I was playing with an Nokia N900 device today. I loved it when I tried it out late last year — and I still love it today. It’s definitely not a consumer device but if it’s any indicator of what we can expect from Anssi Vanjoki’s top range Smartphone division, bring it on.
Have you checked one of these out recently?Posted via email from MIR Live
I've used it as my primary device since November, and I couldn't imagine using a smartphone OS or a laptop.
Guys, you should take a look at the HTC Desire.. it is absolutly the best device i ever had.
What are you liking best about it?
I am tired and confused so I'll get straight to the point.
You headline this phone as being a “super geek device”. At the top of the front page of this site there is still the headline “My Kingdom For An iPhone Rival”. Well, hello!
This is what drives me nuts. With Nokia, with the MNO's. With the mobile buying public as a whole. This phone pulverises the iPhone. And one one level, because of the vastly lower number of applications available out of the Ovi Store for it.
The sooner people, MNO's start to realise that their phones are there to work for them, in every and anyway they want it to, the sooner the world of mobile will be better for us all. And I'm mighty annoyed that Nokia have let the opportunity they had with this phone, slip right through their hands. “Educate to illuminate”. Words Nokia could rule the mobile world with. If they put even a third as much effort into educating people about the true ways of mobile as they do into things like coming up with the N900, Maemo, Meego and Symbian ^4, in my humble opinion they would be looking at a, minimum of, 60% of the world wide mobile market share, as much as 75% of the smart phone market, and people in places like Silicon Valley would be spending an awful lot less time preaching the word of Jobs.
I think the point is that most people aren't mobile geeks – they're “normobs” to use Ewan's terminology.
What's great about the iPhone is it's an advanced device that normobs 'get' in a way that they haven't other devices. That's not just down to marketing or the number of apps available – developers will create applications for any platform so long as there are enough users, and they can get payed for it.
If you have to 'educate' your customers you've already lost the battle. A user ought to be able to pick up the device and work out how to use it for themselves.
Remember Ewan's post a couple of years back about finally discovering how to switch between running applications in S60? Nobody ever discovers after several years use how to switch between applications on the iPhone – they try pressing the home button and see that it works. Admittedly, the iPhone does lack multitasking at the moment – but in reality people seem to get on fine without it.
Rather than attempting to educate users, Nokia should be focussing on how to make things easier for them. Trying to beat the iPhone technically (e.g. with faster processors and so on) completely misses the point about why it's been successful.
Got one last year, (a few of) the best bits:
1. Web Browing – forget the plethora of browers available, firefox, opera etc, the default brower is simply in a league of its own (who needs a banking app when i can access it on the browser just like on my pc?)
2. Customising – looking at the same screen every time you turn on your mobile gets boring, very boring, not here – complete control over how your homescreen(s) look is fantastic. Not to mention controlling how many you use, i was using all 4, cut down to 3 and battery life is much better.
3. Although I dislike the phrase – multi-tasking, uploading sizeable media to your prefered social network, blog etc? no probs, crack on with something else whilst it gets on with it
Sure more apps would be great and it's criminal free nav isn't available yet but this the first handset I've had that genuinely helps me manage my life – calendar and email clients are fantastic. I've been playing alot with the iphone at the mo and whilst apps are great the rest of it is wholely uninspiring.
Sadly, whilst the N900 has more function than anything else out there it falls down on form, not a biggie to me but it's pretty much the first thing my 'normob' mates comment on…
hey ho, bring on Meego and the N9 🙂
I can understand the love affair with the User Experience Apple offers with its iPhone ecosystem. However, I have chosen to buy Nokia because it is able to offer very capable smartphones at terrific value. My 18 month old Nokia 5800XM cost me 40 dollars with a 1 year contract. I do value multi-tasking because I use Nokia's turn by turn navigation (OVI maps is free and globally available) while listening to podcasts. Around my wifi network I run Fring for 2 way video calls over Skype while keeping up to date with both a Twitter/Facebook client and Nokia's push e-mail service…also free. I look forward to the next generation Symbian phones…but am quite pleased with the stable performance, excellent battery life, ergonomics and loaded features of the 5800xm. I can't see Nokia succeeding like Apple in the US market…but globally…it will be very successful as long as it can execute its defined strategy well.