Nokia fans enhancing and connecting OPK!

Great to hear. Just an additional point, but important nonetheless. Can you please let Nokia know that amongst those who have experienced their phones with Xenon camera flashes, those Xenon flashes are sorely missed in later models, and Nokia are quite frankly nuts if they continue to use solely LED flashes and don’t offer any new models with Xenon flashes. This is the general consensus that I’ve noticed over time from many different fans, over many different sites, despite what LED advocates might say. There are many people out there that don’t want to be lumbered lugging around a separate camera and are sticking rigidly with their clunky but beloved N82s (or 6220 Classics) until Nokia resolve this, and admit (at least in 1 or 2 models) that Xenon far surpasses LED for any low light or moving photography.

Thanks
Alex

“So, we’re friends. But sometimes friends have to say things to one another that hurt. It’s because we care.”

Is without doubt, *the* single most important part of your well-constructed, well-articulated open letter.

Nokia is in the most unique of positions, not just in the telcos space but in the brand space overall. It has such a huge army of fans, devotees and advocates spread all across the globe – all of whom care so deeply and so passionately for their favourite Finnish phone manufacturer and challenge anybody to try and match or name any other company that can boast such a thing.

The fans *CARE*, they want to help. It’s amazing to watch and inspiring to be a part of. You might know me from the The Really Mobile Project, but for my day job I work with Mike Davison at 1000heads doing what we can to let you guys know that Nokia reciprocate that feeling. They *do* love you.

It’s clear by seeing Mark’s name far up above mine on this comments list that this post is being read and re-read by those that care. So even though sometimes it might feel like you’re not being heard, trust me – you are.

Keep up the good work,

James.

As I purchased the NAM N97 Mini varient with 850/1900 3G bands, I suppose the logical question is, being with AT&T now, why would I not buy an iPhone? I suppose some of it is my anti-Apple fanboy nature. I’m just not a fan-o-fruit. But there are a few less emotional, and more logical, reasons.

-Physical keyboard. Not that the N97′s is as good as the TP2′s (it’s not), but it’s really quite nice.

-Design. I know everyone lauds Apple for it’s design, but (and this is a big one for me) I just don’t find Apple products attractive. They all look very similar and are, in this fool’s opinion, bland, boring, and featureless. But then, I suppose this is just a question of whether or not a person happens to subscribe to the ideals of the minimalist design aesthetic which Apple has embraced with open arms. I also am a bit annoyed by Apple’s crusade against buttons.

-No ecosystem “lock-in”. Judging by your N97 Mini article, I would assume you’re a fan of the way Apple ties all their services and applications in together, which seems to be the public’s consensus too… but personally I just don’t like iTunes. It runs terribly on Windows machines, for one thing. And it’s just BIG. Also QuickTime is awful. Though many extol the virtues of syncing, there are many (including myself) who would prefer simple drag-and-drop functionality.

-There’s another more vague point, as well. Apple, in the pursuit of user experience, wants things done a certain way, and only that certain way, when it comes to iPhone. Some people laud this strict control as keeping the experience smooth and pure, while some people decry the lack of customizability. Neither camp is inherently wrong, I think… I simply happen to fall in the latter.

Just a few of my random musings (many of which would likely be better suited to comments under the N97 Mini post, hmmm…), take it as you will.

None of this, however, means I believe my N97 Mini is perfect. Of course not. My previous post mentioned but a few of the oddities. Email is of course a big one. My TP2 was incredible with email. The N97 Mini (and thus S60/Nokia devices in general) is only “acceptable” when it comes to email. Not good. Not great. Not incredible. Just acceptable. Another thing is that every single app seems to ask “allow to access network?/internet?/data?” or something similar when it’s opened. Why is there not an option to set the default answer to “yes” so it doesn’t ask you each time? Why does it even ask at all? Nothing even remotely similar on my TP2. Open app, BAM, it’s connected, doesn’t need me to micromanage things.

I think it is fair to say that the N97 mini is one of the very best resistive screens we’ve tested – and you’re right that the combination of hardware and software make it a much nicer experience than many Windows Mobile devices. Having said that, even the very best resistive screen can’t compete with a capacitive one in my view. It’s superior technology – plain and simple.

I completely agree with you about the mail widget. It’s something you see time and again in Nokia’s software: very poor use of screen real-estate. Nokia Messaging is another example: the header of each mail is so badly laid out that it takes up most of the screen. Crazy.

Finally, you’re right about the hinge mechanism on the N97 mini. It really is superb.

