The obvious one

There is one device, which was expecting an update end of 2008, but was a lower priority for Nokia as the team was reassigned to the 5800 and the N97 touchscreens. The previous Internet Tablet has reached the end of its lifecycle and the new Maemo OS was in the works sometime ago now – so the obvious expectation is the N900 NIT, with 3G data, faster processor, faster GPS, new UI at a minimum. On a separate note: anyone interested in buying an N810 in good condition?

The promised ones

There are quite a few things, which even Nokia mentioned for end of 2008 release – so I’m hoping that they played catch-up in January and relase all of these:

• Point and Find (the biggest new mobile tech in 2009!)
• Ovi Suite for Mac
• Mail on Ovi web UI and availability for S60
• Maps 3 out of beta
  

The keynote ones

The “Driving an open mobile ecosystem” keynote title has indeed points towards 3rd party topic, especially developers – which should mean the following

• Ovi Store, containing 3rd party apps and possibly carrier shops and accessories also (latest June)
• Ovi API, to allow access to some parts of the portal (like calendar, todo, contacts)

Wishful thinking

There are quite a few things coming also – these are not even predictions, as only the timing is the real question. So, here is hoping that some of the 2009 releases come early and will be announced at the MWC:

• Nokia E75
• new Ovi Suite, based on Qt and available for Win, Linux, Mac
• N97 for April shipment
• Nokia Comes without DRM in February – April
  
• Nokia Video store w streaming content

The surprises

And there are a few things, which would put Nokia ahead of the pack and raise some significant wows. I’m wishing, hoping, begging for something big – but would be surprised if any happens:

• a new kind of device… which I’ve expected instead of the N97
• Beatles in the Music Store
• crazy-cheap touchscreen Nok (under 100 EUR)
• Ovi Social Contacts, extension of contacts with chat, connections, share on ovi
  
• early release of Open Symbian (ahead of schedule)

So, from the above, what is your take?

Related posts:

• The top 10 important Nokia news in 2008
• 15 things Nokia should do before 2009
• The Top 10 mistakes Nokia made in 2008
• Friend View: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly
• Mail on Ovi for S40

Now we also know that the 5800 is actually doing fine and shipping at a 500k per month rate. So far it’s hard to know what does it mean in the long run, but it’s pretty good as a start with only a couple of countries seeing official releases. However, I don’t want to do sales number comparisons, as they are pretty pointless – I would like to point out two much more important things: the buzz surrounding the 5800 and Nokia’s changing attitude.

The little red devil gets the buzz

In the second half of 2008, it was the E71, which was mentioned about 10 times more than any other Nokia phone on Twitter, but if you take a look at Google Trends, you can see that the buzz surrounding the 5800 has actually grown bigger than the N95 or any other device.

What do you read out from the search trends?

It’s a numbers game

The second interesting thing is how Nokia is changing its policy on releasing specific device sales. When I’ve sent questions start of January regarding the 5800 sales to Nokia press contacts, the answer was still the standard one:

1. How many Nokia 5800 devices were sold until today?

I am afraid I cannot help you with the detailed figures, as Nokia does
not disclose device specific sales figures globally or by country. We
do not disclose production volume related information either.

4. What is Nokia’s target of sales for the Nokia 5800? If a developer
is considering development for S60 touch devices, how big is the
estimated user base until June 2009?

I would say a developer company needs to look at the market estimates given by mobile manufacturers and industry analysts in estimating the market size for their products.

While it’s definitely not my mail, which has changed Nokia’s approach – what do you think did? Did Nokia announce the shipment of the 1 millionth 5800 because it is doing better than any recent Nokia one? Or is it as Ewan writes, economic downturn?

As a fanboy, I’m quite optimistic, that Nokia is changing and set to dominate not just the today’s market, but the future through the buzz also.

Related posts:

• The top 10 important Nokia news in 2008
• Nokia 5800 outsells iPhone 5-to-1 in first week
• I’m ready, beam me up Nokia!
• The Top 10 mistakes Nokia made in 2008
• Cheapest Nokia 5800 comes to UK on 23rd January

Head over to the Carnival #158 now :-)

Related posts:

• Carnival of Mobilists #155 is online

Here is my take on the top 10 mistakes – in no particular order -  Nokia made during 2008:

1. Releasing the N96 at all

How could releasing a new device with impressive feature list be a mistake, you say? If it’s a failship, as the N96 proved to be, actually hurting loyalty rates in the most cut-throat segment (smartphones), taking important resources from other N-Series releases, then Nokia would have been better off not releasing it.

