In this podcast we cover:    

• Q3 Smartphone figures from Canalys
   
• Fujitsu and Quic join the board of the Symbian Foundation
  
  
• SEE 2009 retrospective and media reaction (Rafe rants a bit)
    
• N97 v20 firmware comments and thoughts from Steve
   
  
• Closure on N-Gage - thoughts and comments from Ewan and Steve

SEE 2009 is a heavily developer and platform community focused event. If you're looking for consumer coverage you may prefer the Nokia World 2009 tour videos.

Further SEE 2009 multimedia content is available in our podcasts from the show floor.

I would like to thank the man behind the camera, Ewan MacLeod, for his assistance (filming and editing) in making this video. Ewan's recently launched the Mobile Industry Review newsletter, which is well worth subscribing too.

Part 1 covers around two third of the show floor. In  part 2 of the video, which will be available early next week, we'll cover the remaining part of the show floor and draw some show conclusions.

"Just like the rest of the AAS readership, I've been having my own hardware dilemmas. I'm not blind and I can read the tea leaves, spot the signs in the sky, test the wind of change, and so on. There's an industry wide trend towards large, media-friendly touchscreens, driven by the excitement around the Apple iPhone. Yes, yes, Windows Mobile and Symbian (in the Nokia 7710) had large touchscreens first, by several years, but you can't argue with the fact that Apple popularised the concept and made it practical for the mainstream"

Read on

The video

To be clear, this is a concept video of a future Symbian UI. This is not the UI for Symbian^4 (although big UI changes are currently planned for this release). However, many of the ideas and principles that appear in the video will likely feature in the future implementations of the Symbian platform.

"An artist's concept of the future of the Symbian UI, also shown in Lee Williams' keynote at SEE 2009 on 27 October 2009. This concept is not part of the Symbian UI Roadmap, but we hope some of the cool features and effects will make it into our reference UI and/or delivered handsets."

Notable features

• The hardware has a send, end, home and back keys. A 'soft' toolbar running along the bottom of the screen at all times (replacing the tradition two softkey layout) indicates that the UI is optimised for one-handed usage.
  
  The toolbar changes dependent on the context of the task being carried out (e.g. in navigation mode it switches to 'car', 'walk' and 'transit'. The individual icons contain information, for example, the messaging icon, in the image below, shows that there are three new/unread messages.
  

• Additional commands are accessed via a drop down menu at the top of the screen. The status bar area is also notably smaller than at the present time.
  
  When combined with the bottom toolbar (above), this UI concept would allow for a flatter hierarchy of commands (i.e. no longer has all commands hanging off an Options menu).

• A long press (tap and hold) to bring up a context sensitive pop-up menu for further actions. Additionally, the screen is faded out to show the currently active action more prominently.
  

• A widget based homescreen with slide-in, variable sized, and gesture-to-full-screen support.

• Seamless integration between different application and web services. For example, the mash up of native mapping functionality with Facebook event information.
  

• Kinetic scrolling within a layered window, suggestive of a more advanced graphics framework and a more fluid UX / UI.
  
  These last three items suggest a move away from an application-based paradigm (application launcher / grids) to a task-based paradigm (homescreen).

Features arriving in Symbian^2, Symbian^3 and Symbian^4

Although this is a concept video, many of the features will arrive in upcoming Symbian updates. In the Symbian Developer Forums Scott Weiss, Chair of the Symbian Foundation's UI Council, offers the following commentary:

1. Kinetic scrolling (in Symbian^2)
2. Location-based services (in Symbian^2)
3. Different widget sizes (coming in Symbian^3)
4. Animations and transitions (coming with NGA in Symbian^3)
5. Compass and accelerator integration (coming in Symbian^3)
6. Menu at the top of the screen (inspirational idea)
7. Toolbar at the bottom of the screen, replacing soft keys (inspirational idea)
8. Augmented reality integration (inspirational idea)

The Symbian Foundation is looking for your comments on the UI concept - you can add comments to the YouTube video or post on the Symbian Developer Forums.

