So on the way over to Euston Station I stopped off at Goodge Street and walked down Tottenham Court road to find a suitable a new tripod.

As I walked, I came across an o2 store. They’re obviously ten-a-penny in London but this one looked rather big.

But there was more.

My attention was caught my the sign on the window, pointing downstairs, that said, “The latest perk or a quiet place to work?”

Interesting.

I read on.

“A space to relax or advice about apps?”

I saw another big sign indicating that the “Workshop” was downstairs in the basement (the ground floor of the shop is a standard o2 shop).

A place to work, I thought? Like a hot desk? I looked down into the basement from outside the shop and so a few folk working at funky looking desks. I saw people milling about with what looked like cappuccinos.

Laden with a ton of film equipment baggage (including the new tripod) I popped into the store later on. I had a look about the normal shop and admired the BlackBerry 9900 (free on £37/month for 24 months by the way). A chap called Karl asked me if I needed any help.

“Actually,” I said, “What’s the workshop all about?”

I was expecting a mumbled 5-word explanation given the fact I wasn’t actually aiming to buy a contract there-and-then. You know what most sales executives are like.

Turns out Karl was rather well informed.

“Why don’t you pop down and have a look around?” he asked.

I nodded and we walked downstairs. I have to say I was impressed. Karl pointed out the hotdesk-ish area with helpful powerpoints and free WiFi. Knowing o2, I trust it’ll be super-fast.

I saw some tea/coffee making facilities.

I saw more folk working away on MacBooks (I should hope so).

I saw a genius bar (a la Apple). If you’ve any questions whatsoever, you can rock up there and one of the o2 Gurus will sort you out.

I saw private pods to the back of the store — most of them in use. Karl explained that this is where you can go to discuss your requirements. So if you’re looking for a contract (and, you know, to do some proper business with o2), you don’t have to stand in the busy consumer store discussing stuff. You can sit down and take your time about it. I watched as one lady animatedly pointed back and forth to a screen within her pod, whilst the sales chap nodded away. I bet they’re doing a lot of business this way. I felt like changing my primary deal away from Vodafone to o2. 60 seconds and I was already nodding away with delight.

“And this is our training room area,” said Karl, motioning toward a glass meeting area, filled with chairs, tables and screens. Companies are being encouraged to hold workshops there — very similar to the Apple mini lecture theatres you might have seen in some of their bigger stores.

Indeed there was a lot of ‘Apple’ going on around the place — white walls, clean lines, nice decor. This is no bad thing. It didn’t look like a copy of an Apple Store. It looked better, I thought.

I wasn’t too clear on whether I could just drop in and start working though. Clearly it was possible. But I think the intent behind the hotdesks is that you might get stuck into some work whilst you’re waiting to see a Guru, or a sales assistant. I don’t think they’re designed for you to arrive at 9am and leave at 5pm. You can apparently book meeting rooms though. And that’s rather interesting.

Indeed the whole thing is flipping exciting.

I don’t know the whole story yet. All I’ve got is a bit of an intro from Karl — 2 minutes worth of ‘oh, nice’ — and a story I found via Mobile News. I didn’t want to impose on Karl or the team there unannounced. I’ll need to do some more research.

What I find exciting is that this is true innovation. It’s proof of the operator recognising that the basic stuff — calls, texts — it’s all commodity. What have you done for me lately? What do you offer me beyond the commodity? What’s the *difference*? Where are the real benefits — and I’m not talking about getting priority access to some music gig. I can already afford the best possible tickets.

I like the idea of being able to ‘touch down’ for 30 minutes at my local o2 store. And while I’m there, get someone to sort out an upgrade. And have a diet coke. Frankly, o2 can afford it. Especially if they’d like to continue getting cash out of me. I’d happily do a deal whereby I paid £29 a month to be able to ‘touch down’ at the local o2 store, check my mail, grab a coke, charge my phone, take a conference call in a bit of privacy (provided I booked ahead with the o2 store app). Or I’d be happy to move to a new price plan that ‘included’ this.

I’ll do some more investigation into the workshop element of the store in due course. The Mobile News site has a good bit of background.

