Nokia's strategic announcements on February 11th (and clarified on the 13th) placed an 'End of life' notice on Symbian, even if its immediate future is assured. Many have asked whether it's a good investment to buy a Symbian-powered phone now, others are surprised that this very site is still going under the same name, still others are treating Symbian enthusiasts as if they're infected with something nasty. The truth is that Symbian OS isn't going away overnight - and here are three compelling reasons why.
You may remember a piece from me almost a year ago in which I gave six reasons why the Nokia N97 sucked and nine reasons why it still 'ruled'? In this followup piece, I extend, for the first time, my popular 'Pimping' tutorial series to a touchscreen Symbian phone - and not just any old smartphone, but the one that everyone loves to hate, the flawed flagship that for many people epitomises some of the decisions that sealed Symbian's fate. However, I'm a geek, you're a geek, and the N97, now available second-hand for under £100, is about to get 'pimped'...
In this in-depth feature we look at the thinking behind the smartphone portion of Nokia's new strategy, which was announced on February 11th and sees, in essence, a transition from Symbian to Windows Phone. We consider Nokia's three options and explain that ultimately the necessecity for a competitive and sustainable ecosystem proved to be the vital factor in the decision.
INQ CEO Frank Meehan got himself into hot water a few days ago for suggesting that "pretty girls prefer iPhone and BlackBerry to Android" - making sweeping statements about demographics always gets quoted and there's usually a backlash of some kind. But, with no mention of Symbian (naturally enough, given Nokia's recent pronouncement), I figured that if Frank could do it then so could I. Read on for my own sweeping (and equally unscientific) demographic analysis, delivered with a healthy degree of hyperbole....
The Nokia Communicator marque strikes a chord for most of us, especially those who have been here since 2001 or so. The original 9210 was a break through device, offering most of the functionality of our old Psion palmtops, with a large full colour screen and phone and connectivity built-in. In many ways it was ahead of its time, as was the Psion before it. After ten years, how close are we now to the 'Ultimate Nokia Communicator'? Not very. Let's look at the background to the question and examine a few contenders.
One of the most predictable, yet slightly unsettling, reactions from Stephen Elop’s news was one of “I’m never touching anything by Microsoft ever ever ever.” You might have heard it as the bathwater was being thrown out. More than anything, the reaction that refuses to give something a chance is just… disappointing. Give the Redmond company a chance on consumer electronics (see below), and the modern Microsoft turns up trumps.
With the explosion of smartphones in the last few years, I’ve been pondering the effects that the technology has on good manners, what habits have sprung up, and if there’s a right and wrong way to go about your mobile connections. There’s only one real place to start on an adventure into politeness, so let’s start at Debretts.
Ahead of part 2 of our detailed review of the Nokia E7, covering its camera functions and multimedia generally, you'll recall EDoF's inability to shoot anything closer than about 40cm crisply? This limitation is a far more serious one for the potential E7 owner than it is for (say) someone with the C7 or C6-01, whose main 'macro' subjects might be cats, flowers and bowls of fruit(!) A mobile professional is going to want to use the E7 camera as a scanning/recording device, to snap white boards, back-of-envelope sketches, logos, documents and business cards, in some cases with recognition software to process what's been captured. Can it be done?
Putting aside the initial commentary of doom, the partnership between Nokia and Microsoft has got a lot of people thinking of what could happen next. It would be fair to say that it’s caused pretty much everyone to stop, think, and try and make an educated guess as to the next move of Espoo and Seattle. So let’s have a little look around and see what some of the names in the mobile technology space think of it.
One of my loyal Twitter following asked me an interesting question last week: if I had the choice between a Nokia N8 and an identical N8 (hardware-wise) running Android 2.3, which would I go for? It's a testament to Nokia's hardware prowess that I had to think about my answer (of which more below). And, in the same week, I observed exactly the same thing when reviewing the HTC Desire Z, which (despite its obvious attractions) had me immediately pining for Nokia's build quality and component choice. It's (nearly) all about the hardware - for me, at least.
