Matt has a ton of knowledge about a subject that the rest of us at Smartphone Experts have historically lacked, namely Nokia, S60, and the Symbian OS in general. He gives himself a brief introduction here, in the unlikely event you’re not familiar.
Nokia has, as yet, not successfully made a big smartphone push in the United States, but that’s quite likely to change as they have a slew of exciting new devices coming out and are also likely to have their E71 messaging smartphone picked up by AT&T very soon. In other words, if, like us, you’re relatively new to Nokia and S60 but want to learn more, Nokia Experts is surely going to be one of your best resources. Heck, Matt’s already published a full review of the Nokia 5800 Tube XpressMusic touch screen S60 device. The ‘Tube’ is already a best-selling device overseas and is more of a worthy contender than you might think, so the review is definitely worth a read.
Go on and head over to Nokia Experts now and give ‘em a big ol’ hello!
Moments after Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone at Macworld 2007, Nokia showed off the “Tube“, an iClone so convincing some thought they’d simply managed to score a demo unit. While the “Tube” eventually faded into a “comes with music” device, and Nokia has now zigged instead of zagged with the N97, BGR has just come across a slide that shows Nokia’s iClone plans may still be alive and unwell.
What is it? When will we see it? Since the N97 isn’t even shipping until June-ish 2009 (likely just in time for a WWDC launch of the iPhone 3.0 — iPhone HD?), who knows when we’ll see this new device. All we can hope for is that is doesn’t cosign itself to mindlessly cloning iPhones past, but actually tried to innovate something more for the future.
If they do, what you want to see on the Nokia next-gen touch?
Is this enough to up Nokia’s game in a post-iPhone world? Probably not, though it looks solid enough and will no doubt have the pundits punting “iPhone Killer” all over again (really, didn’t the Storm teach them anything?) Engadget has the video (above) and the stats, which are admittedly drool worthy:
3.5-inch, 640 x 360 pixel … resistive touchscreen display with tactile feedback … QWERTY keyboard [slider] … HSDPA, WiFi, and Bluetooth radios, A-GPS, a 3.5-mm headjack, 32GB of onboard memory with microSD expansion (for up to 48GB total capacity), and a battery capable of up to 1.5 days of continuous audio playback or 4.5-hours video. 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss glass and “DVD quality” video capture at 30fps, too.
The hardware certainly reads — and looks — impressive but the UI isn’t exactly bowling us over. While Nokia is calling it the “world’s most advanced mobile computer”, we’re not sure its Symbian guts are quite up to Mobile OS X level computing yet (though InfoSyncWorld thinks HTC may have a lot to worry about).
What do you think? iPhone Killer, or just another wannabe? And by June 2009 (likely shipping date for the n97), could Steve Jobs already be on the WWDC stage dropping the iPhone HD bomb?!
Reader Reptile writes in with the tip, and the pithy title inspiration. Seems like our friends to the frozen north (no, not Canada, Nokia-land!) finally released their iClone… er… Tube… er… Xpress Music.
The device, which started life as a complete rip-off proof of concept roughly 3 minutes after Steve Jobs revealed the iPhone live on the Macworld 2007 stage has taken a long — looooooooong — time to come to market. Was it worth the wait?
Well, in targeting the iPhone, it’s already placed itself squarely in the “follower” camp, and not the “leader” position Nokia should not only enjoy, but command. Strike one. Also, if as Reptile suggests, no one (outside the gadget blogsphere and — maybe — Europe) noticed, can it even really be considered launched? Strike two.
As long as there’s the iPhone, every other “me too!” device will be an iClone, simple as that. Want a real iPhone Killer? Do what Apple did and drop a device no one sees coming, and revolutionize the industry in your own, innovative way. That’s how you’ll kill the iPhone.