I have to say, one point I don’t see as completely necessary is the move away from resistive. On WinMo, with the TP2, I likely would have agreed with you. But my N97 Mini’s screen is far more responsive (and the UI, though still including small clickable elements, somehow seems more “intelligent” as far as knowing what I truly want to click) than my TP2 could ever hope to be, yet both are resistive. I’m sure a big part of this desire to hold onto resistive screens is due to the asia-pacific market, where handwriting recognition is essential… but just a guess.

One thing that IS very important is out-of-the-box hardware quality. While my N97 Mini feels VERY nice in the hand (a far better feeling of quality than my TP2 offered), there are a few issues. Especially near the Menu key, the screen kind of, errm… “creaks” when you press it, for lack of a better word. It still works just fine, but the sound is not a sound of quality. Likewise, the backlight for the send/end keys leaks from the side of the screen. Not usually apparent while looking straight on, but if you’re even slightly to the side, or watching a movie trailer, it’s just enough to (once more) grate on my ADDness.

Another nice bit would be to have the Mail widget a bit more customizable. Say, if I could sacrafice the “time” column to see a longer segment of the sender or message title, that would be absolutely brilliant.

One last note. If ever slider/flip/whatever worked with the same rock-solid feel as the N97′s, the world would be a better place. Sometimes I just open and close the screen just because it feels so satisfying to do so.

Thanks for stopping by, I hope we’ll see your Long Island perspective on these pages more often from now on!

I might be kidding myself but I can’t help thinking that we’re very close to seeing an E90 successor from Nokia. Mobile World Congress 2010 opens its doors in Barcelona on Monday and I’ve got my chubby little fingers crossed that we’re going to hear something impressive from our favourite Finnish phone conglomerate…

New reader here, all the way from the Long Island suburbs of New York City.

Anyway, I really enjoyed your piece, as a former Nokia owner. Regarding the E90: I love the design, but unfortunately we never received a 3G compliant version over here in the U.S. Too bad.

Verizon Wireless offers a couple of LG phones have taken up, and I think, perfected that clamshell-with-full-qwerty-on-the-inside form factor in their Env (yes, that’s how LG spells it in their attempt to be ‘hip’) and Voyager lines.

If Nokia released, say, an E76 with that LG Voyager/Env clamshell form factor (capacitive touchscreen exterior and a screen with full 4 row qwerty and D-pad interior) I’d jump on that faster than you could blurt out ‘Nokia’.

I’m a fellow E90 fan too. Great device. Truly special. But recently, as you say, Nokia seems to have lost track of what makes a good user experience. It just hasn’t kept up.

I – like you – am waiting and hoping for them to deliver something that makes me want to switch back.

Like you, I’ve been a fan since the N6xxx days and have owned multiple devices – last of which was the E90 before I fell for the iPhone. Key to my switch was for a better user experience. Oddly, this was the reason Nokia phones became a hit in the first place.

I think Nokia’s desire to work within their existing development framework lead to its current woes. Dont get me wrong, I appreciate open standards – manufacturing cost savings and encouraging a developer community are just some of its advantages. But being too constraint to work within them and one might lose sight of the user/customer.

Maemo has potential. I hope they gives this team the freedom and budget it needs to create a truly innovative flagship model. One that again showcases Nokia’s might in designing a great user experience that just works. Hopefully, they wont come up with a device that needs to support use cases that dont really exist anymore.

I cant wait to switch back…

I had to look up the word “histronics” in my English dictionary.

Couldn’t find it.

Is it a peculiarly American thing? Like bacon with pancakes and maple syrup on the same plate? I like that.

More seriously, dear boy, we can argue the relative merits of Nokia devices and Apple devices all day long. There are sound arguments on both sides. But if you really think that the iPhone is “a fad” on a par with the Razr, then you’re simply deluded.

Big deal! We have been here before. The Razr swept all before it and was all the rage then what ?. Nokia builds for the longterm. The iPhone to me is yet another fad that will melt away once smartphones become cheaper and more pervasive. This letter thing is much ado about nothing really. Leave such histronics to the American bloggers mate. Your letter belongs to Nokia ceo’s bin.

I think your primary issue is around the “previous 3 days of email” setting, and your sentiments about it have been echoed by other users. We are actively working on improving this across the board (for example, on Nokia Messaging for S40 the user clicks through their inbox 15 messages per page and can go back as far as they’d like). We are working on similar improvements for S60 as well.