• Why the N96 went back into the box; SloanB
• The Nokia N96: Face the task; Mobile Industry Review
• Joy and Sorrow of Using the N96; Dotsisx, Symbian-Guru

2. Ignoring Download! completely

When Apple has announced the App Store, it was easy to dismiss the “innovation”. The Download! catalog is present on about 100 million Nokia devices and there are some good findings there. I’m not particulary fond of iFart (iPhone) apps, so I don’t mind a hand-selected crop of good apps – but I also don’t understand why Nokia has not increased the number of apps available through Download! during the half-year it had as advantage. It is also a question, why Nokia has not adopted its N-Gage game system to applications.

• iPhone App Store is everything Download! should be; Symbian-Guru
• The mobile application store phenomenon; Vision Mobile
• Nokia Up! gateway to all updates for your phone

3. Waiting for Ovi to be ready

I’ve mentioned this before, but here it is again: there is no such thing as “being ready” in web services. You start with a core system (which IS Ovi Sync), gain userbase in the millions and announce the next version or next feature in 3 months to those millions. If Music, N-Gage and various services are not under the umbrella – no problem. They could be in one of the quarterly cycles.

• Ovi – behind closed doors?; Snowy, Symbian Freak
• Oh. My God! 300 million Ovi users are coming
• How to save Nokia’s Ovi from dying

4. Being half year late

During 2008 it was quite visible the Nokia is actually half-year late with everything: the N96, the 5800, Ovi Sync, N97, Comes with Music all arrived on average 6 month later than the usual product releases. N96 took 7 months delay, the Tube should have come before the iPhone in July (just check the Batman product placement), Ovi single sign-on was for September (still not working for Music or N-Gage), N97 and Comes with Music in main countries for Christmas. There is not much to say about this, except that 6 months is 2 web cycles or half of a major product cycle.

This might be changing quickly, as the N97 seems to be close to release – we might not need to wait until June 2009.

5. Incompatible Music Store, Files and Maps 3

Lets rush past supporting both Mac and Windows on the client-side, as it is indeed a matter of strategy and market share. My point here is that web services should be browser and platform independent, which nor Music Store, neither Maps 3 beta is. None of the successful web services (e.g Facebook, Google Maps, Amazon) require plug-ins in your browser to access the common functionality. You might have extra plug-ins for browsers to provide extras, but not for the main service – as the installation or incompatibility turns 50-75% of users away from the web.

• Maps 3 is an ugly fail; Symbian-Guru

6. Not innovating a new market out of thin air

Let’s be honest here: the smartphone market is being swiped out by new players like Apple, Google, RIM. Nokia might stick to its No. 1. position for the coming years, but without an extreme change in strategy, it will lose to experienced software companies. Following Nokia’s a-phone-for-every-segment strategy means that it will always lose segments to specialty players – which is fine. What’s not good however, is that Nokia for years now not opening new segments on its own, only following. After missing the clam-shell and slider craze, Nokia has also missed the touchscreen and mobile game craze. So, why not come out with something new and leave others to follow – as it happened during Nokia’s golden times?

• Innovation and maturity; Symbian Guru
• Niche vs. mass-market; Nokia Conversations
• I’m ready, beam me up, Nokia!
• Is Nokia innovating?

7. Losing focus in marketing

Reading this list of mistakes, you might have the feeling, that Nokia is doomed. It is not. Just in 2008 it came out with huge innovations and it still maintains advantages, which nobody is able to replicate – but is still going mum about it. Where are the “This is how you copy and paste” ads, the clear “all you can eat music service for one year – and you keep all after” messages, the “buying music over the air” or “synchronization without cables” demos? Nokia’s marketing has to identify its strengths and also play on the weaknesses of its competitors.

• Why isn’t this a Nokia ad?; Symbian Guru
• They couldn’t make it more confusing; Nokia Conversations

8. The concept of many Nokia voices

Nokia repeatedly prouds itself as a company of many voices, concurrent and competing ideas. Unfortunately, the side-effect of this multi-voice approach is shouting in the face of consumers. The Nokia 5800 is released without Ovi support, the N96 is not able to run many Nokia developed betas, N-Gage is an afterthought on devices and best practices (technologies) are very slow to replicate to other parts of devices or software. And lets just mention the overlapping offering of Plazes-viNe-Friend View-Maps or Files-Share-Mosh-Download! to demonstrate the noise, which so many voices generate.

