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Comment by DavidMcLaughlin | Hacker News Reader

What's with the Nokia doesn't get it part? The market repositioning from smart-phone to mid-range consumer phone and delayed launch of the N8 would seem to suggest that Nokia definitely does get that the N97 was a disaster.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_N8

Disclaimer: I work for Nokia.

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Look at the picture attached to the article you just posted. At the bottom of the screen 'Options, exit'. Just where the soft menu keys would have been. And the same size. And the same amount of buttons.

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.

Options/Exit is a long time Symbian thing. Since the OS in N8 is an evolutionary step from the current version of the OS, they probably didn't want to change things too much.

Anyway, this is actually one of the least problematic aspects of Symbian and not a disaster at all.

> Options/Exit is a long time Symbian thing.

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.

The N8 is a really nice phone by 2002 standards. I used to be a big fan of Nokia because they didn't clutter up their menus so badly, or if they did you could at least remember the numbers and zip through them that way. The 8890 was the peak of Nokia, and it's all been downhill from there, trumped time and time again by Ericsson and more recently Apple.

The last Nokia phone I truly loved was the 6310i. Was using one until last year when refurbs started getting too expensive for my taste.

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 :)

I am eagerly waiting for the N8. It will ship for 470€. But I am a bit reluctant to buy it, when I think that the Galaxy S (420€) has tethering, better screen, better processor, better CPU, DivX support out of the box and the Nokia does not. I really hope they get it nailed down with the N8. I don't like Big Brother Google, and the closeness of Apple. A nice, working Symbian Phone would be great. Let's see.

When contrasting Nokia to "evil corporations" such as Apple or Google, don't forget that Nokia is the number one advocate of introducing software patents in the European Union. Just sayin'.

Also, remember Lex 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.

Nokia was the first company to object inclusion of Theora and Vorbis in HTML5: http://www.w3.org/html/wg/tracker/issues/24

At least if you're going to code in Java ME, rather than C++, Android is way more open than the Ovi store:

http://journal.dedasys.com/2010/06/23/ovi-lays-an-egg

Downvoted for FUD. Android is not Java ME.

Woah there dude. Maybe my sentence structure was off, but I know a thing or two about the difference between the two.

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.

Wel I guess that the problem was/is that nokia released the N97 2 years after the original iphone and around the same time as the Palm Pre and the HTC Hero. those phones are both way better than the N97 and far more in line with what people expected form there phones after the iPhone. the amazing thing is that a big company with lots of experience making phones needed 2 years to but something so shameful on the marked.

A mid-range consumer phone that costs $1000? I don't think so.

The N8 will cost about $500 before taxes (and without operator subsidies, i.e. unlocked). Where do you get $1000?

Yes, 370€ unlocked & untaxed according to Nokia: http://conversations.nokia.com/2010/04/27/nokia-n8-official-...

The video had that as a slide. Even at $500, the point remains that they are not positioning it as a midrange phone.

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