Windows to replace Symbian as Nokia's main smart phone platform

[Dinesh]

Nice article.

 

[ADR]

Microsoft should try to discuss issues with HTC, Samsung and LG and structure "exclusive" agreements with these manufacturers as well. There is no reason as to why Microsoft should put all its eggs in the Nokia basket. I think that they are smarter than that.

 

[NeroDevil]

Well this is only normal, considering the age of Symbian. It was considered as the very first Smartphone OS by many, and since the release of Android, iOS, and indeed Windows Phone 7, its really begun to show its age now more than ever. And of course, that undeniable fact that most devs only release apps for iOS and Android never helped Symbians life.

This situation would have bothered me if I was still on my Nokia 5230, but now I'm on a Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 running Android, and looking back, I dont know how I managed with Symbian.

 

[Kari]

Nokia and Microsoft: good for Finland, risky for Redmond

The article is good, but I do not agree with the title. In my dear native Finland, this move is not considered as good news.

Although geographically one of the biggest in Europe, Finland is a very small country. The population is about one third of that in New York, so a company like Nokia has enormous impact in Finnish national economy.

My sister lives in southern town of Salo, where Nokia has a small plant and a research center. The town has only 55,000 inhabitants, currently over 4,000 of those work for Nokia. Chatting with Marjukka, my sister yesterday evening, she told me that the week begun in Salo with news that Nokia had announced cutting almost 300 jobs in town (More Job Losses at Nokia’s Salo Factory « The Nokia Network). Because of the earlier cuts in Nokia, the town already has higher than average unemployment.

I personally welcome Windows Phone in Nokia's phones but as a quite patriotic Finn, I have some doubts what this is going to do for the economy of Finland.

Kari

 

[whs]

I look at it this way: If Nokia went with Android, their products would have been just another commodity having to compete with Korea, Taiwan and China. Going with Windows, opens a completely different world and gives them ample opportunity to position themselves as a solution provider rather than just delivering another piece of hardware.

 

[Kari]

Wolfgang, what you say is IMO especially true if what CEO's Elop & Ballmer told last Friday really happens, that Nokia gets more freedom to alter Windows Phone. With Android it had been exactly the same OS than all other manufactures have.

Interesting to see what the CEO's meant with this, though, how different Windows Phones we are going to see.

Kari

 

[Zirro]

My first mobile phone was a Nokia and I've had many since. All were rock-solid reliable. My last one was a mid-range 6120C, which I keep as a spare and still use on bushwalking trips where its battery life and signal reception are essential.
The Nokia has far better signal reception and voice quality for calls than my iPhone 3GS.
It also has combined Calendar and Task Management functions baked into the old Symbian OS, that are not even possible on a standard iPhone.

I have mucked around with WP7 on a few devices and found it enjoyable and dead easy to use. I much prefer WP7 to iOS and believe it has a great future.

Being in Australia there are a lot more Nokia phones around than in the USA.
Nokia have historically had a very good reputation here and I think a huge number of people will jump at the chance to have a Nokia device running WP7.

However, to take advantage of their partnership, Nokia and MS need to one ro two good WP7 devices out really fast. Currently they are talking later this year, which I believe is far too late.

The other thing that could kill WP7 is closing up the OS to the paranoid degree that Apple has. MS have been in discussion with WP7 'home-brewers' so maybe a happy medium will be reached. A Power User version of WP7 would be nice.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
Aplogies to any Finnish guys on the Forum but Nokia IMO has just totally lost the plot in Mobile phones these days.

Apart from a fairly decent 16GB internal memory and a passable music app so it can be used as an "MP3" player my current phone the Nokia X6 will probably be the LAST Nokia phone I ever buy -- the touch screen menu is horrible -- unexplained lock ups which require phone to be switched on and off etc etc.

I've resisted the Iphone largely because I am against APPLE's proprietary "everything" even though I accept the fact that it's still probably the best option at the moment.