9. Quality, Attention to detail or Right at First time

One very disturbing detail about Nokia in 2008 was that it is still making the mistakes of 2007. It still releases the N96 with slow firmware and borderline battery capacity, Ovi Sync with Calendar backup not working and viNe as an incomplete alpha service. There is a very strong shift in the market, as some companies demonstrate that it is possible to get first releases close to perfection. As the economic downturn makes consumers taking less risk, it turns attention to quality also.

• Don’t use the general public as guinea pigs; All About Symbian
• The funniest Nokia joke ever
• Let me v(h)ine a little bit

10. Ecosystem

I wanted to say, that Nokia is ignoring the ecosystem of its devices too much, but the recent news about the Philips cooperation and the N79 Active release shows that it is already changing. So, let’s not cry about the past, but see what was expected for 2008 – which is already happening now:

• Your Music, where you want it; Nokia Conversations
• N79 Active videos; Nokia Conversations

Conclusion

Comparing the two top 10 lists of important news and mistakes, I have to say, the outlook is much better than the mistakes made during 2008. While my view is currently limited by the missed opportunities in my newest phone – the 5800 -, getting something nice to say about Nokia’s future took considerable less time (about half), than finding enough mistakes for the top 10 list. From my side, I’ve spent enough time to recount the past and from now on will concentrate on a better future instead :-)

Nokia, this was your automated wake up call service.

Related posts:

• I’m ready, beam me up Nokia!
• Re: MWC 2009: The countdown begins!
• 15 things Nokia should do before 2009
• How the Nokia 5800 is doing?
• Oh, My God! 300 million Ovi users are coming!

The deal of the year

Furthermore, you will be able to grab the cheapest Nokia 5800 XpressMusic for 249 GBP (282 EUR or 379 USD at current currency) SIM-free. For comparison, check the country-by-country availability of the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic: the current average release price is 371 EUR (approx. 500 USD), with UK having the best price, followed by UAE, India and Taiwan.

The power of the 5800

Besides the great price, the UK sees something extraordinary also – the widest concurrent carrier availability! Vodafone, O2, Orange, T-Mobile UK, Virgin Mobile, Carphone Warehouse and Phones 4U will release the phone a week later – with even lower prices on contract. (How does zero GBP sound?)

The little red devil must be quite convincing, if it could avoid the usual carrier exclusivity trap and be released with 5 carriers at the same time! :-)

Related posts:

• 5 things I love about my Nokia 5800
• Nokia 5800 outsells iPhone 5-to-1 in first week
• Why no Nokia 5800 in 2008?
• Nokia 5800 vs iPhone – feature comparison
• How the Nokia 5800 is doing?

If you want to transfer large amounts of data (e.g. your music collection) then USB 2.0 is still the best solution, not to mention the occasional full backup of your phone. As the internal memory grows (32 GB in case of the N97!), it will stay ahead of any other transfer method for speed.

Currently, micro USB is starting to be common but the Nokia N85 is the only one with charging also.

Read more about USB charging:

• Nokia N85 review – Part 1 The Physical; The Nokia Blog
• Charging the N96 via USB; The Nokia Blog
• Oh My! OLED screen & USB charging!!!; Nokia Creative

Do you like this series? Subscribe to the RSS feed and get notified immediately about new posts!

Related posts:

• Xenon flash
• FM Transmitter
• Firmware Over The Air (FOTA)
• User Data Preservation (UDP)
• 12 features that all Nokia phones should have

The Xenon flash itself is important, because it has a huge advantage for photos over LED – especially for indoor pictures. Talking about family, movement or parties all bring out the superior performance of the xenon piece on the N82.

It’s a stange item in the 12 features list – as this is the only technology, which might not get common across the N-Series portfolio. What do you think is the reason behind this decision?

Xenon bonanza:

• N82 vs N95 8GB: Is it Just the Xenon?; Symbian Stories
• Why Is Xenon Flash missing from the N97?; Ravinda, The Nokia blog
• Single LED flash vs dual Led flash; ZOMGitsCJ
• Dual LED flash vs Xenon flash; part 1-2, ZOMGitsCJ

Do you like this series? Subscribe to the RSS feed and get notified immediately about new posts!

Related posts:

• Which Nokia phone to choose? (Fanboys’ guide 2008)
• Micro USB – with charging
• FM Transmitter
• Fairytale (Nokia N82 ad)
• Firmware Over The Air (FOTA)

Nokia targets its Services & Software business to have 300 million unique services users by 2012.