Rafe Blandford

Read on

"There have always been large mobile devices, of course. The original Psion Series 5 palmtop, by modern standards, was a huge beast. As were the first few all most generations of Pocket PC. But these were unashamed two handed devices. Either held in two hands and operated with thumbs or by holding in one hand and using a stylus.

Then we had the rise and rise of S60, from about 2004 to about 2008, its classic heyday, with a determinedly one-handed interface, enabling (for the first time) 'smart' operating systems to be used 'on the go', in traditional mobile phone form factors."

Read on

N-Gage

(aka the Next Generation Gaming Platform)
Died aged 6 of neglect and misunderstanding,
October 30th 2009, Helsinki, Finland.

Born October 7 2003, Helsinki, Finland to a proud parent company, Nokia, the N-Gage had a difficult birth as it struggled to overcome physical defects that, while revolutionary in vision, left many people wondering what had happened during the design and testing period of the initial handset – concerns that would be repeated throughout the life of N-Gage.

I've made mistakes and its no disgrace,
the final page that I can't erase
even though I look back on my past,
could have loved you more could have made it last
Time has changed me I hope you'll see,
no one could bring your love to me
The fork in the road looks more like a knife,
when the cards have been dealt and pains in your life
my time has come there ringing the bell,
so long my love, goodbye and farewell.

Lost Love, by T. P. O'Connell

The full obituary can be read here.

The closure of the N-Gage service is a blow to Nokia's service ambitions. However it is also fair to say that N-Gage really pre-dated the Ovi strategy. As a result, in both vision and execution, it did not fit fully fit into the Ovi service portfolio, especially after the launch of Ovi Store earlier this year.

Clearly Nokia will look to push its gaming strategy forward under the Ovi Store umbrella, but it is a long way from both dedicated gaming unit (N-Gage first generation) and a gaming focused platform and community (N-Gage second generation). N-Gage was never able to move beyond a niche community. Its ease of distribution advantages has been overtaken by the rise of App Stores; similarly online service elements are now relatively common. Furthermore the lack of graphic acceleration hardware in recent Nokia S60 phones have left N-Gage games looking lacklustre, in eye-candy terms, when compared to the iPhone and other mobile gaming platforms.

Key points

• Nokia will no longer publish new games via the N-Gage service. Instead games will be made available via the Ovi Store. Nokia term this an 'evolution of their mobile gaming service', but there's no getting away from the fact that represents a failure of the N-Gage service.
   
  
• N-Gage games can be purchased until September 2010. Other parts of the N-Gage service, including N-Gage Arena, will be availale throughout 2010.
   
• The N-Gage application will continue to ship on some older devices. However new devices will not ship with the N-Gage application.
    
  
• All current N-Gage will continue to work. The online (Arena) elements will continue to work throughout 2010. However, subsequently, the online elements of N-Gage games will no longer work.
    
  
• Nokia's future gaming strategy will be based on Ovi Store distribution.
  
  Nokia are 'actively working on offering more community elements through Ovi' and will 'encourage developers to use community features in their applications'. This suggests Nokia will, in the future, offer common community / online elements, perhaps based on N-Gage technology, to developers publishing their games through the Ovi Store.
  

More details and comment shortly.

Further information, including a list of frequently asked questions, is available on the N-Gage blog.

Fujitsu's Symbian phones, running MOAP(S), have been released in the Japanese market on DOCOMO's network. This has 50% marketshare in Japan and 50% of its phones are based on Symbian OS. As such, 1 in 4 phones in Japan run on Symbian, the highest 'smartphone' market penetration anywhere in the world.

"Japan is one of the most advanced mobile markets in the world. Symbian is the platform behind the FOMA MOAP(S) phones on the DOCOMO wireless network in Japan. Fujitsu contributed to the development of MOAP(S), and to date, more than 40 million Symbian-based phones have shipped in the Japanese market. Working with the Symbian Foundation, Fujitsu will address future market requirements and platform advancements that enrich the Symbian mobile user experience."