By the way: You can find the workshop photo set here via o2′s official Flickr account.

I’ve long admired how they do things at their Regent Street store — indeed, it was always a contrast to the always-empty Nokia store placed directly opposite it. Turns out Apple are doing well with their retail monetisation strategy. The Telegraph explains that it’s the most profitable shop in the UK taking £60m/year in revenue — which equates to £2,000 per square foot. No surprise. I reckon I’ve spent about £10k there over the last 3 years myself.

I do enjoy the fact that Apple’s retail policy is injected with reality. Yes it’s expensive. But if there’s a problem, they’re quick and smart about sorting it. Case in point: I bought a MacBook Pro laptop there a while ago for my wife. Got home with it, started it up — and nothing. For some strange reason, nothing happened. I cabbed it back down to the store, took it along (without the packaging) and the manager there opened up another box and gave me a new one, immediately. No question. No thinking. No waiting-for-the-area-manager-to-speak-to-somebody. The chap wisely knew that my experience (i.e. paying shitloads for the laptop) was completely screwed by the device not working when I got home. The last thing I wanted was to dick around with returns. I walked out happy. The issue was fixed in-store in about 60 seconds. This was on a busy Saturday afternoon too.

At PC World, you and I both know there would have been hand-wringing galore for hours and I’d have needed to take a knife to the throat of some poor Saturday know-nothing sales chap before anyone would have phoned head office to get permission to even start thinking about helping with a replacement.

Good news Apple.

Last week I sat down for 20 minutes and created an Ovi Store application for Mobile Industry Review. It allows you to browse the MIR feed and the Mobile Developer TV youtube feed.

I did this using the all new Ovi App Wizard which is simply fantastic. It takes a series of RSS feeds that you supply, along with a logo and a few colours and — boom — creates a stand-alone Symbian mobile application. For free.

The wizard is an excellent piece of engineering.

In practice, you can actually have a rough application created in the App Wizard in about 20-30 seconds. However I flipped open Fireworks and got a bit creative with the logos to make sure I was entirely happy. I decided to make the application free — but I could have just as easily told Nokia to charge for it!

Once I’d created the app in the wizard, I then pressed ‘publish to Ovi’. And boom. Job done. A few days later I got a notification to say that my Ovi Publish account was active and that my first application was approved and live.

Get in!

I’ve already had 22 page views and 5 users!

(It only went live this morning)

So if you have a Nokia handset nearby, check out the app and see what you think. Here’s the direct url: http://store.ovi.com/content/36457

If you’d like to mobilise your content into the Ovi Store with the App Wizard, it’s literally a piece-of-simplicity. And free. Here’s that url: http://www.oviappwizard.com/

Excellent work, Nokia!

Tomorrow I’m giving a talk at TechCrunch Europe’s GeeknRolla event on the subject of getting big fast in mobile. One of the companies I’ll be looking at is Nokia. I most definitely understand and empathise with the pained expressions I witness whenever I mention the company to mobile developers, however the company’s size and handset volume, together with the fact that almost every handset leaving their factory now comes with Ovi Store pre-installed, means they’re shortly about to become a big, big force in mobile applications.

Here’s an example.

Numo Mobile are the company behind an array of interesting Symbian applications. The one that’s of note today is their app, SMS Preview, which I’ve been using for a long time on multiple handsets.

It does exactly as the name suggests — gives you a preview of your incoming text messages.

Today Nokia announced that Ovi Store users have downloaded SMS Preview over a million times.

A *million* times.

Congratulations to all at Numo. And good work Ovi Store team.

SMS Preview is free and you can download it via the Ovi Store at this url: http://store.ovi.com/content/5165

Good, good news. Excellent proof point for Nokia, especially after the recent news that Nimbuzz knocked by a million downloads via Ovi in February.

But the Ovi Store?

Oh dear.

Here’s just one indication why it’s struggling.

I clicked the Ovi Store icon on my N86 earlier today. It’s just a link. The Ovi Store App wasn’t pre-installed on my device — instead, click the icon and woosh, it loads the web browser and then navigates to the web-based Ovi Store.