Check out http://messaging.nokia.com for updates around this, or follow me on twitter @nokiamessaging
-Davis Fields

You highlighted 10 key areas that will surely lead to better results for Nokia. Of course there’s more – one that comes to mind is producing ‘local’ market products that network operators feel a part of (read: co-design) and will enable their content and optimize their businesses better. Needs to be a win-win with carriers and tech/ content partners and most importantly drive value and new key capabilities (no, not apps) for end users. (hello world: where are my mobile payments!) Think partnerships – not fuzzy marketing ones, but real kimono-shedding love fests. It’s not about who knows the mobile audience better (that’s so last decade). It’s about how the best mobile experiences that fuel an ecosystem of partners can be designed and delivered to market – quickly.

You did however forget one other important item in your write-up: a mention to consult one very innovative green amphibian to help make all these ideas real. But, don’t worry, I’ll personally add that into the right suggestion box for you.

Keep up the good work guys!

Now, to be fair, you sent me your email on Twitter once – not several times – and I responded straightaway to say that I’d be delighted to discuss my criticisms about Nokia Messaging with you. I will do so in the next few days as soon as I get a few minutes to sit down and write something that is genuinely valuable criticism to you and not merely thoughtless whining.

In the meantime, I would just say this: have you really tried an iPhone 3GS? Have you used its email client? Have you lined it up next to the best that S60 has to offer and compared the two? Without going into the details (which I’ll happily do via email when we both have more time and space) if you have done so, you can’t honestly claim that it’s even close to the same ball park as the iPhone at the moment. What Nokia Messaging lacks is speed, accuracy and just plain ease of use. Today, it’s eons away from the Apple email client.

The fact that you’re trying to distinguish between “power users” who supposedly get “tons of emails” and “typical users” shows how out of touch you and Nokia are when it comes to your customer base. Here’s a quick reality check for you: I have six – that’s right just six – emails in my Inbox right now. Two came in yesterday, two are old emails of a personal nature that I like to keep within easy access to read occasionally on the go, and two relate to an upcoming trip. The last two are confirmation of travel arrangements that I received three weeks ago for a trip I am going on next week. So, guess what? Those two important travel emails will be inaccessible to me come the day that I am going on my trip. How am I supposed to get my reference numbers, departures details etc!? Crazy. The whole point of having a smartphone is so that you have easy access to the things that matter to you – email, diary, contacts – in a convenient, easy-access device in your pocket. Of course, I could cut and paste them into a note or diary entry but why should I have to? I should be able just to take my Inbox – my whole Inbox – with me wherever I go. That’s what I can do on most all other ‘smartphones’.

So, please don’t try to claim that only “power users” need access to emails older than three days! We all do. And no one apart from geeks care about how it’s done – or why it’s not done! Apple understands that; it’s about time Nokia takes it on board too.

Anyway, I’ll be dropping you an email in the next week or so with more detailed notes on Nokia Messaging.

Davis, I hope you don’t think I’m trying to be negative just for the sake of it. On the contrary, we really love Nokia here at The Prodigal Guide, and if we’re critical it’s because we want you guys to to better. We know you can.

Again, thanks for taking the time to chip in to the conversation.

I’m Davis Fields, I’m one of the product managers on Nokia Messaging. To the author – we’ve had a few brief back-and-forths on Twitter and I offered you my email address several times to have a conversation longer than 140 characters at a time, but you have so far not responded to my request.

To your criticism – Nokia Messaging for Email on S60 currently delivers the previous three days of email for up to ten mailboxes. We are looking into ways to deliver more old email – but, considering Nokia Messaging gives you real-time push access to your email, we have built our offering around keeping you up to date with your current emails, not to browse through emails more than four days old on your phone.

I am like you – I am a power user who gets a ton of emails, has many IMAP subfolders and switches devices constantly. You and I are not typical users. We are building a service that is easy to setup and easy to use. Our primary concern is making the product work for users all over the world – after that we can refine the advanced stuff.

To be honest, I haven’t heard complaints like yours regarding our HTML support. We read all the blogs, forums and follow up on requests coming in through our support channels. Happy to talk about what isn’t working the way you’d like. I think we do a pretty nice job with our HTML handling.

I will agree with you that we could handle IMAP subfolders much better. We’re working on dramatic improvements on this for future releases.

We launched the first beta of Nokia Messaging in August 2008. We have come a seriously long way since then, adding support for IMAP subfolders, HTML, significant client UI improvements and added support for Instant Messaging and Social Networks. We are not done. We have plenty of room to grow in improve and user feedback is a huge component in enabling Nokia to do so.

