I Need Nothing – a nearly useless odyssey from buy cialis online Cãoceito on Vimeo.

This morning Stephen Elop, the new CEO of Nokia took to the stage at Nokia World in London to announce the first two Nokia/WP7 handsets. The Lumina 800 and Lumina 710. Make no mistake, in the smartphone space these two companies are one fry-up away from a heart attack, but together they present an entirely different proposition.

Nokia, famed for its hardware and lambasted for its operating system and Microsoft, revered for its new Window Phone 7 OS but hamstrung by the fact that none of the big handset manufacturers have been willing to devote their full attention to it (favouring Android instead) have come together to offer something genuinely different to the current smartphone formula of grids full of App icons.

At the heart of WP7 are live tiles, the purpose of these are to put what is important to you front and centre of your experience, for example social media updates, weather updates, email are all available at a glance. The people tile is especially cool, selecting a contact not only gives you access to the usual details but also lets you view all their latest social media updates and gives you the ability to reply to them straight from their contact info. No opening separate apps. Add a Karl Zeiss 8 megapixel camera, quality finish, best in class maps and excellent battery and we’re looking at highly desirable handsets from Nokia once again.

These phones will be on sale next month with the Lumina 800 costing 420 euros (without contract) a clear signal to the market that this is not a direct iPhone competitor (it’s much cheaper) and that the best is yet to come.

Talk of genuine convergence in the mobile space has been seriously over estimated. We are no closer to seeing any one ecosystem dominate the market place than we were 1, 2 or even 3 years ago. From a marketing perspective we need to embrace multiple ecosystems and plan for them. Battle will rage for the foreseeable future and this is a good thing because inevitably it breeds innovation and progress.

via the Android Market.

As these films have the potential to be supported by unskippable ads, and offer advertisers guaranteed audiences through analysis of consumer search history – will Google capitalise this opportunity by placing this media space on the market to advertisers?

I also question whether the rise in DVD rental ‘on demand’ will lead to the disappearance of DVD stores? And whether it will ultimately lead to a decline in cinema attendance, or will cinema hold onto its novelty as an experience?

I must admit I feel a little unsure about the current offering. The crop of films presently available is not especially stellar – including missable titles such as ‘Bachelor Party in the Bungalow of the Damned’ and ‘Blackberry Babes’. And given that it represents Google’s entry into paid, on-demand content delivery, this is sure to be the tip of the proverbial iceberg? YouTube has stirred controversy by adding profitable content onto a site which has long been a platform for YOU the users to upload free videos and content. But people can’t expect to uphold their assumed right to free music and media endlessly. YouTube has smartly taken the initiative to try and establish itself as a leader in a market that was realistically always going to form. And as we’ll soon likely be able to watch a new-release for £2 through a personal laptop without any pop-ups or viruses, I can see no reason to complain.

As far as DVD stores go, I guess they’ll go the same way as most clothes brands. Selfridges London is split into brand concessions which are typically relatively small. They know that customers will go there, look at a pair of shoes, then go home and buy them online instead. Essentially you still need the showroom, but you stock less and have less staff because it really just becomes another form of advertising.

I guess time will tell how successful online film rentals will be…