We all love phone comparison pieces. I love writing them. You love reading them. And then the world and their dog love arguing until gone midnight about why the comparison is valid/invalid/pointless (delete as applicable). Below, I'm mulling over both sides of the argument, pitching a Nokia N82 against the 5800 XpressMusic and the Apple iPhone 3G to try and make a serious point.
After three days mostly in the dark (in terms of economical data), Ewan has a few choice words for manufacturers and software designers - don't assume that an Internet Connection is always present. Because there are times, especially when roaming, when an always-on data connection can be as much a curse as a blessing.
Sony Ericsson today announced it is joining the Open Handset Alliance (OHA). OHA is the group behind the Android platform championed by Google. Sony Ericsson says its membership will 'complment its existing Open OS strategy which is based on Symbian and Windows Mobile'.
Rafe Blandford will be reporting back in detail from Nokia World over the next few days, but in the meantime, watching the coverage across the Internet of the new Nokia N97, Ewan's apprehensive that there's a fight brewing now that the Nseries has a touch champion and that the battle field is becoming more level.
Announced by Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo at Nokia World this morning was the news that the acquisition of Symbian, Ltd has been completed, and therefore the plans for the Symbian Foundation move away from the theoretical discussions that happened at the Symbian Smartphone Show and into reality.
Today at Nokia World 2008, Nokia has released (via Beta Labs) the latest version of Nokia Maps, v3.0, as well as a full personalized 'online mapping experience' on Ovi (also now available). The combination of Nokia Maps 3.0 plus Ovi is claimed to be "the first free service that allows people to pre-plan a journey at home and synchronize with their phone, giving access to pre-planned routes and favourite destinations while on the move." Nokia Maps has also been updated to include higher resolution aerial images, 3D landmarks for 216 cities across the world and terrain maps. Screenshots, info, download link (for selected devices) and notes below.
Store Number 12 for the Nokia Music service has gone live, and it's a first for the Middle East as the Finns bring their store to the United Arab Emirates (reports Marktoob Business). Alongside the Big 4 music labels of Universal, Sony BMG, Warners and EMI will be regional publisher Rotana and content aggregator Qanawat.
No, that's not a misprint for 5mp (i.e. 5 megapixels), it's SMP - Symmetric Multiprocessing. You may remember that Nokia's flagships, the N95 and N82, both have dual CPUs? This didn't really have as much effect on performance as their (also unique) graphics acceleration, but every little helps. However, SMP seems to be a technology that will make a bigger difference in the future, according to an interesting interview with Symbian's Jason Parker, over at SymbianOne.
The new edition of Greenpeace's Greener Electronics Guide has ranked major electronics manufacturers according to environmental friendliness, and Nokia has remained the clear leader scoring 6.9 out of 10. Fellow Symbian manufacturers Samsung and Sony Ericsson were both in second place with 5.9 out of 10, but most companies didn't fare so well (Nintendo is by far the worst with just 0.8 out of 10).
Those of you in or around San Francisco on the 4th December might be interested in attending the Symbian Partner Event, being held in the Palace Hotel on that day from 8.30 am. This is a free event, which is open to all, with keynotes, exhibitions and discussion panels. More information and registration can be found at the Symbian Partner Event site.
At the Mobia Asia Congress, in Macau, Nokia reaffirmed its commitment to TD-SCDMA (also known as Chinese 3G) and said it was working on an TD-SCDMA enabled S60 handset for release in 2009. This follows on from the news that Digia has integrated TD-SCDMA into S60. China is one of the key emerging markets for mobile and China Mobile is one of the world's biggest operators (by customer numbers).
Nokia have been awarded the Green Award 2008 Grand Prix with their 'Power of We' campaign. This was an internal campaign designed to encourage discussions around environmental issues affectingNokia . By promoting their environmental programme to the global workforce, the individuals in the company could start to make a positive change to the world.
In AAS Insight 48, we talk about the launch of the new 'Facebook phone', the INQ1, we chat about the Nokia N96 and the new E63, plus we cover Qt, the cross-platform environment that Nokia bought recently. If you want to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
In which I muse on how far we've gone backwards in many ways, in the last 15 years... and introduce a device with 5.3" wide screen, instant response, comprehensive office suite and staggering battery life.... Am I the only one to get misty eyed over this sort of thing?
In a statement issued on Friday Nokia updated it outlook (view of the mobile market) for Q4 2008 and 2009. Nokia expects Q4 sales of all mobile phones to be lower than initially expected at around 330 million. It expects its own market share to be the same or slightly up. For 2009 Nokia is expecting volumes to be down compared to 2008 (i.e. less mobile phones will be sold in 2009 than in 2008). Both these changes are attributed to 'continuing overal economic slow down'.
