The good folks at TheHandheldblog got a preview of the N8 in its exact retail packaging and did an unboxing for our pleasure. As you can see the box is TINY !!! which is really nice in my opinion and I really like that Nokia are also going for the their traditional blue colouring for their packaging. The contents of the box for different markets will be different like a stylus for the Asian market.
I am seriously considering buying an N8 now I have flip flopped the idea between then when it was announced and now and pretty much ruled it out a while ago but after using other platforms for extensive periods I don’t see a huge difference between them and Symbian now and I am thinking of selling my Nokia E72 to part fund it we will wait and see I guess……..
NOKIA ARE MAKING A DESKTOP WEB BROWSER !!! Yeah you heard me right Nokia are making a desktop web browser tied to the various Ovi services revealed by Nokia’s favourite journalist or blogger or whatever you want to call him Eldar Murtazin. Apparently Eldar doesn’t mentions the name “Ovi Browser” due to the possibilities of him being in trouble with the Russinan authrorities for stealing Nokia’s trade secrets. Eldar has already played with the beta and is based on Webkit and is optimised for the various Ovi services as I said before. Obviously Eldar is not impressed then again he is not the person to take advice from when it comes to Nokia due to his “issues” with them. Although it is unusual for someone that lets face it “doesn’t” like Nokia writes and awful lot about them hhhmmm…… strange isn’t it.
Anyway why the hell are Nokia developing a desktop based web browser it makes no sense with the world’s media trashing them everyday for not coming up with an “iPhone killer” this really isn’t the time for them to pull of stunts like that. I know Nokia are huge and probably have a small team dedicated to this but I would much rather have the teams working on improving their smartphones.
Ovi integration does sound interesting as I use few of the services but would like to use more, although I would have preferred them to improve the Ovi experience on the phones.
Anyway what do you think, will you use Ovi Browser if it comes out ?? let us know in the comments
Well I also want to say sorry to people that waited for the news, I was excited myself and as soon as I saw the tweets I thought man I have to tell people about this.
I hope you are not mad we are bound to see a leak in the next 3 weeks or so (don’t hold my words !!!) especially with Nokia World coming up, once again I am sorry too
BTW I did read somewhere that the code name NXO is a name used for Nokia tablets while they are in development hmm……….
A lot of hopes are resting on MeeGo phone to be instrumental in Nokia’s reclamation of the high end smartphone arena.
There’s the N8, and other rumoured Symbian^3 devices which are awesome in their own right. But some would argue that they are high-mid and not completely and convincingly all high end.
It seems for the best of the very best Nokia will have to offer, the responsibility lies of MeeGo Phone.
What are you expecting from the Nokia MeeGo Phone in order for it to become successful?
I could mention precise hardware specifications/expectations from the OS, but I’ll leave that for the comments. Is there anything in particular that MeeGo phone cannot do without?
I’ll blanket statement with,
“MeeGo phone must be exceptional. Anything other than being an over achiever is a ‘fail’. There isn’t any room for compromises any more now that all eyes are on Nokia to deliver a class leading flagship. One that deserves the flagship name in not just being the best out of your own portfolio but sets the bar for your competition. There can’t be any penny pinching, no leaving out of features to place into a future handset. It must at the very least, be as good as the best currently out there and then some. Don’t just be a jack of all trades master of none, but similarly, you can’t do with only having one strong facet. MeeGo phone should be Nokia’s opportunity to show the rest of the world exactly everything their capable of, strengthen their brand image and justify their position as the number one phone manufacturer in the world”
If MeeGo phone doesn’t deliver to expectations, it’s unfortunately too late for any changes to happen, what with Nokia World 2010 just over a month to go.