This is ok.

I’m not entirely impressed at the fact it couldn’t be factory installed — but at least there’s an icon.

Instead of being transported to the Ovi Store website, I got this screen:

“Did you know there’s a faster way to browse the Ovi Store?” asks the text prompt.

I sure did.

I was delighted. Brilliant. I was being offered the Ovi Store app for download.

Good thinking Nokia.

I clicked the ‘YES!’ link.

Here’s the next screen:

Yes… that item is unavailable.

Total bollocks.

It’s not a massive problem for me, personally. I’m the geek — I can put up with navigating around the Ovi website. I can press ‘back’ and carry on. I understand errors happen and am reasonably tolerant provided I can find a work-around.

But for the normob who’s already frightened to hell by the Nokia experience, this kind of service level is dire.

We know that Nokia is trying to evolve itself into a services company — indeed, I sat in front of Mr Savander himself who explained the capacity issues that played havoc with the launch day — but this user experience is simply unacceptable.

If I was from Apple, I’d be looking at this and … you know what, I wouldn’t be laughing. This is beyond funny.

It’s beyond, ‘ha ha, aren’t they shit’.

Nokia has a 52.5 billion dollar market cap (just slightly smaller than the combined market caps of both Motorola and RIM).

It’s no joke.

What is it going to take for Nokia to deliver a reliable and exciting Ovi Store experience?

Can’t somebody at Ovi hire a few more testers or something and get the basics right?

With the rumor just posted of a possible Nokia 5900, World of Nokia now has some screenshots from that same video which appear to leak a Nokia Video Store.

In this demo the person connects the new device to a laptop, can browse around video’s like on an App Store and download a video right to the phone.

Interesting, interesting.

I’d, obviously, have liked to have seen this about 2-3 years ago. But you know, it-could-be-good. It’s not entirely late to the party, yet.

Now and again I’ve found myself on some obscure blog post from 2005 only to discover a genius application for uploading screenshots or something like that.

Indeed I think that’s how I came across ImageWell (uploads screenshots via FTP) and Mailplane (run Gmail / Apps as a proper application) and more.

I didn’t sign-up initially because, well… so much of my desktop usage is browser based. Looking at the applications I have open at the moment, it doesn’t really make for shocking or surprising reading:

* Safari
* Firefox
* Microsoft Word
* Skype
* Mailplane
* Spotify
* ImageWell
* MarsEdit
* Terminal
* Adium
* TweetDeck

Hardly earth shattering, eh? But then… you never know. So I signed up this afternoon and I’ve added two chaps already, Geetarchurchy and Ricky Chotai. Aside from the basic ‘what’s he using that for’ thoughts, it’s really quite interesting. I can see how this will/would really help with discovery of new applications.

Which brings me to the subject of this post. I’d really like to see something like this for mobile handsets. I’m sure the Wakoopa creators are considering something like this. Of course it wouldn’t work very well on an iPhone in real time (no background apps on an iPhone… yet) but it would work reasonably well on Android and Symbian.

Nokia’s already doing this with the upcoming Ovi Store (just WHEN is it actually, actually launching?). Peer-to-peer recommendations. I should, theoretically, be able to see what my Ovi friends are buying/using/consuming via the Ovi Store. I’m looking forward to seeing how people react to that feature, I think it’ll be a winner.

I certainly find the iPhone application discovery process a little bit haphazard at the moment — indeed, it’s positively lonely when you’re sat looking at the App Store on your iPhone. I tend to hear more about applications when I’m not actively browsing, when I’m out-and-about or when I’m working. That’s fine, but it’s not necessarily when I’m most receptive to looking at new things.

I can imagine opening up the App Store on my Nokia with the intent of finding out what my friends have checked out recently.

I’m hoping that once all the kinks are worked out, the Ovi Store will reinvigorate the desire to install new apps… We shall see.

Here’s a pic:

I was Palo Alto for a few meetings, one with a mobile titan (ID not public alas). The chap was running 30 minutes late (”Don’t worry, I’ll hit up* the Apple store”, I told him). I’d arrived in by the rather efficient ‘CalTrain’ early anyway so I strolled up University Avenue toward the Apple store.

