SEE 2009 (Symbian Exchange and Exposium) is Symbian's annual big show. In the video below you can join me on a walkabout around the show floor at SEE 2009. I share my impressions and analysis in an unscripted, one-take, walk and talk. As well as covering many of the Symbian related consultancy and developer tool companies there's also a quick look at the Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Samsung stands.
In which I muse on the seemingly unstoppable handover in all parts of the phone world from traditional phone form factors to large touchscreens and wonder, in particular, just how far the Nokia N97 mini actually is a step forwards from the last (and best) of the mainstream S60 3rd Edition line, the Nokia N86 8MP...
At last week's Symbian Exchange and Exposition, Lee Williams (Executive Director of the Symbian Foundation) showed, during the keynote, a concept video of what a future Symbian UI might look like. The video shows a typical use case: accepting an invite to a party via Facebook and, the next day, attending the party. There's a glimpse of a new look homescreen, complete with social web integration, navigation and mapping features enhanced by augmented reality functionality. Read on to view the video and my comments.
And so the final N-Gage game slips out the harbour. Perhaps Nokia were hoping for a quiet maiden voyage for Powerboat Challenge? Whoops. Despite a solid game structure and good enough graphics, this title just - in Ewan's words - isn't fun. Read the illustrated review here on Ovi Gaming.
In this feature, I look at the creeping size increases in modern 'phones' - at what point do they cease to become phones and turn into media 'tablets'? I postulate a definition that refers to the way in which these devices are used - proving that the Nokia N900 and HTC HD2 definitely aren't phones at all and throwing doubt on the N97 and iPhone in the process. Controversial? Moi?
With the announcement that Nokia are closing the N-Gage service, Ewan has been looking back at the troubled gaming strategy from Finland, from its launch in 2003 to today's ticket to Dignitas in an Obituary for the Nokia N-Gage (2003-2009). We'll pass on any messages of condolence to Finland you may wish to leave.
In a low key announcement, via the N-Gage blog, comes the news that Nokia plans to shutter its N-Gage gaming service. Nokia say they will 'no longer publish new games for the N-Gage platform'; instead games will be provided via its Ovi Store service. Current N-Gage games can be purchased until September 2010 and the N-Gage website and Arena service (online elements) will be available throughout 2010.
Fujitsu has been appointed to the board of directors of the Symbian Foundation. As a result, Fujitsu will, as an OEM Board Member, contribute to the funding of the Symbian Foundation and take an active role in all four Symbian Foundation councils (features and roadmap, architecture, user interface and release). Fujitsu have more than 8 years of Symbian experience and have released more than 20 Symbian handsets, second only to Nokia, including the first videophone.
Qualcomm Innovation Center (QuIC), a wholly owned subsidiary of Qualcomm, has joined the Symbian Foundation and been appointed to the Symbian Foundation board of directors. By joining the board of directors, QuIC will be taking an active role in the governance of the Symbian Foundation and will likely join a number of the Symbian Foundation councils. The announcement represents a very significant endorsement of the Symbian Foundation by a key player in the mobile space.
It's the official All About Symbian 'live' podcast from the SEE 2009 show, including: Ewan interviews with Lee Williams, a virtual audio tour of the show floor, Rafe interviews Jan Ole Suhr, the guy behind Gravity, Ewan interviews Bill Ray, from the Register, about the challenges facing the Symbian Foundation, plus Ewan, Steve, Rafe and Stuart (Clark) round up Day One of the show.
In the run-up to SEE 2009, I'd been mulling over which smartphones to take for blogging purposes - and one of my requirements, obviously, had to be something with a camera that was good enough. Below are my thoughts and findings, in which I discover that one of my own theories wasn't necessarily true...
Spotify, the music consumption service, has made another move into the mobile space. Following on from their iPhone app (and tantalising hint they are working on a Symbian version) their next move outflanks Nokia and their plans for music yet again. The launch of a monthly tariff and handset (HTC Hero), which has Spotify bundled, is going to be attractive to music lovers – not because it's better than Nokia's Comes With Music, but because it is more loved online, so the passionate users will do the evangelising.
In All About Symbian Insight 91 (AAS Podcast 153), Steve expands on his N97 camera and GPS experience from last weeks podcast. Rafe and Steve then discuss Nokia's Q3 2009 result in details, before Steve asks Rafe about his initial N900 versus N97 impressions. Our final topic is Steve's experience with Ovi Suite 2.0. You can listen to AAS Insight 91 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
Nokia has released their Q3 2009 results, reporting an operating loss of EUR 426 million, but this was primarily due to a write down in the value of Nokia Siemens Network. Nokia's device and service division's profits were EUR 785 million, up 3% from the previous quarter, but down 50% year on year. Converged devices sales (smartphone) were down slightly (though up year-on-year) at 16.4 million, compared with 15.5 million units in Q3 2008 and 16.9 million units in Q2 2009. As such, converged device volumes were, perhaps, lower than expected.
Symbian OS-related content in Phones Show Chat, programme 8 out this afternoon, includes Tim's view of the Nokia 5730 XpressMusic and on Data Security, plus we chat about syncing the N97 to Google and GooSync. I then mull over firmware version numbers, show Tim how to enter special characters on a non-qwerty phone, and pick BBC iPlayer as my 'app of the week'. All this and more in PSC8!