Even if Nokia’s MeeGo phone turns out to be amazing, some may still find other excuses as to why it would suck, such as the ecosystem. That in itself would be another post. (As is the possibility of Nokia’s own MeeGo phone being outclassed by another manufacturer)
Tomi Ahonen the respected Mobile industry today posted on Twitter this very interesting graph that tech journalists seem to miss on purpose so they can report frankly diss Nokia or they are not doing their job properly. And just to make sure THIS is the smartphone market share not the supposedly ‘dumphone’ market, note Nokia gained while Apple LOST market share
Now people will probably counter argue and say well Nokia’s margins are low, well let me tell you why, if you have been paying attention to Nokia’s online store for the whole FIRST YEAR they have had A LOT of SALES and I MEAN A LOT of sales you were able to get Nokia N900′s for £400 or a N97 mini for £299 there were some real bargains. Another reason is the boring smartphone line up Nokia has had I mean can you still believe that the N97 is STILL the flagship device for Nokia (yeah yeah I know the N8 is coming)
Nokia have weathered the storm well with some criticisms I have got to admit but they are perfectly placed to show the tech world what they can do in the second half of the year starting with the N8 and Nokia World in september cannot wait
It’s not all gloom and doom as “analysts” and certain blogs would have us believe.
Today, 22nd July 2010, Nokia reported Q2 earnings. Despite the fierce competition from all fronts, and without their best fighters on the front line, their smartphone market share still went up to 41%. Some other numbers are less flattering, and understandably so given the lack of new flagship. Many of your industry ‘analysts’ will concentrate on this and will spell yet again gloom, doom and death of Nokia.
“Nokia aren’t competing at the high end”
“Nokia fail to understand the smartphone market”
“Nokia are playing catchup to superior handset makers Apple, and the host of Android manufacturers”.
“Nokia’s Ovi store is lagging behind App Store”
“Nokia hasn’t got good, slim touch screen phone”
“It’s all about Android”
“Nokia missed the boat and should make an Android device”
“Nokia should have bought Palm and made WebOS devices”
“Nokia are making little progress”
“Nokia’s market share is collapsing”
“Nokia’s losing market share to Apple and Android”
Insert own negative Nokia comment.
Nokia still sold equal amounts of phones to RIM, Apple and HTC combined. But being that it’s Nokia, that’s of course a failure, especially if we compare operating margins and profits against Apple. (But then again, Apple is selling one extremely premium device, amongst it’s premium and arguably overpriced devices. Apple’s operating margin is higher than all of their competitors)
Operating margins were low, profits (though still in hundreds of millions) were down. Average price of handsets was down to 61EUR. Nokia handsets aren’t necessarily bad – on the contrary, they’re well priced for the features they hold. But this means lower profit margins on these cheaper, value for money handsets.
Note: for still at least a month there will be no high end handset to raise the average.
Nothing new in this post but worth reiterating as analysts and certain blogs seem oblivious to Nokia’s very open strategy (especially cringe worthy to hear now, suggestions of moving to Android).
The LONG TERM strategy
Thinking ahead - reap what you sow.
Since the N95, Nokia has been in an intermediate transition stage. Phones in between (to me) felt like they were just there to keep some attention on Nokia. N85, N96, N97. Unfortunately, they didn’t turn out to ultimately be positive attention.
In one sense, Nokia’s given iPhone and its competitors an easy ride. S60 wasn’t ready for touch screen. Nokia slapped a touch screen on and voila, S60 5th edition, with its annoyances to boot. Even better for competitors, Nokia gave their S60 5th Edition flagship gloriously underpowered hardware that makes it even harder to use it. Try S60 5th/S^1 on the Samsung i8910 – capacitive screen, faster hardware – it makes S60 5th slightly more palatable (even more so with certain cooked firmwares as default sammy one is missing quite a few features).
Nokia gave us a hint that they do have a very decent game plan with the N900 and MAEMO 5. Nokia were extremely quick to point out that this remarkable handset (which was everything we were waiting for on the power side) was only step 4 of 5 at Nokia World. Software was great, power and potential was amazing. Why dampen down the excitement with this killer honesty?