However SAMSUNG are starting to offer some very nice phones so I'll investigate them too.


My favourite however if I don't need the Internet was an older Motorola razr flip phone --it still gets use as a basic phone --I'm not a texter at all so I don't care about TEXTING and I've never enjoyed looking at emails on the tiny phone screens.


My internet requirements on a phone are fairly basic -- Google maps, some sort of sat-nav and basic google.

Unlike a lot of people I'm not into apps at all -- basic google supplies me with stuff that I need to know.

So unless Nokia start "tarting" up their act they are going to be on the slippery slope downwards to oblivion.

I don't have problems with MS providing a mobile OS -- I'm sure it will work fine -- just hope the hardware doesn't look like a lot of the current Nokia phones -- a Victorian era thick brick with a screen on it.

For all the drawbacks the Iphone does have that "look" about it.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[whs]

Here is a chart I made from the 4Q of 2010 worldwide figures that shows growth versus market share. You can clearly see that Nokia has still the biggest market share but very little growth (35% versus a market average of 87%).

 

[JMH]

Nokia shareholder 'revolt' against Microsoft WP7 deal ends after a day

The much-ballyhooed Nokia shareholder “revolt” over Nokia’s Windows Phone 7 adoption plan is over, a day after it began.

Update: It turns out the “revolt” was nothing but a hoax. The Plan B blog page was taken down on began redirecting to a @NokiaPlanB Twitter account on February 16. A tweet revealed the alleged ruse, and the alleged creator of the hoax claimed to be nothing but a “very bored engineer who really likes his iPhone.” I have no idea what’s real here — including the latest claim about his/her occupation and choice of phone.



According to the now-unavailable site, the nine anonymous shareholders, claiming to be former Nokia employees, banded together and proposed an alternative “Plan B” — which included the firing of Nokia CEO Stephen Elop — announced on their blog on February 16 that they had decided to ditch their effort. The Plan B team was responding to Nokia’s decision, announced this week, to put its eggs in the Windows Phone basket, rather than going with Android or staying the current Nokia Symbian/MeeGo course.

Nokia shareholder 'revolt' against Microsoft WP7 deal ends after a day | ZDNet

 

[ADR]

http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/ne...tm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rssI personally welcome Windows Phone in Nokia's phones but as a quite patriotic Finn, I have some doubts what this is going to do for the economy of Finland.

Kari

Well, had Nokia continued with Symbian, the economy of Finland would have taken a more serious dive. At least now it has access to a more modern and very well reviewed mobile OS. Had Nokia gone with Android, I feel that it would not have been able to strike any deals with US carriers. Samsung, HTC, LG, Motorola, Pantech are already crowding the space. Why would Verizon and AT&T sign on another vendor with another Android customization??? And with no agreement with US carriers, forget about any serious penetration of the US market. I have the feeling that a top-tier Nokia phone with Windows Phone 7 Mango would be something that AT&T may go for (but not Verizon).

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
The Nokia OS is STILL riddled with problems even on the later generation of phones - as well as an error or two there are serious useability problems.


Here's typical ones you can easily reproduce if you have a Nokia X6 type of phone

1) set the alarm and then set the keyboard / phone to LOCK. When the alarm rings you cannot switch it off -- the STOP button doesn't work -- the only way to stop the wretched alarm from getting louder and louder is to switch the whole thing off.

2) on the Internet if you want to say say Go to a URL the keyboard screen appears -- but if you decide you don't want to go to that URL there's no BACK / Cancel facility to rake you back to the previous screen.

3) navigation of accessed pages is absolutely horrible -- you get tiny images of the pages visited but no easy way to actually ACCESS them again.

4) Once you are Navigating a page there's no easy / quick BACK button to a Home page to select another URL from your browsed page.

It's probably the most frustrating Internet experience I've ever had.

Other times the screen is often unresponsive and the whole menu layout isn't very customisable.

For all the comments about Apple / proprietary software / expense -- even the SIMPLEST DUMMY can navigate the NET with EASE using an Iphone.