Hope to work with you in the future to help improve our products and services,
-Davis Fields
Nokia Messaging

What they will not forgive and forget is a one-time market leader churning out crap with fundamental, school boy errors.

Don’t rush the process. Stop… take a deep breath… and think.

I was a loyal Nokia buyer since my first (original) 2160…. no longer…. and it really pains me to say it.

Thanks for your feedback.

Your point about market share claims really revolves around what you define as a smartphone. I think that the recent PR war between Apple and Nokia about what constitutes a ‘mobile device’ for the purpose of claiming that you’re the world’s biggest mobile devices company reminds us all that there are “lies, damned lies and then statistics.” The point is, the numbers can be spun any which way to prove any which point. What matters for this post is that Nokia will eventually lose sales if it doesn’t address the many problems with its phones and their after-sales service of them. If we can agree on that, then I think that’s the important bit. (Incidentally though, the post was written and posted before Nokia announced the earnings figures you link to. The Bloomberg story we linked to is pretty authoritative too – albeit older.)

As for your remarks about our ‘penny pinching’ point, let me be clear: yes, as the title of the post says, we are talking about the high-end part of the market here, the premium market. Your points about the developing world are sound but, simply put, that’s not what we write about on this blog – we’re all about the luxury baby! More seriously, we’re talking about the high-end market not just anything that might be called smartphone.

And you were saying…?

The second point to pick up on is point 3 “Put an end to penny pinching”. Yes if you’re talking purely about Nokia’s highest end smartphones, you may have a valid point though I haven’t confirmed spec for spec vs. iPhone (etc). But then I could pick up on iPhone’s rubbish camera compared to Nokia’s generally Carl Zeiss ones which are acknowledged as the best around, or the iPhone’s GPS which really is pretty inferior (hence the necessity for the hardware add on for iPhone TomTom). But outside the high end, your suggestion is just plain wrong.

If we can get smartphones into the hands of those in the developing world we can give them the true personal computing they currently lack, not to mention poorer people the world over. Nokia is the only handset maker pushing down into the low end smartphone sector, high end featurephone sector. Also the Symbian Foundation has as a stated aim to push smartphones cheaper and cheaper. Nokia rules in the low end smartphone sector and in the developing world. Most mobile market growth is now in the developing world. This will be a perfect storm of success for Nokia and Symbian. Most commentators have yet to spot this, obsessed as they are with shiny iPhones etc.

So penny pinching is essential, and highly welcomed. Mobiles do not just exist to help rich spoilt developed world consumers enjoy yet another different form of entertainment. They can also exist to help much greater numbers of the poor have real computing power in their hands, in a way that laptops etc never ever will.

Other than, you make some fair points, lets hope Nokia read them.

Alex Kerr
phonething.com

I think the whole multi-tasking thing is a bit of a red herring actually. The fact is that I can multi-task better on my iPhone 3GS than on my N86 because it is so fast. Closing one app and opening another is just as fast – if not faster – than holding the menu button down on the N86 then switching apps. (I know, I know, I can’t listen to Mobbler in the background. You know what? That’s fine. I don’t need to.)

As for your dusty E71, I feel your pain. I absolutely loved my E71, one of the best phones I’ve ever owned but mine suffered dust as well. Drives me insane on a 300-400 pound smartphone. Simply shouldn’t happen…

I saw ardent iPhone types recently drawl and fess up that the N9o0 was better than an iPhone.

I have nothing to comment about software except to say that it must integrate better, you know maps from post codes in the calendar, phone number links that actually work and above all must be consistent.

And then there is Ovi – oh me, oh my I hope that Ovi 2 is the real deal.

And finally – less is more. Less better devices that is for better value, less software upgrades that are buggy and so don’t skimp on the memory

And finally – where can I get the dust out of my E71 screen

That’s what Apple do and it works very well for them.

With Nokia, you’re lucky if you even get bug fixes after you’ve bought the phone, let alone functional enhancements.

I’m really with you on Nokia Messaging. It’s a disgrace. Especially when you consider how ubiquitous email clients now are. How can it be this difficult / complicated to build a decent email client!?

The reason to stay is that I think that there is no other OS out there that can do what Symbian (no S60 as UI, Symbian as OS), the experience with my lastest phones was a mix, N95 was a completely breaktrough, one year ahead of its time, the N96 was no closer…

Again E71 was my everyday partner during a year, E72 was completely forgettable (use it only a month). With the mini I am mostly happy, best of N95 + best of E71 + a bigger touchscreen.