Step 5 is MeeGo, Nokia’s new open source and and Modern OS for mobile computers. And Nokia aren’t doing this alone; MeeGo is equally the child of the Intel, with a significant amount of partners lined up to make MeeGo devices. Qt which makes app development much easier also gives that cross platform advantage that means the same app will run on any Qt compatible device, whether that be your S^3 N8/C7/X7/E7, S^4 “E9″, or MeeGo N9/Tablet/Car infotainment etc. To those wanting apps, apps, apps, they’ll come. We’ve seen the N900 and N8 play those “iPhone Grade” games with ease. As a content producer/developer, would you restrict yourself from increasing your audience and revenue? As to distribution, MeeGo/Qt apps will be available through the Universal App Up Store from Intel or Nokia’s Ovi Store, the 3rd most popular behind App Store and Getjar.
Nokia World 2010 – ‘sleeping giant’ sets alarm for September 2010 to do some ass kicking.
Nokia’s LONG TERM strategy, transitioning to high end with quality user experience on touch optimized handsets starts coming to fruition this September (14th and 15th) at Nokia World 2010. The N8 may already be released around then, along with announcements of the rumoured super slim, 4″ screen N8 QWERTY (E7? RM-626) and the long awaited MeeGo Phone (N9?) which we all have high hopes on.
MeeGo phone will push the boudaries of processing power
MeeGo phone will be a very high end product
MeeGo is an opportunity to create something well beyond what others are doing
MeeGo phone is step 5 of 5 and intended for mass market
MeeGo phone will be something everyone wants to own
MeeGo phone will try to satisfy all needs into one plate
MeeGo phone will be capacitive, more stylish and more beautiful with simpler UI that average users will find as equally compelling as tech leaders.
MeeGo has potential to be something deeper than typical smartphone
Nokia N8 will be Nokia’s flagship in a few months
All future flagships will be built on MeeGo
MeeGo phone will be on Nseries (not rumoured Sseries)
MeeGo will have higher experience level than Symbian
Symbian^3 and MeeGo will have certain minimum base level specification to ensure apps created on one device works in another.
N8 is first step in reclaiming momentum at high end.
MeeGo is the next step.
Much hope rests on MeeGo phone to be all it has promised to be, all it has expected to be and more. We’ve seen MeeGo on the netbook which has received positive reviews. We’ve seen MeeGo on the tablet, which looks extremely impressive. Finally, MeeGo on phones got a brief preview, and Eldar Murtazin says himself that Nokia’s own version of the UI will look much better than what we’ve seen on the Aava Mobile (and N900 with MeeGo).
N8 and future Symbian Devices
But a lot rests also with the remarkable multimedia machine, the N8 which has tantalized us since April and the almost DSLR rivalling camera. To outsiders of Nokia, that’s the only gun Nokia’s got in their holster (not realising the basement full of weapons being prepped in secret). There is a team of all stars in training. You know their names, you’ve seen one in leaked shots. Without them, Nokia has remained profitable and held ground with the substitutes (S^1 and S603rd and S40 handsets). What more when they come out on the pitch?
But all but one are Symbian devices…Symbian?
Symbian-Foundation really is just that for Nokia, a foundation of their core smartphone experience. As much as everyone else but Nokia would like Symbian to die (it’s the most used smartphone OS, why wouldn’t you want it to die if you were the competitor?) it’s here to stay and why not? Symbian will get better as it receives updates to the user experience to make it in line with today’s expectations.
Maturity of Symbian is a strength not a weakness – it’s highly advanced in terms of features and just needs a facelift in the UI to make the final user experience pleasant, thus ensuring people can use the plethora of features it’s had for many years that some are only recently praising as wonderful and new.
We’ve seen these usability issues addressed in Symbian^3. For the most of it, it will be good enough for the majority of its intended users. Symbian^4 is the real visual refit as we move to Qt/Orbit based UI from the traditional AVKON.