Fujitsu has the potential to bring an important perspective the the Symbian Foundation's future direction. Fujitsu's recent phones typically take a hybrid approach to user interaction. While they have a numeric keypad and have 5 softkeys (grouped around a directional pad) they are also equipped with touchscreens. This allows the 'best of both worlds' in a hybrid solution (e.g. keys for text entry and one handed use, touchscreen for media consumption and manipulation). Such hybrid solutions are likely to become more prevalent in markets outside Japan in the next few years as the sharp definition between touch and non-touch devices disappears.

Fujitsu joins the existing board members, including operators AT&T, Vodafone and NTT DOCOMO; silicon providers ST Microelectronics NV, Texas Instruments and QuiC (also appointed today); and handset manufacturers Samsung, Sony Ericsson and Nokia on the board of the Symbian Foundation.

F-09A - a recent Fujitsu phone based on the Symbian OS.

From the press release

"We believe Fujitsu will continue to bring a wealth of experience in making consumer focused multimedia handsets with new user experience to the Symbian Foundation drawing on the successes of the innovative firsts Fujitsu has offered on Symbian" said Lee Williams, Executive Director, Symbian Foundation.

"Fujitsu is pleased to join and contribute to the Symbian Foundation as a Board member. With 8 years experience in developing Symbian OS based mobile phones and commercializing cutting-edge mobile phones for NTT DOCOMO, we will further drive activities to develop the foundation and the Symbian platform", said Nobuo Ohtani, President, Mobile Phones Unit, Fujitsu Limited.

Read the full press release here.

QuIC (Qualcomm Innovation Center) joins the existing board members, including operators AT&T, Vodafone and NTT DOCOMO; silicon providers ST Microelectronics NV and Texas Instruments; and handset manufacturers Samsung, Sony Ericsson and Nokia on the board of the Symbian Foundation.

With three companies on its board, the Symbian Foundation has the strongest active support of any mobile platform from silicon vendors, reflecting its continuing position as market leader in market share and technological innovation. In addition to the board members (QuiC, ST Microelectronics and Texas Instruments), the Symbian Foundation counts ARM, Atheros Communications, Broadcom, Marvell, MediaTek, Micron and Mstar semi conductor among its 160+ members.

Qualcomm Innovation Center (QuIC)

On Monday, Qualcomm announced the formation of QuIC, a wholly owned subsidiary company, which will focus on developing and contributing to open source software. The aim is to enable and optimise open source software with Qualcomm technology.

Rob Chandhok, formerly senior vice president of software strategy for CDMA at Qualcomm, has been appointed as the president of QuIC. He will lead a team of engineers dedicated to working on open source initiatives such as 'Linux and Webkit, and on open source operating systems such as Symbian, Android and Chrome'.

Clearly, QuIC is set to become an important contributor to the Symbian Foundation code base.

From the press release

"QuIC joining the Symbian Foundation and the Symbian Foundation board demonstrates our long-term commitment to provide expertise and to optimize technology with the Symbian platform,” said Rob Chandhok, president of QuIC. “High-level operating systems offer the potential to unleash tremendous innovation and we are excited to help advance that process on the Symbian platform. Working as part of the Symbian Foundation, QuIC looks forward to participating in technology innovation in areas such as multi-core CPU support, Web browser and application enhancement, and CDMA and LTE support."

"The Symbian Foundation welcomes QuIC, whose membership and board participation brings us significant wireless technology expertise and whose leadership will act as an important catalyst for the growth of the Symbian ecosystem,” said Lee Williams, executive director of the Symbian Foundation. “On behalf of the Symbian Foundation board, we look forward to collaboratively evolving and rapidly expanding the Symbian open source software platform with QuIC."

Read the full press release here.

Listen here

You'll remember a series I did called 'Camera Nitty Gritty', in which I examined certain aspects of phone camera performance in detail. In particular, 'The Megapixel Myth' postulated that a decent 3 megapixel phone camera could produce results that were comparable, at normal viewing sizes and resolutions, with those from an 8 megapixel camera (for example).