I was having a look in the shop windows during the stroll and realised I was passing the Verizon Wireless store.

“Screw it,” I thought, “I’ve got some time, let’s go and have a look at Mr CDMA’s offerings.”

I arrived into the store and was immediately greeted by a lady with a clipboard. This is the way things work in America. At least, it’s been my experience with Sprint as well as Verizon.

(Conversations paraphrased from memory)

“How may I help you today?” the nice spritely shiny lady asked, clipboard and pen poised.

“Er I’m British,” I said. Best to get that off my chest.

She did a slow knowing nod.

British = Useless to Verizon. They either want to spend a good 20 minutes selling you a two-year credit agreement (and a handset) or get you out of the shop as quickly as possible with a prepay deal.

But if you’re foreign it’s a no-go. They don’t want your business. You need a US social security number to get started with them. This is fair enough — there are 303 million folk in the country, enough to be getting on with.

Even if you offer to prepay a 2-year contract in advance (e.g. $200 for a Storm on $80 a month is $2120. Offer them $3,000 up front and they’ll decline. Their system, I’m told, doesn’t ‘work that way’).

Anyway. I explained I was British and the lady put down her pen and let me pass.

Normally she’d have been ticking various boxes relating to what I was looking for. Then she’ll hand the resulting form to a sales chappy who, suitably briefed, will help me out.

I took a stroll about the place. I admired a few handsets. I glanced once or twice at the Storm, their handset du jour. Well, actually, their handset du year.

I had a look at the LG Versa.

“Can I help you, sir?”

I turned and found a helpful looking sales chap on my elbow.

“Er,” I said with continued embarrassment, “I’m sorry, I’m British, so… er…”

“Oh,” the chap said, eyes widening.

“Yeah,” I said, nodding, “It’s prepay or nothing, I know.”

I hung my head slightly as the chap nodded with me in sympathy.

With a tough of benevolence, he said I should ask him if I needed any help.

I thanked him.

“Alas, I’m a pariah,” I mumbled to myself, gazing over at the Samsung Omnia on the shelf. Windows Mobile, I know, but it thought it’d be worth a look. I went back to the Storm.

$199 on a 2-year contract.

I started selling it to myself.

“You have a duty to, you know, play about with these things,” I reasoned, calculating whether I really wanted to spunk something like $2,000 on ‘playing about’.

I only found out later that you could get a Blackberry Storm for $449 up-front on a month-to-month agreement. That, provided Verizon would have done a deal with an alien like me, would have bee interesting. I’d still have had quite a problem swallowing $449 unless I was aiming to use it as a primary device.

My key issue is that I’ve never actually used a Verizon handset for more than a day or so — and they’ve been rubbish prepay handsets. I’ve never really tried out the Verizon data network, for example. So I was warm.

But luckily for my bank balance, nobody tried to sell me a month-to-month Storm.

In fact, they’re not selling the Storm in Palo Alto. Although it’s on display, it’s not for sale. The sales team will do their best to avoid selling you one.

Is that a sweeping statement? Yes. Of course Verizon are selling Storms — by the bucketload by all accounts. Just not to me. And definitely not to the customer who came in after me.

I was pondering the possibility of a Windows Mobile handset when I heard a chap come into the shop. I glanced round as he approached me and the salesman who’d (sensibly?) given up on me.

“Hi,” he said, “I’m after a G-3 phone, the Blackberry Storm?”

“Right,” said the salesperson, “Well…”

“This is it here, is it?” the buyer said. He’d walked straight to it and was ready for the sale. He’d clearly seen it on television or been recommended it. The fact he got the ‘G-3′ (”3G”) bit wrong indicated an element of normob (”normal mobile user”) in his makeup. He knew what he wanted. He knew 3G, however you said it, was the way ahead. He was fondling the device and wanted to buy one.

“Er, you don’t want the Blackberry Storm,” said the salesman to the surprise of the buyer, “It’s buggy,” he continued.

“Buggy? Ah yeah..” said the buyer. He’d heard of that too and asked, “When will they bring out a software upgrade?”.