It’s pretty obvious but OPK confirmed more S^3 handsets coming soon in today’s Q2 report
In smartphones, we continue to renew our portfolio. We believe that the Nokia N8, the first of our Symbian^3 devices, will have a user experience superior to that of any smartphone Nokia has created. The Nokia N8 will be followed soon thereafter by further Symbian^3 smartphones that we are confident will give the platform broader appeal and reach, and kick-start Nokia’s fightback at the higher end of the market
Awesome things are on the horizon.
It takes time to turn around a big ship, and Nokia being the number 1 phone manufacturer is the biggest of them all.
Rest assured, Nokia are aware of the increasing competition and aren’t taking things lightly. Services are improving. Awesome handsets are coming. Hopefully, with a touch of marketing flair to do these products justice (perhaps not to the extent of a Reality Distortion Field, though whether Nokia and everyone needs one to even all the marketing confusion is another post altogether).
I know very well that Nokia realised, even before the N97, they were caught off guard by the emergence of touchscreen phones as a status symbol. They were caught off guard when they were building services. At the worst possible time for them.
Since then they have managed to make Ovi maps in a gem of an asset, the Ovi store the 3rd most popular online store, and they expect to have 300 Million ovi services users.
They refocused on hardware & OS, and in my mind built a stellar device with the N900. Now that S^3 is here, S^4 is coming, MeeGo is coming, NFC, Pentaband, all that stuff is coming, with Qt, the way is up from the moment they announce all of this at Nokia World. I expect them to make a splash.
They have basically stayed profitable in the WORST time they have ever had, and they have made the right choices, technologically, strategically, and morally. They have gone through a storm, have continued to focus on long term investments instead of panicking, picking up Android and running with it.
They have 10 Billion is cash. The majority of patents in LTE. They build the largest LTE roll out to date at 7 Billion dollars. None of their new batch of devices is out yet, not even the N8. With an N8, N9, E7, X7, C7 coming out, their entire all star line up is absent, while the rest is digging their grave with the CPU MHZ wars.
Nokia is profitable, as opposed to what we see from Sammy of SE usually, because they have lower costs. Lower production costs, higher volumes, etc. They will not and should not give this away. What they should do is retain the cost advantage without skimping on performance.
THAT is the reason they wont pick up android. It turns them into Asus, or Dell, box pushers that compete on price on similar hardware & software: STUPID. And it is the smart way to go. I completely believe S^3/S^4 will give us equally snappy performance as competitors, but with lesser specs. Those specs are irrelevant, its experience that counts. And Nokia is betting it can deliver the same experience through cheaper chips, because Symbian is simply better at it.
For going all out, for getting perception turn positive again, for getting the spotlight back on Espoo, what better way to do this than lead the way in moving from smartphones to mobile computers. Did you see what just happened with FCam. Think you can do that on iOS?
So we have Nokia, Intel, & Linux foundation working on MeeGo. We already have seen a preview that looks already as shiny or better than the stuff that is out there now. BUT: Its a full real OS. Not iOS, not “look im a java VM” Android, but a real operating system. One that could run open office, or gimp, or what have you. The N9 will be a leap forward. Its the reason no one has seen it yet.
I know it has been said before, but wait and see.JFH
So….
Before you lose all hope in Nokia, just remember what’s coming at Nokia World 2010. Awesome things coming soon.
The official Apple page on youtube has been uploading some videos of competing smartphones to demonstrates what they consider to be similar antenna problems as their own iPhone 4 which when touched decides to kill your signal.
When signal strength is reduced sufficiently on the iPhone 4, it eventually CUTS your call. Looking at the N97 mini, it doesn’t lose signal completely.
It’s interesting that with the N97 mini, they waited AGES for the signal to go down (and I wouldn’t be surprised if they placed some Faraday cage above to reduce the signal.
Look in comparison to their own video. As soon as almost all signal is lost, they quickly remove their hand to let it recover.
