Michael Mace has written what has to be one of the clearest market comparison articles I've read in a long time. Over on his blog he's gone into some wonderful cultural comparisions of the European and American marketplaces for mobile technology. Ever wondered why Nokia "has Rock Star status" in Europe yet is "lost in the crowd of semi-anonymous Euro-brands" in the US? Why number portability is king? And why not to ask a European Operator about MMS revenue?
Following on from my own detailed review of Navicore Personal 2006, blogger Shaun McGill has written up his own (shorter) mini-review, concluding that it's "a competent GPS application that does everything asked of it - a few tweaks here and there wouldn’t go amiss though."
Interested to spot over on ARNnet, HTC's president stating that they wouldn't rule out working with Symbian OS. Not that it's likely or imminent, but interesting nevertheless, with HTC making most of the world's Windows Mobile hardware. Note also the shipping figure at the end of the piece, which agrees with the Symbian OS market share figures in previous AAS analysis (60% or so).
Though AAS have not yet been able to get a review model out of Sony Ericsson, others thankfully have. Here are detailed reviews from My-Symbian and The Register, both with a very different slant. Rafe suggests that UIQ 3 is a bit like Marmite (love it or hate it) - read the reviews and make up your own mind!
Hey, it's my (3-Lib's) turn to host the world famous Carnival of the Mobilists. Ten or so choice articles to while away your coffee break... Here's Carnival no. 43.
The Nokia E61 seems to be garnering legions of fans round the world. Not least long-time Palm OS devotee and Windows Mobile journalist Shaun McGill, who has recently decided to jump platforms and make the E61 (and S60/Symbian OS) his smartphone of choice. And he's writing about it, too, here's his E61 blog.
If you wanted to watch that BBC Newsnight spot on Symbian and the future of mobile phones but have found that the Newsnight page itself no longer offers it, fear not - it's been so popular that the BBC have stuck it up on its own URL, see the comment link below.
Nokia has agreed to buy out gate5, a leading supplier of mapping, routing and navigation software and services. Nokia will then be able to offer consumers maps, routing, navigation and other location based applications on its smartphones. The navigation genre for S60 3rd Edition was already busy, but an official Nokia solution, perhaps built into many devices, would be more than welcome. Press release follows...
Symbian Freak reports that a new bug-fix firmware for the N93 is imminent, to go live on the update server, v11.0.034. Among other things, the free RAM after booting is now up to 24MB - wow, let's hope the same optimisation can be applied to the E70 and other 3rd Edition devices!
Moconews has a lovely summary up on the compromises that filming special 'mobile friendly' TV episodes can place on a production team. It talks about the recent 60 second preview clips for the recent season of BBC TV's Doctor Who.
Greenpeace have released the Green Electronics Guide , a look at how enviromentally friendly companies are with their electronic products. Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Motorola all feature in the report, which is based on global policies, the volumes of harmful chemicals in the product and how well the companies handle discarded units at the end of their consumer life.
A tiny bit skewed by not including free applications, but there's still plenty of merit in an app being nominated as a 'Handango Champion'. Here are the official 2006 finalists (click through and choose 'S60' or 'UIQ', warning - it's a Flash-based site)
PDA Essentials issue 52 is now at newstands across the UK, with a group test of 'Blackberry killers', in which the Nokia E61 was pronounced 'a clear winner'. There's also a guide for users of other mobile OS for migrating everything to S60, plus a full review of the UIQ 3 Sony Ericsson M600i, with the verdict 'Superb as a mobile email handset'.
No, I haven't 'defected', but I do believe in giving credit where credit's due. My Smartphones Show 14 video podcast is now out and has a review of the impressive Windows Mobile-powered HTC TyTN; on the Symbian front, I look forward to the Smartphone Show next month.