Forget nagging Nokia to announce it’s target for 2009 for Ovi. As Nokia is insisting of finishing (???) Ovi first, before pushing it, we will not see a huge jump before summer. My own estimation is about 0,5 – 1 million Ovi (mostly Share) users by the end of 2008, around 30 million by the end of 2009 (mostly the Mail on Ovi and Maps on Ovi users, future N97 owners and converted My Nokia IDs), 100 million registered (!) users by the end of 2010 and 100 million users in each year after.

How big is 300 million?

To understand how far behind Nokia is currently and how ambitous is the goal, let’s look at some other services and social sites:

• Apple’s Mobile Me has an estimated 2-5 million users (didn’t find any data)
• Gmail has 50 – 100 million users (the 2 most common estimates)
• Facebook has 140 million active users
• Yahoo has 250-280 million users (mostly Mail)
• Microsoft Live has about 300 million users (mostly free Hotmail)

To summarize, 300 million is as big as the top web players today. While Nokia has been criticised many times recently for its slow turning of the mothership, the arsenal pointed at the Goliaths of today is shaping up to be breathtaking – and not at all resembling yesterday’s sling.

Related posts:

• Re: MWC 2009: The countdown begins!
• The Top 10 mistakes Nokia made in 2008
• Share on Ovi gets single sign-on
• I’m ready, beam me up Nokia!
• 15 things Nokia should do before 2009

To find out which one and to read the best posts about past and future, the mobile industry and devices and software, head over and see the Carnival of Mobilists #155.

If you would like to know more about the Carnival, check out the about page for both readers and contributors.

Related posts:

• Carnival of Mobilists #158 is online

Erase and rewind

Yes, it’s a start of a new year, which according to our built-in clock is the time for erase and rewind, summing up the past year and making plans for the new one. My current plans are questionable. I decided to blog about my hobby – Nokia mobile phones – in October. I knew (hence the name of the blog), that it is not an easy ride with Nokia – it is joy and sadness in one. But should it really be?

Thank you, but

I mean, look at the great things Nokia did and still does. Look at the N95, which changed the market totally and set the Convergence into stone. It was the living proof that it can be done, a major engineering victory. All hail the N95, but…

But with Nokia there is always a But. Should I love Nokia because of their great history? Should I love their R&D department or their engineers? But then should I hate their product managers? Or the whatever department, which tests the phones? Who screwed up the N95?

Who did not realize, that the almighty convergence device does not have a battery, which can support all the functionality in the phone? Or the processor to avoid any lag? Or the PIM (Personal Information Management; consisting of the calendar, todo etc.) hasn’t seen an update in 5 years? The 15 million N95 devices sold are nice, but shouldn’t it be sold 40 million times instead?

Wake up call

The 5800 is a loveable device, but it has an outdated PIM, Music Player, standby screen, application catalog, clock and camera software. It has become my primary device, but I’ve lost many things in the process. So many things, that it makes me wonder, if I will be able to continue with my plans through 2009.

Will I be blogging about my love for Nokia devices one year from now? Or will I break after a dozen phones from competitors bring innovation, which Nokia is not even able to copy quickly?

Who and when will wake up Nokia and keep all the fanboys proud?

Random posts:

• Re: MWC 2009: The countdown begins!
• 5 things I love about my Nokia 5800
• Friend View: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly
• How the Nokia 5800 is doing?
• The 8 best Nokia advertisements

I believe, it’s one of the most user friendly features regarding music sharing. While UPnP is a common feature on the Nokia smartphones, UPnP enabled devices are not so common around the households of your friends, I guess :-)

By simply launching the FM transmitter via the Music Player, you are able to choose an unused frequency (it should be easier in Europe or Asia, than in the US) and start broadcasting your Nokia station (with RDS nonetheless). I have yet to meet with a phone (N78, N79 or N85) with this function, but it should be common across the portfolio :-)

To see, how it works, please check Symbian World’s video on practical use of the FM transmitter:

FM Transmitter overload:

• Review of the N79 with FM Transmitter; Symbian World
• FM Transmitter hidden in the NAM N78; Symbian-Freak
• Nokia N85 Euro Review – Music; Symbian-Guru
• Nokia N78 FM Transmitter in action; Symbian France (YouTube video, 1:29)
• FM Transmitter; Paul Tan (YouTube)

Do you like this series? Subscribe to the RSS feed and get notified immediately about new posts!