What’s also interesting is that whilst the iPhone 4 gets 60% 3G reception with AT&T, the N97 mini gets 100%.
Of course Jobs would blame this on their antenna signal algorithms.
When doing video tests such as these and on your own channel, do some frikkin fair testing. It’s 3rd grade stuff to keep as many parameters equal for fair testing. Though fair isn’t really what Apple does in terms of perception and their magical distortion field
Number of bars in inconsistent. Some have 7, 6, 5 4.
Also only the iPhone isn’t at FULL signal. Hence why it’s the only one that “only” drops 2 bars as it’s the ONLY one with the shitty signal. Every other smartphone was on FULL signal. But of course this would be spun positively as iPhone 4 dropping the least number of bars.
Another thing to point out is that every other manufacturer has several handsets. Most antennas are awesome with some much better than others. N900 for instance is a tank of a signal beast.
Bumpers, duct tape, to Fix the super awesome innovative external antenna (which some report still doesn’t fix anything). Oy.
At least we won’t have to be using one of these any time soon
I have never had a dropped call due to reception issues on My Nokia phones apart from…wait for it…when I went under the River Severn under a tunnel in a train. Even then it was quite a while into entering the tunnel that I lost signal.
You might have noticed that the Wall street Journal is reporting that Nokia are actively searching for a new CEO to rejuvenate their past successes. A lot has been made after the reporting and apparently Nokia already have interviewed two candidates nothing has been confirmed yet but looking at the blogs and new sites today it seems like it is a reality.
Do Nokia really need a new CEO ???
Some Nokia investors have already said that Nokia needs a “Silicon Valley CEO” (complete utter nonsense BTW!!!)
Steal some executive from Apple, Google, Palm (John Rubenstein anyone ???) or Google (maybe)
Someone from American that understands the American market well apparently (maybe)
What pisses me off is that Americans think no Finnish person can run Nokia properly (are you eeffin kidding me !!!!) you don’t need an American CEO to be successful they have had tons of Finnish executives and had success in the past and some in the present (5800 is a sales success). Nokia didn’t become the worlds biggest handset manufacturer by luck it happened by hard work.
In my opinion Nokia doesn’t need a new CEO it will only delay plans with their roadmaps and future plans
Nokia need young fresh developers and designers from the outside who have lived the smartphone revolution since the iPhone launched in 2007 (BTW that could include Jay, Andre, Andy, Marc and ME !!!) alright joking aside I do mean it, there are bright people out there that could bring Nokia back to its glory days, they especially need people with software background as its the are they seem to be struggling most
Here’s a little GEM of an application that’s free on Ovi Store for your Nokia N900. This is by far the most promising user interface for a music player I’ve ever come across on a Nokia handset. It’s called “instinctiv”, download it from the Ovi Store on your N900. The player supports wma, flac, ogg, aac, mp3 and can be synced with the instinctiv desktop player (I think Mac only at the moment)
The first thing to note is that it’s entirely designed for portrait, which IMO is great on a music player. I’m often on the move when I’m listening to music and such only have one hand available to browse the music player. Portrait in this sense is a must. (Can’t do this by default with N900)
At start up, you’re presented with either LIBRARY or SHUFFLE view. (You might want to let the player load up the album art on initial use – it automatically fetches these so your albums can look great too)
In LIBRARY, you’re presented with SONGS, ARTIST and ALBUMS. At the top, you’ll have a really helpful breadcrumb trail that will help you quickly get to any point in the menu in one click. No more digging around or pressing back!
Notice also the nofication of number of tracks/albums/artists. I have only just got my N900 back so my music isn’t all on this yet (And some tracks came with it:p)
Notice there’s nothing at the bottom (for now). Note, when you select something, it’s highlighted in blue. It’s a little bit like the iPod player, but IMO, much better in terms of navigation. (Though the breadcrumb bits could do with possibly a little label)
Below is ALBUM view. Yes, it has kinetic scrolling (leave Instinctiv for a bit to compile its archives, once that’s done it’s quick and smooth)
Here’s within Album view.
