Nokia doesn't get it - The Truth about N97 [video]
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What a waste of a very good brand image.
Sounds more like an exaggeration
It crashes with some regularity (which is really annoying, because it takes a long time to start up again), it drops calls in the middle of a conversation about two or three times per week.
I've had to re-assemble the phone after just carrying it around in my pocket, not without danger because the battery easily pops out and might get shorted out by my keys. I've been a very loyal nokia customer for more than a decade with one (very short lived) excursion to Samsung, but this really is my last one.
I've just about given up on them.
However, my latest nokia is shocking compared to the others I have had before it. The case started falling off the back about 3 weeks into using it. It takes around 3 minutes to turn on and freezes without fail every time I try to delete my messages or have a look at my call log. A few friends of mine have experienced similar problems with their more expensive models too.
When I run out of room for messages (because I can't delete them), I'm just going to find out where I packed up my phone from 3 years ago and use that. I'd rather have no internet/camera/mms then try my luck with another new nokia.
I've tried to detect a pattern in the dropped calls (make and model of the phone on the other side, network cells I'm in and so on), without any effect.
The phone has plenty of free memory, the techs in the store assure me the phone is ok (it's been back a few times already), latest firmware, and so on. The mechanical issues seem to be closely related to the way the back cover fits on, it's a very light 'snap' fit and nothing at all will make it come off. Because it's a slide phone I can't tape it in place or something like that.
Yeah, I now consider the no-user-replacable-battery drawback of the iPhone as a feature. The least pieces and hatches, the better. Although, I have replaced it on my 2yo 3G, along with the screen.
I don't know much about the N96, but my E72 is a good phone. As usual the Symbian firmware has some bugs, but other than that I'm getting very good internet/call quality and it has a solid build.
By the way, does anyone want to buy an old E71?
The majority of my interaction with the E71 is via third-party apps, and I'm fine with that, because they're far better than anything I've seen on iPhone or Android (and yes, I have tried both at length). I was using most of those same apps before the iPhone was released (also, get off my lawn, you darn kids).
So I would agree that if web browsing is more important to you than typing, the E71 is not an ideal device. I do a lot of both, and find it's a great balance.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_N8
Disclaimer: I work for Nokia.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/03/06/finland_nokia_snoopi...
Large public companies tend to put significant effort into looking after their own best interests. There's not many exceptions.
What I'm trying to say: at least if you're doing Java ME, the OVI store is a very closed shop, as evidenced by my unfortunate experience with it, and Android (which is not Java ME) is way more open and pleasant to deal with. I don't know as much about C++; although I think it may be less miserable in some ways than the OVI Java ME experience, although it has other, serious drawbacks.
All in all, Android is where it's at for me in the future.
This is a touch phone. Why do you place on screen items like they're going to be activated by soft buttons?
Disaster #2 on the way.
Anyway, this is actually one of the least problematic aspects of Symbian and not a disaster at all.
I understand this. As a potential customer, I don't care.
> they probably didn't want to change things too much.
As a potential customer, your wants are secondary to mine.
I now have an N900, which I also love - but I don't regard it as a phone, I regard it was a small portable Debian install that just so happens to also make phone calls :)
Come on guys, keep up. We're on Internet time here.
I guess one day kids will complain their microsd sized devices don't project holograms bright enough or in enough colors.
On my mid-range Nokia phone, I have a Commodore 64 emulator. I find that fairly amazing, given that the original C64 was more expensive than my phone when it came out.
Computing power that is ruined by the appallingly-poor quality software that was obviously rushed out the door. It's really shameful and depressing.
This is my phone and I had it for years.
Yeah, it doesn't receive email or allows me to browse the internet but it already crashed into the ground and got wet more times that I can count and it still works. The battery still lasts 2 weeks.
1 week of battery duration (The original battery which is 6 years old).
iPhone has 300h standby and 7-14 hours of talk time. These Nokias had 300-350h of standby time and only 3-4 hours of talk time.
I've tried to use Samsung featurephone as smartphone, and it could handle 45 minutes of video playback on one charge.
Can I buy a replacement - no it's only available in Africa! So I had to buy a Motorola - great sales strategy Nokia.
http://www.envirofone.com/Nokia/3315/details.aspx
I owned 2 of these, but sadly, both died the same way.. weird software error "CONTACT SERVICE" and failed to respond to any input. Which is sad, because one of those 2 survived a baptism in uric acid!
Selling phones that are so obviously sub-par compared to iPhone and Android, and still expecting people to fork over iPhone/Android money, is laughable.
Developers aren't going to move to writing Symbian apps, there's just too much alternative, and it's not where the reward is.
The goalposts have shifted.
They have gotten themselves blind on the quantity of phones that they sell and think that the quantity is a proof that they are doing something right. That they just need to claim to have smart phones and the market will obey.
It's really quite sad, as this company if any have the ability to be at the forefront. But such is the mechanics of The Innovators Dilemma.
Obviously Nokia used to do things right but now they are nothing but a sad sad joke.
It's not that they don't have smart people. It's that they have legacy, horrible horrible legacy and a product innovation and development structure very close to that of the most horrible parliament you can imagine.
And as we all know. Nobody ever built at statue of a committee!
The point of TID is that in certain situations a company can make all the right decisions and still end up losing in the long run to worse products.
An industry that's being disrupted is one with higher-end customers served by successful businesses with expensive, high-margin, high-quality products, and less demanding customers being served by businesses with cheaper, lower-margin, inferior products, where the product quality of both segments grows at a faster rate than what the market demands. When the worse product becomes good enough for a large enough segment of the market, the industry swings - disruption.
The "Innovator's Dilemma" is that at any given time prior to the disruption, the right decision for the successful high-end company appears to be to not enter the lower end of the market, because the same investment applied to the current business will yield continued higher return.
Nokia doesn't have an innovator's dilemma here, they have a shitty product that nobody wants.
My point was basically that the lower end markets here is the smartphone market.
I agree though it might be a stretch as I am turning the metrics upside down. But I don't think it changes the fundamental point.
That Nokia is turning themselves out of business by making the "right" decisions.
This affect their lack off proper focus on the smart phones. They can't get exited about the numbers so to speak.
But as I said, it might be a stretch to use that term here, I still stand by it.
Telcos profit from crappy phones.
And that's why it's important to support a market for unlocked phones and standards like GSM.
The problem is that the US is a huge market and that distorts the forces that generate products.
And, sure, Nokia seems lost. They should give up software and differentiate on hardware. I am sure the N97 would be a fine Android phone.
(I've recently switched to the iPhone 4)
I'm now an HTC fanboy.
I'm not saying iPhone is as bad. When I saw the N97 video it immediately reminded me of how my iPhone 3G started behaving after upgrading it to iOS 4 -- lagging, not responding to taps, etc. My response was tongue in cheek.
I'm a happy iPhone 4 user now and would never switch to any other "smartphone", let alone Nokia.
Settings->General->Home button->spotlight/search.
Uncheck everything, then do a hard reset (home+lock for 10 sec).
Now, if Nokia keeps this quality and price on their mobile phones (if this really is what you get), I myself would recommend them to either fire their hackers or go back to the rubber production.
Hopefully though, they see that this is not going to work and that they have to do something about it.
Eh? I don't think that's true. Nokia, just like Ericsson, made telephone switches and was involved in NMT, back in the 80s, when they started to make phones.