Nokia dominates the planet when it comes not only to cellphones, but also to Smartphones. But the upcoming iPhone Risk-style onslaught (not to mention the pending release of Android, though delayed) looks to have them a little worried. So they’re finally getting their Symbian ducks in a row: enough of trying to work together with other companies like Sony and Motorola, they’ve purchased the entire OS shootin’ match and are unifying the platform. Simple explanation: Symbian is the base OS, then there are different interfaces on top of that: S60 and UIQ. We’re not fond of either, but between the two of them S60 seems to be the one with more legs (and more support, it’s Nokia’s interface of choice).
Update: we’ve got more to say here, so make the jump for the analysis.
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No need for double-takes. You didn’t click the wrong link. Just breath, dig deeply, and stick with me for a moment. Yes, you really are still reading the iPhone blog.
For a 1.0 device, the iPhone knocked the ball — if not out of the park — soundly into the fence, and sent a complacent industry fumbling and flurrying to catch it. But no device, not even from Apple, could get everything perfect the first time at bat. Now, I’ve pretty much staked my turf here by playfully poking a little bit of fun at the competition but, truth be known, when they’re not wasting their time on iClones every platform and handset has some great — even killer — features to recommend it. In that spirit, here’s my top 5 list of what Apple should seriously consider stealing… er… learning from the competition if they want to hit a home run with 2.0 and beyond…
Not evil twin to theiPhoneBlog.com Week in Review, not an invasion by Fake Steve, This Week in Smart Phone Schadenfreude brings you all the feel-better news you need about the smartphone world outside Apple’s current media dominator. (Who knew there was such a world? We were just as surprised! Inelegant, interface challenged, keyboardy, crashy, single-touchy place — best not to linger…). Join us as we mock review the big news from last week at our sister sites. Everybody loves sibling rivalry!
Not evil twin to Phone Different Week in Review, not an invasion by Fake Steve, This Week in Smart Phone Schadenfreude brings you all the feel-better news you need about the smartphone world outside Apple’s current media dominator. (Who knew there was such a world? We were just as surprised! Inelegant, interface challenged, keyboardy, crashy, single-touchy place — best not to linger…). Join us as we mock review the big news from last week at our sister sites. Everybody loves sibling rivalry!
[Note: Due to the dust settling from our mega-merger -- and our subsequent allergies -- we’re keeping it short this week. Just the low-lights.]
Not evil twin to Phone Different Week in Review, not an invasion by Fake Steve, This Week in Smart Phone Schadenfreude brings you all the feel-better news you need about the smartphone world outside Apple’s current media dominator. (Who knew there was such a world? We were just as surprised! Inelegant, interface challenged, keyboardy, crashy, single-touchy place — best not to linger…). Join us as we mock review the big news from last week at our sister sites. Everybody loves sibling rivalry!
When the iPhone was introduced, Nokia’s first official response was the corporate equivalent of a raspberry (the spitting kind, not the fruit!). Their second official response was to demo a device which so closely mimicked the iPhone that it quite possibly was one.
“If there is something good in the world then we copy with pride,” said Anssi Vanjoki, Nokia’s Executive VP & General Manager of Multimedia.
Well, proudly copy it they have! The final device, bewilderingly code-named “Tube” is ready for prime-time (or whatever time it is they relegate programs that knock off last season’s hits).
“We’ve done [the iPhone's sales numbers to date] since we’ve had dinner on Friday.”
We would hope so! Since the global sales leader with a complete range from cheapo handsets to high-end convergence devices available in almost every country, on every carrier, on the planet is comparing numbers to a single (albeit revolutionary) iPhone available in only a handful of places on a single carrier each. And Fake Steve claims to be mathlexic! (N95 to iPhone numbers in the US anyone?)
That Nokia has adopted the increasingly popular “if you can’t beat them, copy them” strategy — a strategy that, if Apple had adopted it, there would be nothing for RIM, Samsung, Microsoft, or Nokia to be copying right now — is disappointing to say the least. But it once again highlights that if Apple hasn’t achieved market share, it’s certainly achieved market leadership.
Do you want a world where there’s the iPhone and every other manufacturer’s knockoff of same? Or would you rather see the other companies innovate and revolutionize and differentiate their offerings? What do you think?
[Note: This a a 
