We should point out that you're all free to discuss pretty much anything Symbian-related, including possible future products as long as you're not too blatant, in the forums. But the leaks that popped up over the weekend in regards to Samsung's and Nokia's announcement plans at the Mobile World Congress are interesting, but not because of what they represent on the product front (more on that during MWC itself).
Looking at Nokia in particular, there have always been leaks as long as we here can remember. What's different about these leaks in particular is the buzz they have managed to generate in the online communities and Web 2.0 sites. For a long time, Nokia could not get any publicity about their launches, especially in North America. Now the major online news and gadget sites in the same continent are scrabbling to be the first with news on the plans of the Finnish company's services, software and handsets.
It's tough to say why this has changed, because there are a great number of factors involved, but let's look at a few of them.
Freedom!
The first is that Nokia are engaging with the online community. As well as All About Symbian, there is a healthy core of Symbian and S60-watching web sites. Some of them are focussed on the more in-depth analysis we prefer here, while others are of the “Ready, Fire, Aim” (sic) style to race for pole position with scoops. The wide spectrum of sites sits on top of an ecosystem that allows some of them to be run as a hobby, some as part time jobs, and some as full time endeavours.
The maturity in the ecosystem has provided the perfect place to incubate sites and viewpoints, and Nokia, with sites such as Nokia Conversations, are actively engaging the community in debate, providing stories and, in many cases, allowing loan hardware for review to be easily available.
There's also the general growth of smartphones as a concept that brings more eyes to the internet searching for information on these devices. More eyes means more popular sites, which means you can spend more time on them as an owner. It's very much a virtuous cycle.
Nokia's move from hardware into software and services has also helped. Rather than buy a single phone, you now buy into a whole platform of services (including the much vaunted Ovi ecosystem). These services are constantly updated, with new features and new services added on an almost weekly basis. That turns Nokia from a bricks and mortar warehouse shipping boxes to a fast moving online company, competing with the big boys in the San Francisco Bay Area. Pitch a story like that and it's easy to write a David and Goliath, the plucky upstart, the new company who doesn't get it.... Nokia's current business goals makes good copy.
Nokia aren't alone in being watched by many commentators for stories on hardware and software. It would be fair to say that there are companies that are more loved than the Finns, but you can't expect everything to fall into place all at once.
A few years ago, Nokia would struggle to get any copy regarding their products, so while it's not going to be especially happy that news is out there earlier than expected, it should be taken as a good sign of a healthy company. Unlike other technology companies, Nokia have a very broad portfolio – they're not concentrated on a single space which they can market effectively, and that means many of their efforts in new verticals go unnoticed. Compare the launch of Google Latitude and its ability to broadcast your location with Nokia's Sports Tracker and its ability to broadcast your location. The former had a bucket of media coverage, while the latter has been running for over a year with little fanfare online.
Google Latitude and Nokia Sports Tracker in Action
It's not all sweetness though. Nokia are not an especially loved company outside a small group of sites. Now that never stopped Microsoft, but people in general want to write about nice things and news that makes the writers and readers feel good about themselves. So Nokia are often cast in a bad light, or as somehow not understanding or reacting to the market – which could well be true in many cases, because perception is everything.
Maybe that's because Nokia is still under-rated in America, where the majority of tech blogs are based? That broader market does mean more handset sales, but of course it can dilute any marketing effort on a single product, because the company is not all about a single handset. Without that clear message about their platform, S60 is put aside in the minds of many when compared to the more direct message of the Apple iPhone or RIM Blackberry devices.
Times have changed – people are talking about Nokia now. And that should be seen as positive by everyone at Nokia. What would be far worse than all the talk over leaked products would be if, after the leaks, nobody talked about them. That really would be a failure.
-- Ewan Spence, Feb 2009.