All About Symbian - Symbian, Nokia and S60 unwrapped.
The Perception of Nokia
Published by Ewan Spence at 12:04 UTC, September 4th 2009
One of the interesting things I observed during the first day of news from Nokia World was the increasingly wide contrast between what Nokia and the retail stores are reporting on the Nokia N97, and what the blogging comentarati think is happening with the N97. Read on for my observations.
The Nokia N97 is, apparently, selling on the order of a million units every month across the world. That's an almost constant demand, not a peak of early adopters buying it when it comes out. It's matching the more populist Nokia 5800, and is slap bang in the middle of the sales curve of the N95 (date corrected to match up the launch dates). In other words, it's doing pretty well for itself and its parent company.
So why the hate?
The vitriol poured into any news about the Nokia N97 specifically, and Nokia's smartphone strategy in general, continues to amaze me.
The Nokia N97 "came out filled with bugs, a stupidly low amount of RAM, it was unusable, and Nokia quickly junked it and ran to linux for the N900's power plant (and Windows 7 for their laptop)". All of which (conveniently) ignores the number of bugs that any device has when it ships and the announced sales figures. Or the amount of time that Nokia has been working on Maemo – do you honestly think that you could roll out a stable phone operating system from linux in a matter of months?
Not all Nokia N97's are like this one.
As to the RAM issue, I've been using the N97 in the real world at the Edinburgh Fringe for most of August, and yes there were two moments when the device needed to be reset. Once it restarted itself, the other required a battery-out procedure. That compares to my iPhone, which also locked up twice in August requiring resets. [Editor's note: Ewan hadn't updated the N97 to v12, partly explaining the resets he did see] [Ewan's note: that's because in the real world I'd never update a firmware or tool while travelling!] So I'm declaring that real world the N97 may have flaws, but is far from an unusable disaster.
But I'm sure that within the first five comments on this article will be a bold faced statement accusing us of being Nokia apologists. Well, if looking at the evidence, coming to a reasoned judgement and saying that if you dig deeper you'll find a more accurate story that portrays the mistakes as well as the successes of the Finnish company, then you've got us bang to rights.
Yes, we praise the companies when they get it right – and we'll also be first in line to give them a piece of our mind when they're getting it wrong (e.g. 23 Things Wrong With The Ovi Store). We're also happy to revisit our opinions when it's clear our first snap judgement doesn't match up with reality (look at our growing attraction to the E75).
So will the tech sites ever decide they were wrong about Nokia? That's a good question, but the signs are there. Nokia's announcements before and during NokiaWorld have provided people with a way of coming back to Nokia without admitting to any past indiscretions. Once they're mentally back in the fold, the Qt derived Symbian^2 will probably have an easier ride online... just because.
Of course, this means that the shouting of the death of Symbian and S60 will be even louder, even though it'll outsell the other OS flavours Nokia sell by a significant magnitude, that it'll be around for many many more years on multiple millions of devices. In case you hadn't noticed, the phone that's going to sell bucket-loads in the High Street stores this Christmas was announced at Stuttgart. The X3. The S40-powered X3. A 10+ year old operating system that the majority of gadget fans never even picked up on, as it was considered too ancient and too underpowered. And you're trying to say that Symbian and S60 doesn't have life in it yet?
Rumours of the death of Symbian are sadly exaggerated. But don't let the facts get in the way of giving your web site a little burst of traffic. The rest of the world knows differently.
-- Ewan Spence, Sept 2009.
News Discussion
However, it actually is and a few firmwares later it will become better. I don't think you're praising Nokia, you're looking in to the future and thanking their work at looking at problems. After all, bad business (failing devices) and left out customers are something that Nokia do not want. Kudos to your article.
It is the nature of an insecure bully to always need a target to pick on.
On the OS side, a simple fact that S60 has been around for so long that people just jusp to the conclusion that it stopped evolving since it's debut.
But what ever the anti-N97 brigade is doing, they are doing a very nice job as from what I read from all the blogs, I wouldn't buy one myself. But if I was just to step in a store, most likely I would.
The rest of the world is more open minded and patient it seems then the gadget geeks.
Nobody expects perfection, but if they insist on putting 128Mb of RAM in their flagship devices, at the very least they could make sure they don't install hundreds of useless apps on the C: drive and leave the browser cache munching through what's left.
With the amount of marketing muscle Nokia have thrown at the N97, they could sell pretty much anything. The real comparison with the N95 will be after the N97 has been out there for 9-12 months. Is it still selling in big numbers then? If they improve the firmware (as they appear to be with v2 / v20), then perhaps.
Best improvement: sms speed and GPS no more loose fix.
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Originally Posted by Unregistered
Sorry to burst the bubble of the NDF (Nokia Defense Force), but the 3GS initial firmware is pretty much problem free...mind, you this is a device launched more or less at the same time of the n97
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2. It is a development of the 3G which in turn is a development of the original iPhone, so has been refined for far longer than the N97. The Apple strategy is to release a simple product with limited functionality and add to it over a longer period gives the appearance of stability but at the cost of features from the beginning.
iPhone 3GS runs on iPhone OS 3.0, which is an update upon 2.0, and 2.0 upon 1.0
Which was released... in 2007. And was in development for 2 year prior, so the software was crap when you consider the performance/time ratio.
N97 runs on S60 5th Ed, which was released (On Nokia 5800)... in October 2008.
Considering the hardware differences between the 5800 and N97, time allowances HAS to be made, and it's a pretty much well executed job for the time they had.