Related posts:

• Micro USB – with charging
• Xenon flash
• Firmware Over The Air (FOTA)
• User Data Preservation (UDP)
• 12 features that all Nokia phones should have

Here are five things, which make me hate my Nokia 5800:

1. Access point group handling is not even consistent in the built-in firmware
   (Sometimes it asks for the group to be used, sometimes it does not offer groups.)
2. UI rotation is random at best and needs to be tilted in unnatural ways
   (E.g. if I put it down on the table it goes to landscape.)
3. No application support. Download! contains 15 applications only
   (Many apps are being updated, none of them is in the catalog.)
4. Connecting to new WLAN requires canceling the auto-search and refresh manually
5. When writing an SMS, I have to choose between phone number and e-mail address.

Luckily, all of these are software related, so I just need to wait for the firmware update :-)

Related posts:

• How the Nokia 5800 is doing?
• Cheapest Nokia 5800 comes to UK on 23rd January
• 5 things I love about my Nokia 5800
• The top 10 important Nokia news in 2008
• The funniest Nokia joke ever!

Here are the five most loveable things about the 5800:

1. The small tingling buzz, when I touch it. I could switch it off as I don’t need the haptic feedback, but I do love the sensation of it reacting to my fingers. :-)
2. The awesome, bright and beautiful screen. I just love to watch (and show) videos on it, which makes everyone drool.
3. The unlock switch. It is in the most natural position, requiring a natural gesture to lock or unlock.
4. The visual transitions of S60V5. I don’t care about battery or performance implications, I need the eye candy ;-) The small red blinking dot showing an application starting up is my personal favorite.
5. The sound. I just love the clarity and power of the 5800’s speakers, as much as my neighbor loves it!

What do you love about the 5800?

Update: Ricky beated me to publishing almost the same list. So I need to publish my “hate” list ahead of time also ;-)

Related posts:

• Cheapest Nokia 5800 comes to UK on 23rd January
• Nokia 5800 outsells iPhone 5-to-1 in first week
• Why no Nokia 5800 in 2008?
• Nokia 5800 vs iPhone – feature comparison
• How the Nokia 5800 is doing?

Thanks to this puzzled look on the face, it was not until the end of the year, when we started to see early signs of the new Nokia and it will still take the better part of 2009 to see how the future looks for our favourite Finnish company. So, what were the 10 news in 2008 which have the biggest importance regarding 2009 and beyond?

1. Nokia 5800, the first S60 touch device shipping

The first S60 touch device was leaked, shown, announced, announced and announced and finally shipped to the first countries. Far from revolutionary, the 5800 is a very solid device and one of the sleepers of the year – seemingly surprising even Nokia with it’s initial success.

• Nokia 5800 XpressMusic Preview; All about Symbian
• 20 Reasons Why Nokia 5800 is better than Apple Iphone; Tube5800
• Nokia 5800 XpressMusic First Impressions; Symbian-Guru
• Nokia 5800 outsells iPhone 5-to-1 in first week
• Twice as smart. Half the price

2. The announcement of the N97, the first flagship touch device

The second S60 touch device – and a flagship one – was announced in Barcelona, but there will be a much too long wait until it ships. However, do not underestimate the importance of the N97. While the form factor is nothing new, it is a true pocket computer as well as the first Ovi Device. The realization of the Ovi concept will come to life with the N97 and I also expect a bunch of other services to first show up on it. The “Media Store” of Nokia with movies and everything, Maps 3, Messaging (with IM), a Nokia App Store, Point and Find will be released together with the N97.

• Nokia N97 – hands-on with Nokia’s flagship; Mobile-Review
• Nokia N97 Vs Nokia 5800 XpressMusic; S60 blog
• Nokia N97 round-up: facts, figures, photos, video and first hands-on!; NokNok

3. E71, fast, pretty and makes the US happy

While touch being the new craze for 2 years now, the E71 has shown something even more important. Nokia can actually make a device, which is fast, looks good and pleases the US market also – while running Symbian! It is often part of the 4 devices to choose from in the US (iPhone, BB, G1 being the big three) and mentioned 10 times more than any other device. So, here is hoping, that the E71 team is actually cloned and used for all future devices in Nokia.

• Nokia E71 review; Engadget Mobile
• My new love; Symbian World (w beautiful photos)
• E71 application week; 3 parts by Dotsisx at Symbian-Guru
• How do I love the E71? Let me count the ways; ZOMG its CJ

4. Mail on Ovi, a move into Google area and 100 million user potential

Amidst all the S60 announcements, most sites missed the news in November about Nokia becoming a mail provider for the masses. The scale of the opportunity is indeed enormous. Don’t think “will the 5800 sell one million” – think “will Ovi outgrow Gmail in 1 or 2 years”? While Nokia so far has been making rookie mistakes in establishing its services and using the windows of opportunity, this one means using the 400 million email-enabled devices sold before 2011 and turning them into 60-100 million Ovi users. Can Nokia reach a 15% conversion rate? I believe it can do even better.