So about your points:

2) IMO, every single member of the Nokia Messaging team must be fired right now, tomorrow as late, don´t waste my time a single day more with it, if I want a good email experience with an operator subscription model surely I will choose a Blackberry product, not a Nokia one. If you need to use more than a SIM (for travel in my case) and have more than two email accounts you will end crazy dealing with this crap, also Nokia Messaging support is completely absent. (this and how better is Roadsync compared to Mail for Exchange is why I trashed the E72, at least the mini has the choice to use the old and ugly (but reliable) in built email client)

6) Agree, again at least the world wide Services and Support Manager must be seeking for a job tomorrow, they are horrible across the globe.

9) Again agree, we are they guinea pigs, is incredible that they still are selling the N97, what they did with original N97 customers is a scam, there is no other word.
Also, could anybody tell me why Symbian is the only OS that is not upgradeable, iPhone, Android, WinMo, WebOS, every single OS out there is, why not Symbian? Don´t tell me that an E71 could not run FP2, only explanation is that they want our money. They don´t understand that if I could upgrade my E71 to FP2 I would buy the mini anyway.

So, closing, I still think that Symbian (not S60) is the best mobile solution out there, but if Nokia don´t seriously review the management model they will not be able to compete in the Smartphone/High End market anymore. But sadly they are still selling a lot of crappy phones in Africa/Asia/South America, so they need to choose were to focus, but they need also to stop fooling the customers that paid more for their products and treat us according the money we put on them, if not I really hope that the iPhone 4 get real multitasking out off the box and Farewell Nokia.

Nokia can do it, should do it, must do it. Oh, and I’m married to a Finn…:)

“Yeah, honey! Told em Nokia was A-OK…”

There’s no reason why Symbian should be dropped. Don’t confuse the UI with the underlying OS.

It needs to be easier for developers to get started. It strikes me that just setting up a Qt development environment even before you’ve written a single line of code is already quite complex. Good apps can make or break a platform. When people show me their iPhones they show me their favourite apps not the OS. Until it’s as easy to develop a Qt app as an iPhone app there won’t be progress. And I don’t rate WRT as an alternative, native apps are clearly supperior, WRT just brings the platform down to the level of a glorified browser. Gravity, the benchmark for Symbian apps IMHO, is not WRT.

Don’t forget eye candy, it does sell the iPhone. It must do otherwise why would anyone buy a phone that can’t multitask or do the other things we take for granted on Symbian.

Samsung is very aggressively targeting India and they seem to be making headway…

Blackberry has become aggressive…

Dual SIM phones are bringing in huge volumes.

I think Nokia has some good products and I still prefer a Nokia, but there was a time when I would shudder to think of anything but a Nokia. Today, that is not the case.

Somehow I’m not as interested about a Nokia as I once was…
I’ve said it so many times also… Nokia really needs to get a solid product portfolio. no bugs, no goof ups, no nothing.

It’s time to wake up and act.

Yes, indeed that was the point I was making about our N86. Weeks after the latest firmware was available to some product codes, we’re still waiting for our N86 to offer to update OTA.

What Nokia doesn’t seem to realise is that this is hugely frustrating for its loyal early adopters. It would be bad enough if we were left waiting for a firmware that just delivered new features but more often than not it’s a firmware to fix real bugs we’re waiting for.

Welcome to The Prodigal Guide – great to see you on our pages for the first time. Hope you’ll come back more often.

I think your point about the huge legacy of ‘to-dos’is a good one.

I wonder what other users think? Given limited resources, would you prefer Nokia focus on fixing the mistakes they’re already made (i.e., new firmware for buggy phones already released) or put all their energies into ensuring that every single model that comes out of Espoo from now on is a killer device.

Me? It feels odd to say it but I think the latter. I’d be happy to draw a line under past devices if I thought that all future devices were going to impress me the way they used to.

Thanks for taking the time to read our letter and to respond. It’s good to hear that Nokia is listening.

Just to clarify the comment about firmware on our N86: I wasn’t suggesting that other bloggers get access to software preferentially; I was referring to the general availability of firmware updates. (I beleive this is determined by region but there doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to it.) All I know is that weeks after All About Symbian reported that a new firmware was available for the N86, our N86 is still reporting that no update is available in the Over The Air update app. Since the current firmware is littered with bugs (e.g., transition from portrait to landscape mode taking forever when theme effects are enabled, Nokia Conversation not working, Speed Dial failing to launch, etc., you can imageine that I’m eager to get my hands on the new firmware.

Of course, listening and acting are two different things…