Symbian is the same: of course the system itself is as far from dead as a newborn baby is from being a serial killer, but still. Dust off the S60 5th Ed. and you'll see the same 3rd Edition that's been running on the N90 already - while at the same time, all the others are racing to come up with the most convenient and/or best looking UI customizations to be unique. Not Nokia, they actually look like they've taken steps backwards. To bury the system is quite early indeed, but with the "developments" that's been going on, it's sure like a signature on the coffin order form. And yes, Symbian might outlive and even outsell all of its competitors in the mid-range market, but survival as a whole is an entirely different thing from top-level innovations, and that's where it's seriously crippled still.
And as for Linux...I can't possibly KNOW per se, but I doubt they've only been working on that one for "a matter of months".
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Originally Posted by Unregistered
Sorry to burst the bubble of the NDF (Nokia Defense Force), but the 3GS initial firmware is pretty much problem free...mind, you this is a device launched more or less at the same time of the n97
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there is not much difference in UI/apps/hardware from the iphone of 2 years ago to the 3gs. Of course it's going to be stable. Yes I own an iphone too.
It's easy to be impressed by a device when you are given one for nothing, but somewhat harder when you have to part with £499 of your hard-earned money.
Let me say this, and say it clearly: the N97 is far more satisfying of a purchase than the N95-1 was. Sure, on a clean boot the N97 doesn't have as much free RAM as, say, the N82. who cares? I can still launch apps when I'm running low on ram with my N97!
The N95-1? try this: clean boot, launch the camera, exit the camera -> now try to open, say, maps. right you can't. reboot, open maps, exit maps -> now try to launch the camera. right, you can't. The N95 was horribly flawed by too little RAM.
The N97? forget how much RAM you see listed, can you reproduce the FLAW? I can't. I simply cannot cause my N97 to fail due to too little ram. so is RAM an issue? no.
C: space? yeah, that's an issue. hardreset and install everything to the E: drive helps a LOT! problem solved? well, at least for now. what else do people have a problem with?
personally i wouldn't have bought an iphone if it were $0.30. it's a useless device to me. i may have purchased an android phone though, or another s60v5. i chose the N97 and i'm glad for it.
People here have problem with facts...Apples does alot of things wrong, but this is not the case. What his being done here in this article is defending that people should expect to have to wait several firmware revisions for their expensive smartphone to finally start performing has promised...i know what that is, i had a P990 and suffered alot
Death of Symbian is one of the dumbest statement a writer can write.
It's really shows how ignorant some writers are and their lack of understanding.
OS don't die; they evolve and get better.
It's like saying Windows Vista is a disaster; Windows is going to be over.
And what do we see? Windows 7 that evolved from Vista.
It's pathetic and a shame that some people who read those article actually believe in it.
Loved the article quite accurate.
One thing to add though that alot of people seem to miss is the fact
that Nokia are no longer a "mobile phone manufacturer"...but now
moving towards becoming a full fledged Internet company.
Symbian is alive and well. Maybe Symbian will no longer power Nokia's top
tier devices, but will power the low to high-mid tier devices for a long time.
In other words, most devices may have smartphone capabilities, but not marketed
as such (music phones) this adding to the overall "bang for the buck" a la 5800.
Remember the smartphone expectations have increased from the day of the
heraled 7650. Symbian was a platform built just for mobiles. Now today
users expect thier devices to do any and everything their PC/Netbook can do.
I think Nokia took the right path in developing Maemo as its OS for their flagship
devices, as reworking Symbian for S60 and S60 5th to add all the bells and whistles
may be alot more work than reworking Maemo (which is already a powerful,opensource OS derived from PC's)....which is Nokia's strategy...the Internet company.
Just my 10 cents worth! lol
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Originally Posted by Unregistered
Sorry to burst the bubble of the NDF (Nokia Defense Force), but the 3GS initial firmware is pretty much problem free...mind, you this is a device launched more or less at the same time of the n97
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I frequently heard comments like "I reset my iPhone once a day to avoid memory problems". Or "Safari just disappeared, but it was no problem to start it again".
You're a Nokia fan site, written from a Nokia perspective. I don't know why you don't just admit it and move on.
Unless you're planning on posting a piece called "The perception of Sony Ericsson", of course. Or reporting on Samsung's Windows netbooks. Or maybe launching a new site called All About TouchWiz.
Thought not.
You like Nokia's products. It's nothing to be ashamed of. Really.
Guys that don't know what they're talking about like this one have too loud a voice online, and people listen and take their words as gospel when he's obviously not as "in the know" as he appears to be.
The N90, one of the greatest Nokia devices ever made, probably the best build quality, and the device that started my mobile addiction, ran S60 2ND Edition, not 3rd, as they suggest. It is various versions behind the N97, and ahead of the N90, which was the last device I've owned that lacked WiFi.
If you don't know the difference between 3rd Edition and 5th, you have much to learn.
I think Nokia is doing a right thing moving to maemo 5
on their flagship phone. If they want to compete on
the market these days they need to integrate their
OS with services they provide i.e. ovi.
Safari crashes and the other problems."
Safari stopped crashing on all iphone models since the 3.0 update. I had a 3G, and now a 3GS. Before 3.0, safari crashed now and then on the 3G. Then it went all away. You can freely check this fact..
"I reset my iPhone once a day to avoid memory problems".
You won“t see any 3GS owner saying that. Ever. Shows apple learned the lesson, and put enough RAM on the device. On the N97, what happened? Did Nokia learn?
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