“Errrrr,” said the salesman, “Is it a touchscreen phone you’re looking for?” he said, beckoning the buyer to the other side of the store.

I missed a bit of their conversation — but I could make out the fact the salesman was trying to sell him some type of LG touchscreen.

The buyer did some quick evaluation before walking back to the Storm.

“Nah, tell me about the Storm?”

“It’s buggy, you don’t want that,” the salesman said.

“Right, but it works?” said the buyer. He clearly *just* wanted one. He was giving all the I-don’t-mind hints.

At that point I left the store.

I couldn’t handle it.

I was having a lot of trouble keeping my mouth shut and not slapping the salesman with a handy wet fish a few times.

As I left, the buyer was fondling the Storm clearly in I WILL BUY THIS PHONE mode. I think the salesman had relented at this point as I just caught, “Well, the touchscreen clicks when you press on it, the iPhone doesn’t have that,” as I walked out the door.

Well I never.

Palo Alto, spiritual home to Silicon Valley (and actual home to, amongst others, HP’s worldwide headquarters). By all means discourage the good normob people of Shitsville, Middle America, to avoid getting the Storm (they’ll only return it when they can’t figure out the keyboard). But in Palo Alto? When the chap strides in demanding a Storm? Give him one. Be pleased he’s aiming to swap from T-Mobile (he was) to Verizon instead of T-Mobile or, worse… the iPhone collective that is AT&T.

An interesting experience.

In the interests of fairness I am going to see if I can swim the myriad Verizon Wireless PR channels and get a hold of a Blackberry Storm to use for a month or so. I’ll keep you updated.

Meanwhile I encourage you to pop into your nearest Verizon store and ask for a Storm and report back your experiences. My experience today must surely have been an exception.

* “Hit up” — a fancy wanna-be-cool American way of saying “visit/talk to/connect with”.

Although the Storm features a rather nifty App Store with an all encompassing 5 or 6 applications (“5 applications should be all any mobile user ever needs?”), the question of a generally available Blackberry App Store a la iTunes has been something I’ve spent the past few months nodding at when people ask.

“It’s coming,” I said. Sort of. I mean, goodness knows what they’ll dream up.

I hope it’s not some buy-your-mobile-app-with-a-credit-card-online a la o2 Litmus. (Incidentally, Litmus have got a LOT of explaining to do on that one).

The Dallas Morning News carries a report referencing the app store that will be useful to many in the MIR developer audience:

It [Blackberry] plans to open an online applications store for BlackBerry users in March, showcasing content deals with Slacker, an Internet radio device, and Shazam, a music recognition service.

I hope it’s as easy to develop for as iTunes or Android…

But I won’t hold my breath.

You can pre-order a Nokia N97 this morning at Expansys.

Granted, they don’t even have a rough cost yet, but you can sign-up now to be notified the moment they can sell you one.

I reckon it’ll be, what, 700 quid plus initially?

The 6 month wait is really, really annoying.

That’ll fly by though…

Whilst I was waiting for them to stick in a wireless card, I took a tour around the shops.  I popped into the 3 store to see if their excellent S2 Skypephone was available.  Most certainly.  It was right there.  Next to an E71 on a 26/month contract.  Good deals.

I asked the enthusiastic sales chap if I could get an upgrade yet.  I was ready for the usual bollocks from 3.  You see in any other mobile retailer store, you can discuss upgrading and the rest of your account with the sales people in front of you.  However with 3, the sales chaps usually have to ask you to phone India (i.e. 3 support) to sort all that out.

Which totally defeats the object of having a store for any other reason than signing up new customers.  If you’re an existing customer, they’ve been completely useless.

However yesterday the chap was actually able to look up my account and upgrade me there in the shop.  Smart. Finally!

The only trouble?  Heh.  He made a face of pain when he saw that I was one-day-away from being able to upgrade.

“There’s nothing you can do?” I asked him.  He and I both knew that I was a good, quick win — but that I’d probably not be coming into the shop tomorrow.

“No, sorry. But tomorrow…”

No biggie.

I think I’ll wait ’til the N96 is available and upgrade then…