• Mail on Ovi for S40
• Mail on Ovi is now available globally; Nokia Users

5. Maps on Ovi, clearing the field in location services and preparing for elimination

Maps on Ovi is coming to life with the third version of Nokia Maps. It is currently in beta, but despite opening with a public relations fiasco it is in fact an important move by Nokia into web-based location services. Google Maps is currently the only real player in this field, but with Nokia easily conquering around 60% of the GPS market (standalone units included!) in the next two years, it can be the major player in this field.

• Maps on Ovi beta; Nokia Betalabs
• Nokia Maps now integrated with Ovi; Aditya Singhvi’s phones

6. Ovi Sync, how true mobile synchronization should look like and the door to Ovi

While the main part of Ovi Sync is the resurrection of My Nokia Backup functionality, it also shows a unique understanding of “being mobile” by Nokia. It is how the world will look like in a year: no cables, everything going over-the-air. Quick and simple with a nice web interface – my belief is that even if Nokians think of Share (Twango) as the starting service of Ovi, it will be Sync (besides Mail), which will reel most of the users in.

• How to save Nokia’s Ovi from dying?
• How to add and Sync your device with Ovi.com; ZOMG its CJ

7. Comes with Music, all your base belong to us

Comes with Music is the all you can eat music bundle of Nokia, slowly being released on a country-by-country basis. It is currently only running in the UK with limited success, but Q1 2009 we will see more markets starting up with new devices. The service is indeed revolutionary and – if Nokia does not screw it up – has the potential to change the online music industry. It is also a bold move to break up Apple’s iPod ecosystem – the sooner the better.

• Nokia CwM: 5 ways it beats iTunes; NokNok
• Blowing away the fog surrounding CwM; Nokia Conversations
• CwM video guide; NokNok
• CwM grabs 10% of iTunes’ market in first week

8. Qt, the promiseland for developers

Nokia has announced the acquisition of Trolltech about a year ago, to bring easy cross-platform development to S60 and many other platforms (mobile, computer and web). While adding one more development tool wouldn’t make it to top 10, attracting developer mindshare and speeding up development of visually attractive applications does – as it addresses one of the biggest shortcomings in Nokia’s past software strategy.  Qt was used to develop Google Earth, Skype and KDE – which shows the potential of the application framework. It is also available for Windows mobile, embedded Linux, Windows, Linux (and all X11-based systems), Mac (Cocoa API) – promising only a couple of hours of porting work across platforms!

• The future of mobile development; All About Symbian
• S60 application storm forecasted for summer 2009; Nokia Conversations
• Qt Everywhere demo; S60 living
• Technology Preview – Qt for S60; Trolltech/Nokia

9. Symbian Foundation and the battle for developer mindshare

As with Qt, buying Symbian and immediately transferring it to a common governing body is mainly driven by keeping the 50% share of Symbian and attracting developers. But just think for one moment about what Nokia has done here! Paying $410 million for the market leading OS, just to open source it is simply unprecedented.

• Google Android vs iPhone vs Symbian Foundation; Mobile Shop
• Symbian Foundation – The big round up; article collection, Nokia Conversations

10. Touching 40%, aka Nokia’s Dream

With Nokia passing Motorola for the first place in 1999, but commanding only 29% of the market in Q1 2004, the announced 40% target market share might have been a long stretch for many. The mobile market has doubled since 2004, yet even with stronger competition from Samsung, LG and Sony Ericsson, Nokia has managed to reach its target. With the rise of RIM, Apple and Google, it’s time for Nokia to announce a new target. I vote for a 100 million Ovi users in 2 years.

• Nokia History & Marketing lessons; Dotsisx at Symbian-Guru
• Nokia’s marketshare in the US; Darla Mack
• Congratulations Nokia!; Communities dominate brands

Do you agree? Feel free to leave your opinion in the comments or to write a Re: The top 10… post if you have better ideas.

Are you interested in The top 10 mistakes Nokia made in 2008? Subscribe to the RSS feed or return next week.

Related posts:

• Re: MWC 2009: The countdown begins!
• How the Nokia 5800 is doing?
• The funniest Nokia joke ever!
• Nokia 5800 outsells iPhone 5-to-1 in first week
• I’m ready, beam me up Nokia!

Do you like this series? Subscribe to the RSS feed and get notified immediately about new posts!