The main player view is absolutely beautiful. The breadcrumb finishes with the title of the song, you have a HUGE album art to take advantage of the screen real estate and at the bottom you have your music controls. On top of this, you get Album, Artist and Song details (really helpful when in shuffle mode).
It would have been cool if Album/Artist was selectable (to quickly switch to their album/songs if you happen to like that song).
What’s really nice though is that the track time line is ALL of the bottom space underneath the line and above the player controls. (See first screenshot above – it even covers the music controls, very nice) you can tap in the space below the time line and you’ll jump to that section – much better than having a skinny line.
Another thing I’d have loved here is adding to playlist/rating function.
Notice that now, in any view you’ll have visible music controls. This makes it really easy to switch music tracks. The bottom right most button (triangle) brings you back to “Now Playing” view (like in the default N900 Media Player)
I’d really love a persistent music player buttons to be visible throughout the OS, like a swipe left (or some sort of gesture) to bring up music controls in any view – whether you’re in an app or browsing the web.
Below is all songs view.
Below is artist view. When there are multiple albums per artist, songs of each album are grouped next to each other.
Finally there’s shuffle mode. It’s not just plain random shuffle of all songs, there’s options for “INSTINCTIVE SHUFFLE” which supposedly is based on the tracks you skip as opposed to frequently played songs. That’s actually quite smart as there are some songs on certain albums I just always skip but just can’t be bothered to delete.
“PLAY SONGS SIMILAR TO” which I’m hoping might be like Sony’s “Artist Link” or Apple’s Genius Playlist to find songs that you like and go well together.
Looks great, clean but very visually appealing (huge album art, with song details)
Persistent music player buttons throughout music player with button to go back
Automatic album art – no fussing about.
Breadcrumb trail to bring you back to any point (without mindlessly having to keep clicking back)
Intelligent shuffle
Works in portrait (not in landscape yet though sometimes it switches to landscape and it still looks good – not a default feature though)
It’s FREE
CONS:
Does not yet work with bluetooth headset music buttons. (Though plays perfectly, including volume. Skip/back/pause/play not working)
No playlists
Initial startup is a little slow (10 seconds?)
It is a little slow at first but that’s only because it’s archiving. When that’s done it’s quite quick. I’ve put this note here to make it more noticable.
WISH LIST
PLAYLIST/RATING OPTION, with quick access at Now Playing view
Search function
Bluetooth controls
Perhaps labelling of the icons in the breadcrumb (I’m fine without, though it might help others)
Landscape view – though I wouldn’t mind completely portrait.
For this to be the default UI of Nokia Music player on touch phones.
I would have done a video for you guys for an app as nice as this but I my cam has gone walkabout -_-. There’s a video demo by ericube840218 though, even showing installation.
Tomi Ahonen is a Mobile consultant for handset manufacturers and is a really respected man with a good amount of knowledge and of course I follow him on Twitter. Today he made some very interesting comments on Nokia and their success in making camera phones. Its no secret that Nokia are in a sort of trouble regarding their position of the world’s largest with Samsung breathing down their necks a lot of people have been suggesting that Nokia don’t innovate. Well I disagree Nokia does innovate but at a much slower pace and in places that people might find not that important. One area is camera and I have an interesting proposition or an idea or whatever you want to call it.
If you're reading this, then this demonstrate the N900 can use the native wordpress.com site for blogging. No app download, just raw wordpress pretty much how it would appear on your desktop....albeit within the confines of a 800x480 pixel wide screen. Note screenshot below is zoomed.
Click to continue reading this post
We’ve seen these usability issues addressed in Symbian^3. For the most of it, it will be good enough for the majority of its intended users. Symbian^4 is the real visual refit as we move to Qt/Orbit based UI from the traditional AVKON.
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