But I did warn at the time that there were many other factors that should be borne in mind: the quality of a photo from a camera phone also depends on the lens size and quality (i.e. the optics), the (physical) size and quality of the CMOS sensor and the quality of the software algorithms that decode the raw data from the sensor into sensibly sized JPGs that you or I can save, view and print. And, arguably, on the cleanliness and condition of the external camera glass.

And so we come to my somewhat anecdotal dilemma for covering the show, which I include here for interest's sake. My original plan was to bring along the trusty Nokia E75, with the benefit of the great QWERTY keyboard. Perfect for snapping new phones and stands and then firing off the images, with descriptions, to the live AAS show feed.

Now, the E75 has a non-branded (i.e. not Carl Zeiss) lens and a 3 megapixel sensor. It's the same hardware as in the E90, has a decent lens size (meaning good-ish performance, even away from bright sunlight) and mature software algorithms (hence the better photos when compared to those from the E90). And, to be honest, for casual use I've been more than happy with the E75's photos, when viewed in isolation.

However, it occurred to me to check the quality of its output against that from the current Nokia imaging flagship, the N86 8MP. I knew, of course, that the N86's photos would be better, but the real question was how much better. After correcting (resampling down) for actual resolution (which is rarely needed at full 8MP), in this case down to 750 pixels wide for viewing on the page on All About Symbian, I was expecting the E75's photos to be in the same ballpark, at least, as those from the N86. As you'll see from the examples below, I was wrong.

My aim was to capture some of the glorious Autumn colours (I love this time of year) in a bit of rare UK sunshine. It's the sort of situation where you're out and about and come across something really picturesque - you want to capture the scene and its colours for posterity and your phone is the device you have with you. Yes, the E75 does an acceptable job of recording the moment and I don't want you to think I'm slamming it - after all, it's a messaging phone first and foremost and having a good camera is just a nice bonus. 

BUT - look at the colour differences between the results from the E75 (first, in each case) and then the N86 (second, obviously):

Far more (naturally) vivid, far more satisfying and far more memorable. Let's take some other examples from my Autumn foray:

...and another:

By this time, I was somewhat in awe of how well the N86's camera was doing, in terms of interpreting the autumn colours and matching what my eyes were seeing. And yes, I've talked before of how one's eyes and perception of colours are always an illusion in the first place, but I'd rate the latter photos as far more accurate - from my own point of view.

In fact, I regretted not taking along one of the Nokia 5 megapixel Carl Zeiss camera phones, such as the N97 or N95, for comparison - my gut feeling is that these would produce results halfway between the example sets above.

The moral of the tale though is that, although the Megapixel Myth is true as far as sheer resolution goes, the use of higher spec lenses and sensors does produce significantly better photos. As one might expect, though I think I've demonstrated above that when the light levels in a scene are very high (e.g. in full sunlight and with high contrast) then the results are dramatically better than you might even guess.

And yes, this short piece is also yet another vote of confidence in the Nokia N86 8MP as a camera phone - it's certainly limited by its QVGA screen and the use of S60 3rd Edition, but if taking high quality photos is your bag then it's still surely got to be on the shortlist.

As for me, heading off for SEE 2009 tomorrow, I've plumped for the N97 for photoblogging duties, with its Carl Zeiss lens getting good enough colours into my photos while also providing the QWERTY keyboard for composing the words.

And what of the N86 itself? As superb as its stills are, its videos are better. The sound and visuals taken when capturing video with the N86 are so good that it's going to be my main video interviewing tool.

Steve Litchfield, All About Symbian, 25 October 2009

Spotify is the current poster child of Web 2.0 in the UK and Europe and, like many before it, the team will struggle to do anything that draws criticism online. For those of you who haven't come across it yet, it is a streaming music service that lets you play any track in their extensive database. In return you might get the occasional advert you have to listen to between tracks. This basic service is free, but Spotify are hoping you upgrade to the premium members account which costs £10 a month. Pay that and you get to download tracks for offline listening, and the ability to use the mobile application versions of the service.

