If our own news posts and Rafe's analysis of Nokia's finances and the success (or not) of their smartphone production has left you wanting more, harder detail, then note that Nokia has today published "Nokia in 2009", which includes its "2009 Annual Accounts, the Review by the Board of Directors". It's in pdf-format on Nokia's web site. (Shareholders may also request a hard copy of the document free of charge through the site.)
The Phones Show 106 just went live, now with an audio-only version (by popular demand), featuring 'Optimising the Nokia N97', plus a User Story with a very happy Nokia E55 user. There's also my review of the HTC Legend. And don't forget Phones Show Chat each week, the audio podcast where Tim Salmon and I chat about smartphones around a pint cup of coffee...
Nokia and China Mobile recently announced MM-Ovi Store, a combination of the companies respective application stores. MM-Ovi Store will be pre-installed on Nokia's China Mobile handsets and enables access to a diverse range of mobile applications and games.
At the same time Nokia also unveiled the Nokia 6788i, an updated version of the Nokia 6788, which runs S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 on Symbian and features TD-SCDMA connectivity, a five megapixel camera, 4GB of internal memory and integrated GPS. The 6788i, which will arrive in April, will be the first phone with MM-Ovi Store pre-loaded.
AdMob, a mobile advertising provider, has released its latest set of statistics, based on ad requests to its advertising network. It shows increasing demand for advertising from mobile websites and applications and notes an increase in the proportion of ad requests coming from smartphones. AdMob's numbers need to be understood in the proper context, but they do underline the increasing importance of advertising as a monetisation model for mobile content
Two years ago the Nokia N95 8GB was on top of the world, the N96 was the newest offshoot, the E61i was the best bet for the common man in the business world, and their 2.8" screens were deemed massive. And, the oddity of the E90 notwithstanding, we were happy. Weren't we? These phones did all we asked them to and the the world was good. And yet, less than 24 months later we find the smartphone world dominated by 4" screened, touch-only devices that bear little resemblance to the champions of 2008. Is it all the iPhone's fault, or is there more to the change? And where do smartphones go from here?
Nokia continues to lead the mobile handset market in the UK (reports Mobile News). Over the Christmas period, the Finnish company kept its share at just over 30%, reclaiming the top spot from Samsung, who dropped back to a 21% share. Third place went to Sony Ericsson.
Simon Wardly, Software Services Manager for Canonical, is a strong advocate of distributed computing – the mythical cloud that exists in the modern web world – and he’s spent some time on his personal blog to go into some depth about the current “state of the cloud.” While not directly relevant to Symbian it makes for great background reading over your mid-morning coffee.
In All About Symbian Insight 110 (AAS Podcast 174), Rafe and Steve share news of the arrival of Ovi Map's free navigation on the N86, and the release of the Silverlight for Symbian Beta. Steve tells us about a community firmware release for the Samsung i8910 and introduces a discussion on the death of Wayfinder; Rafe talks about Navteq True (next generation digital mapping data collection) and shares some initial thoughts on Windows Phone 7 Series. You can listen to AAS Insight 110 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
You can rely on Tomi Ahonen to tell it like it is - in this case musing on the appalling economics in the iPhone app world (there's a summary quote below), talking about the sheer numbers mean that even if you do a great app and are moderately lucky then you'll still lose your shirt. Comments welcome as to how much of this applies in the world of Symbian - Ovi Store, Play Now, etc. - I've a feeling there's a common argument that could be aimed at Symbian app development. Of course, the solution is a) to be insanely good and b) reviewed/feature here on All About Symbian...
Some say he can shout across the Forth Bridge and be heard on the other side. Some say he can't pronounce the word "badminton". All we know is, he's called Ewan Spence. Part 5 of a series of short videos from Ewan is embedded below, along with some of his 'diary' commentary, as part of his gaming and blogging spring trip to San Francisco (GDC) and Austin (SXSW). We set him a series of challenges (also known as a real world test of the Nokia 5230/Nokia Nuron), all delivered by the Stig. In part 5, Ewan accepts a photographic challenge and goes seeking tips from a 'pro'.
The halls of Austin have been cleared of the SXSW Interactive crowd, to be replaced with the bands, managers, promoters and fans of the music conference. And that’s brought a sea change to a certain factor: it’s almost impossible to spot more than a handful of iPhones. From the reaction in the halls, Nokia have a chance to win over America this year.
Navteq, at Mobile World Congress 2010, showed off their new mapping collection system called Navteq True. The system, which is placed on top of a vehicle, combines a LIDAR system, multiple panoramic cameras, and positioning (GPS and IMU) sensors. Navteq is part of Nokia and its digital mapping products underlie numerous location products and services, including Ovi Maps. In this video we get a closer look at the system, see some of the data it collects and find out what implications it has for digital maps.
eBooks have been a part of the Psion/Nokia/Symbian scene, on and off, for 15 years now. Admittedly, it's more 'off' than 'on' at the moment, but that's absolutely no reason for you not to take a hot drink and 30 minutes to read Michael Mace's epic feature on 'The Future of Publishing: Why eBooks Failed'. He looks at the topic from every angle and in terrific depth. What I'd now like to see is for a commercial eBook platform really take off on Symbian: suggestions for current contenders welcome if you agree?
Our latest MWC video is a tour around the Qt stand, looking at some of the Qt-enabled devices - from phones to printers and appliances. Mobile developers and users have been hearing more and more about Qt in the last 18 months. It is the future application framework for both Symbian and MeeGo (Nokia's two open platforms going forward). However, as this video demonstrates, Qt is already a well established technology and the 'Qt everywhere' slogan has already been realised.
In this video interview, recorded just before MWC, we speak to Scott Weiss (User Interface Technology Manager at the Symbian Foundation and Chair of the Symbian Foundation UI Council) about the Symbian Foundation UI and some of the initiatives and projects that Symbian is undertaking around UI topics. You'll hear about some of t he key user experience changes, the UI workshops and the UI pattern library.