Related posts:

• Fairytale (Nokia N82 ad)
• The next episode (Nokia N81 ad)
• Love message (Nokia ad)
• There is a thing in my pocket (Nokia N95 ad)
• It’s what computers have become (Nokia N95 ad)

Do you like this series? Subscribe to the RSS feed and get notified immediately about new posts!

Related posts:

• The 4th screen (Nokia ad)
• The next episode (Nokia N81 ad)
• Love message (Nokia ad)
• There is a thing in my pocket (Nokia N95 ad)
• It’s what computers have become (Nokia N95 ad)

Do you like this series? Subscribe to the RSS feed and get notified immediately about new posts!

Related posts:

• The 4th screen (Nokia ad)
• Fairytale (Nokia N82 ad)
• Love message (Nokia ad)
• There is a thing in my pocket (Nokia N95 ad)
• It’s what computers have become (Nokia N95 ad)

I’ve been writing up a concept phone, called Nokia Evolution in the last few weeks, with the following base requirements in mind:

• stable form factor through product iterations (6500 classic size)
• start simple (call, sms, photo/video view, music), full touchscreen
• start with no extras to keep the cost to minimal (only 4GB and wi-fi, no camera, no 3G, no GPS, no custom app install support)
• animated graphics UI and landscape orientation, with senior citizens as focus group (touchscreen for the masses)
• ecosystem: announced with support from accessory manufacturers, initial carriers and a target yearly sales volume
• OS is based on Open Symbian, starts with basic functionality only and grows as more and more parts of Symbian are transferred to the Symbian Foundation, automated sw updates via sideloading
• yearly renewal of hardware, released Q2 2009, sub-100 EUR unlocked price (estimated 60 EUR manufacturing cost)

If you think about the iPhone Nano, it could easily fulfill these requirements except the animated UI and the open source part and still be released in Q1 2009. If it will not be announced, I’m hoping that Nokia makes the Evolution device in 2009 and truly brings touchscreen to the mainstream market.

Related posts:

• What happened to Aeon?
• Nokia 5800 vs iPhone – feature comparison
• Re: MWC 2009: The countdown begins!
• Cheapest Nokia 5800 comes to UK on 23rd January
• 5 things I love about my Nokia 5800

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Related posts:

• The 4th screen (Nokia ad)
• Fairytale (Nokia N82 ad)
• The next episode (Nokia N81 ad)
• There is a thing in my pocket (Nokia N95 ad)
• It’s what computers have become (Nokia N95 ad)

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Related posts:

• It’s what computers have become (Nokia N95 ad)
• The 4th screen (Nokia ad)
• Fairytale (Nokia N82 ad)
• The next episode (Nokia N81 ad)
• Love message (Nokia ad)

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Related posts:

• There is a thing in my pocket (Nokia N95 ad)
• The 4th screen (Nokia ad)
• Fairytale (Nokia N82 ad)
• The next episode (Nokia N81 ad)
• Love message (Nokia ad)

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Related posts:

• The 4th screen (Nokia ad)
• Fairytale (Nokia N82 ad)
• The next episode (Nokia N81 ad)
• Love message (Nokia ad)
• There is a thing in my pocket (Nokia N95 ad)

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Related posts:

• The 8 best Nokia advertisements
• The 4th screen (Nokia ad)
• Fairytale (Nokia N82 ad)
• The next episode (Nokia N81 ad)
• Love message (Nokia ad)

I’ve collected my favorite videos from Nokia, so you can just relax during the holidays. (coming daily)

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Related posts:

• Bruce Lee ping-pong (Nokia ad)
• The 4th screen (Nokia ad)
• Fairytale (Nokia N82 ad)
• The next episode (Nokia N81 ad)
• Love message (Nokia ad)

The Nokia 5800 is not on the list. The latest and greatest, including other flagships like N85 or N79 are NOT on the supported devices for Ovi Sync. Of course, Nokia’s failship, the N96 is there.

I have to conclude, that this cannot be serious. Nokia is just pulling one of the biggest jokes – it’s something like the Unloader site, which I also do not get, but everybody else seems to enjoy.

Sometimes … I dream about a world without mobile phones and advanced web services. A cave and a bit of fire… that’s what I’m longing for around Christmas.

Related posts:

• The top 10 important Nokia news in 2008
• How the Nokia 5800 is doing?
• Cheapest Nokia 5800 comes to UK on 23rd January
• 5 things which make me hate my Nokia 5800
• 5 things I love about my Nokia 5800

My enthusiasm over anything OTA started with Ovi Sync and since then I refuse to go back to cables. Nokia Users were Born Free so it suits us to be able to sync, backup, update anything On The Go, Over The Air. This is also quite a unique feature – while Google’s Android is able to receive automatic OTA updates (but a manual update voids your guarantee on the G1), the iPhone, for example, is still left in stone age with very limited cable-less options.

