, to be honest though anything is better than the current Ovi store which is so bad its not even funny.  Simple examples are fro example bigger pictures for the preview of apps, easier way to find different app categories now lets just hope they have fixed search……..

You can read the rest of Rafe’s thoughts and see pictures here

via allaboutsymbian

Note this is not in english

Looking good

Thanks to NeNoRmAl for the heads up

Having read YET another article, this time by Gartner predicting the demise of Symbian (Same people that predicted Windows Mobile 6′s dominance over Symbian in the 00′s) and comparing it to the Titanic of all things,

Read here:

http://blogs.gartner.com/nick_jones/2010/07/11/is-symbian-re-arranging-the-deck-chairs-on-the-titanic/

I thought I’d put up a poll to ask where YOU felt Symbian is heading and where it will be in the coming years.