I think it's a given that Spotify will get their £10 a month from a monthly network contract far easier than the conversions from the free service (and it's worth pointing out at this point that the 3 network, where this offer is appearing, is an investor in Spotify). That's important because even with a nice bulk discount on the tracks played, Spotify appears to be paying the record industry on a per track basis – even those tracks streamed through the free accounts.

Nokia have been vocal in chasing music as a driver for their smartphones – the Nokia Music Store has been advertised and promoted for close to two years now, and the unlimited offer of “Comes with Music” has been around for more than a year.

With such a huge first mover advantage, a significant war chest and existing devices in thee market, Nokia should have captured the pole position, and driven off with the market like Jensen Button. Instead they have all the hallmarks of his team-mate Rubens Barrichello – the best car on the grid, failing to capitalise on it, and looking around for reasons not to be at the very front.

Actually, they did launch a revolutionary service – Rafe and I were in the audience when CwM was announced. Hidden away in the middle of a keynote, surrounded by other announcements and business indicators. It was almost like Nokia were ashamed to be doing something different. And as the buzz on the service started to build up, Nokia ducked a lot of questions in the early days, preventing people trying to work out the mechanics and the financials of the service, and generally acted like they had something to hide.

Is it any wonder that we just assumed that they were hiding something? That sort of thinking is going to colour a lot of opinion from writers, and then you have a delightful feedback loop.

And speaking of feedback loops, Spotify has a really good one. They have the buzz of something that feels right and should work – something that Comes with Music has never managed to cultivate. Whereas the default thought on Comes with Music seems to be to assume there's something not quite right, Spotify has that turned around 100%. They get the benefit of the doubt, time to expand and grow. This most recent move, to extend their mobile strategy by partnering with an operator (still the holy grail for services and apps), gives them more guaranteed revenue, more great press, and more legitimacy in the shark-pool of music... all by appearing on a single handset on the UK's smallest network.

Spotify, it seems, are playing all the notes, but, unlike Nokia, they're playing them in the right order. Or maybe it's the way the audience is responding?

-- Ewan Spence, Oct 2009.

In this podcast we cover:    

• Steve updates us on his N97 camera and GPS experience
   
• Discussion of Nokia Q3 results
  
  
• Ovi Suite 2.0 - what does Steve think?
    
• N900 versus N97 - initial discussion from Rafe
   
  
• A quick trailer for the All About Maemo Podcast

Olli-Pekka Kallasuvo, Nokia CEO, said:

"The demand for mobile devices improved in many markets during Q3. With the average selling price of our devices holding firm quarter-on-quarter, our higher device volumes translated into increased net sales in our Devices & Services business. Our volumes and net sales were, however, somewhat constrained by component shortages we encountered across the portfolio. I also want to highlight the good operating expense management that helped the segment deliver solid earnings.

The challenging competitive factors and market conditions in the infrastructure and related services business necessitated non-cash impairment charges at Nokia Siemens Networks. We continue to support Nokia Siemens Networks actions to improve its performance."

Points of interest

• Net profits were EUR -426 million, primarily due to a write down in the value of Nokia Siemens Network (EUR -1,107 million). Profits from the devices and services division were EUR 785 million, down from EUR 1,469 million last year, but up from EUR 763 million last quarter. The Navteq division also "improved", with a loss of EUR -68 million compared to EUR -80 million last year and EUR -100 million last quarter.
   
  
• Nokia mobile device volumes were 108.5 million units, down 8% year on year but up 5% sequentially. This is set against estimated industry volumes of of 288 million units, down 7% year on year and up 7% sequentially. Nokia's overall market share was 38%, the same as Q3 2008 and the same as Q2 2009. Year on year market share was higher in Europe, Middle East and Africa, but lower in Greater-China, Asia Pacific and North America. Nokia noted that its devices sales were somewhat constrained by component shortages, which are expected to continue to some degree into Q4.
  