Checking for FOTA updates can be scheduled on the Nokia N79, yet other models still require manual checking by typing *#0000# on the home screen of the phone. Interestingly, besides the newest N-Series phones, the Nokia 5800 also has this capability. (We will see next week, when it arrives ;-)

Until then, please check the video of an N96 being updated:

OTA orgy:

• The past of software updates; video, Mikko Kuusisto about Nokia Software Update over the air
• The FOTA on new devices; video, Mikko how to use it
• How to Update the Firmware OTA; step-by-step guide by Vaibhav at The Symbian Blog
• Losing your FOTA virginity; video, Mark from The Nokia Blog
• The first FOTA update; N78 received the first in June 2008, Symbian Guru

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Related posts:

• User Data Preservation (UDP)
• Micro USB – with charging
• Xenon flash
• FM Transmitter
• 12 features that all Nokia phones should have

Just open the link to the Nokia Users group and join by adding your Twitter ID to the group member list. Where does it go from there? The group can collect websites, articles, events and videos interesting or useful for Nokia users.

And the rest? It is up to us as Nokia users.

(If you would like to follow me on Twitter, just check the menu above for my ID.)

Random posts:

• Micro USB – with charging
• Share on Ovi gets single sign-on
• Traffic work research
• Nokia 1202, the iPhone killer comparison
• Carnival of Mobilists #155 is online

According to Eldar, who delivered several Russian 5800 news during the last weeks, by 7th December around 58,000 (isn’t that too much in line with 5800? ;-) Nokia Tubes were sold, with another 46,000 marching towards stores currently – and expected to be sold by the end of the year. But how does that compare?

If we consider that Russians somehow managed to open the stores earlier than the official launch, we are still talking about 12 days of sales. In comparison, Apple has sold only 30,000 iPhone 3Gs in the first 30 days in Russia, which makes the Nokia 5800 xPressMusic a huge success, outselling the iPhone 5-to-1. So, what does it mean for the first S60 touchscreen device?

Judging by the first couple of days of performance in one country does not make a good trend analysis. But it does show, that even if Nokia is missing the Christmas craze and even if the 5800 is not an iPhone-killer, Nokia’s first attempt at a touchscreen competitor is quickly measuring up to the iPhone – at least in sales numbers.

In January, another 7 countries will start selling the 5800 xPressMusic, changing Russia’s 100,000 to world-wide millions. Will it reach the iPhone numbers? I don’t know, but my preorder is on the list at Nokia Italia. Give me the little devil already! ;-)

[via Unwired View]

Related posts:

• How the Nokia 5800 is doing?
• Cheapest Nokia 5800 comes to UK on 23rd January
• 5 things I love about my Nokia 5800
• The top 10 important Nokia news in 2008
• I’m ready, beam me up Nokia!

The backup is still advisable, but you can save the long process of restoring your data, personalizing your device again (as the backup does not store everything) and reinstalling your 3rd party applications (as most of them break during the backup-restore process).

As Nokia is getting quite good with frequent firmware updates, you are losing a lot, if you are not upgrading your firmware. Yet, without UDP, it is just plain scary to wipe out your phone with the update. My last phone without the UDP feature will be the 5800 -  after that I’ll simply refuse to buy a Nokia phone not having UDP. You should do the same. :-)

The feature, which is common on the iPhone and newly developed phones from other manufacturers is slowly making its way to Nokia S60 phones also. For the list of phones having this feature, see my post on the latest E and N-series phones.

Recommended reading:

• N82 UDP update; Darla’s experience
• When things go wrong with the update; Nokia Conversations
• How to recover contact groups after firmware update; Dotsisx at Symbian-Guru
• Autinstaller to reinstall all apps after update; s60blog

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Related posts:

• Firmware Over The Air (FOTA)
• Which Nokia phone to choose? (Fanboys’ guide 2008)
• Micro USB – with charging
• Xenon flash
• FM Transmitter

The 12 not-yet-common features will get detailed, with plenty of reading material linked for those long winter nights. You can then make up your mind about whether these features are important to you – and decide between the different high-end phones of Nokia. See you tomorrow! :-)

Recommended reading:

• Technology glossary; Nokia
• s60 in detail; S60.com

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Related posts:

• Micro USB – with charging
• Xenon flash
• FM Transmitter
• Firmware Over The Air (FOTA)
• User Data Preservation (UDP)