  Net sales in the devices and service divsion were EUR 8,605 million, down 20% year on year, but up 5% sequentially. Operating profit in the division was EUR 785 million, down 50% year on year and up 3% sequentially. The year on year changes are largely the result of the economic climate, together with downward pressure on ASP.
   
• Services and software net sales were EUR 148 million, representing 29% year on year growth and 6% sequential growth.
    
• Converged device shipments (smartphones) were 16.4 million, of which 4.5 million were Nseries and 4.6 million were Eseries (mainly E71 and E75). This reflects continued poor sales for the Nseries, but relatively healthy Eseries sales ahead of the E52, E55 and E72 mass market availability. Nokia continues to face fierce competition in the high end consumer market from Apple, HTC and Palm.
  
  This means that 7.5 million smartphone shipments were numbered Nokia S60 devices, reflecting Nokia's continued strategy of pushing 'converged' devices into the mid tier (e.g. the 5800 XpressMusic).
  
  Converged devices sales were, perhaps, a little lower than expected, reflecting the continuing fierce competitive environment. The Q4 results will be watched with interest as many of Nokia's more recent device announcements start hitting the market.
  
  

  

  Nokia converged device results over time
  
      
  
• Nokia's estimated industry converged mobile device volumes (smartphones) were 47.0 million, compared to 44.2 million in Q3 2008 and 41 million in Q2 2009. Therefore, Nokia's share of the converged device market was estimated at 35% in Q3 2009, the same as Q3 2008, but down from 41% in Q2 2009.
      
  

• Nokia Mobile Device Volume by Geographic Area:

  (million units)	Q3/2009	Q3/2008	YoY Change	Q1/2009	QoQ Change
  Europe	27.1	27.4	-1.1%	23.3	16.3%
  Middle East & Africa	19.6	21.5	-8.8%	18.9	3.7%
  Greater China	18.5	19.8	-6.6%	18.6	-0.5%
  Asia-Pacific	30.5	33.6	-9.2%	30.3	0.7%
  North America	3.1	4.5	-31.1%	3.2	-3.1%
  Latin America	9.7	11.0	-11.8%	8.9	9.0%
  Total	108.5	117.8	-15.4%	93.2	10.7%

• The average device selling price was EUR 62, the same as the previous quarter. The average device selling price for converged devices was EUR 190, up from EUR 182 in the previous quarter.
   

Notes from the conference call

• Q3 was a ,"solid quarter for Nokia Devices and Services business despite component shortages". Components shortages (e.g. camera modules) impacted the smartphone part of the business more than the rest of the portfolio . The component shortage also impacted other industry player.
   
  
• The formation of the Solutions unit is an important structural change that improves Nokia's ability to execute and innovate.
   
• Nokia shipped 1.8 million N97 devices, and 5.7 million touchscreen device £5% more than Q2 2009). Four further touch devices to start shipping in Q4: N97 Mini, X6, N900 and 5230 - something for everybody and there are more to come.
   
  
• The sales decline in converged devices was mainly due to older devices, the newer devices performed well in sales.
    
  
• Eseries devices sales were 4.4 million, the decline was primarily due to slightly slower E71 sales, but the E72 (the E71's replacement) starts shipping in Q4.
   
  
• Ovi Mail has reached 2 million users (the growth, from one million users to two million users, took place in half of the time it took to reach one million users), Nokia Messaging now has 35 operator partners (doubled in 3 months).
   
  
• EUR 908 million of Nokia Siemens Network good-will write down, no further good-will on the books.
   
  
• In general remarks, while answering a question on whether Nokia would do an Android handset (no, obviously): Symbian will be extremely competitive due to its openness, innovation enablement and telecoms legacy, although there is much to be done ('user experience needs to improve')... in general on Symbian, 'there's so much we have in the pipeline'.
   

See also

Nokia Results

Earlier results: Q2 2009, Q1 2009, Q4 2008, Q3 2008, and Q2 2008