Samsung phones are looking good -- I'll test one or two later but I'm really tempted to eat Humble Pie and just get an Iphone.

But Nokia your OS -- at least on my X6 absolutely STINKS -- No wonder you need to change it.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[electrotune1200]

Samsung phones are looking good
jimbo

As an owner of a Samsung Galaxy S I'll give you my take on it.

Out of the box the phone has great hardware, not so great software. After a few months the phone would lag everywhere, even sending a text message, typing the text would be delayed. It was shipped with Android 2.1(eclair) and eventually updated to 2.2(froyo). From my experience, 2.2 seemed worse to me.

Now here comes the fun part. The developers community of this phone is absolutely amazing. Custom rom's being developed daily, and most of them outperform Samsungs own software. Since I built up the courage to start flashing custom rom's my phone has been brought back to life, and it can be alot of fun just testing new things.

If you like to tinker around and install experimental software, I'd recommend the Samsung Galaxy S to anyone.

If you want to enjoy the vanilla Android experience, I'd recommend you to the Nexus S. A Google branded phone manufactured by Samsung.

If you want something that works out of the box, no modifacations or anything, go with the I-Phone. (but what fun would that really be?)

If you had any questions regardng any of this stuff feel free to ask.

 

[jimbo45]

Samsung phones are looking good
jimbo

As an owner of a Samsung Galaxy S I'll give you my take on it.

Out of the box the phone has great hardware, not so great software. After a few months the phone would lag everywhere, even sending a text message, typing the text would be delayed. It was shipped with Android 2.1(eclair) and eventually updated to 2.2(froyo). From my experience, 2.2 seemed worse to me.

Now here comes the fun part. The developers community of this phone is absolutely amazing. Custom rom's being developed daily, and most of them outperform Samsungs own software. Since I built up the courage to start flashing custom rom's my phone has been brought back to life, and it can be alot of fun just testing new things.

If you like to tinker around and install experimental software, I'd recommend the Samsung Galaxy S to anyone.

If you want to enjoy the vanilla Android experience, I'd recommend you to the Nexus S. A Google branded phone manufactured by Samsung.

If you want something that works out of the box, no modifacations or anything, go with the I-Phone. (but what fun would that really be?)

If you had any questions regardng any of this stuff feel free to ask.

Hi there

Thanks for the info -- I think I WILL go for the Samsung -- however as you say the I-phone works just great straight out of the box. I have still have another few weeks on the old contract afte which I can change phones.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[Dinesh]

Samsung phones are looking good
jimbo

As an owner of a Samsung Galaxy S I'll give you my take on it.
.

Same here. Great hardware, great OS.

 

[Everlong]

Samsung phones are looking good
jimbo

As an owner of a Samsung Galaxy S I'll give you my take on it.

Out of the box the phone has great hardware, not so great software. After a few months the phone would lag everywhere, even sending a text message, typing the text would be delayed. It was shipped with Android 2.1(eclair) and eventually updated to 2.2(froyo). From my experience, 2.2 seemed worse to me.

Now here comes the fun part. The developers community of this phone is absolutely amazing. Custom rom's being developed daily, and most of them outperform Samsungs own software. Since I built up the courage to start flashing custom rom's my phone has been brought back to life, and it can be alot of fun just testing new things.

If you like to tinker around and install experimental software, I'd recommend the Samsung Galaxy S to anyone.

If you want to enjoy the vanilla Android experience, I'd recommend you to the Nexus S. A Google branded phone manufactured by Samsung.

If you want something that works out of the box, no modifacations or anything, go with the I-Phone. (but what fun would that really be?)

If you had any questions regardng any of this stuff feel free to ask.

Hi there

Thanks for the info -- I think I WILL go for the Samsung -- however as you say the I-phone works just great straight out of the box. I have still have another few weeks on the old contract afte which I can change phones.

Cheers
jimbo

I'd have a look at some of HTC's offerings as well and I personally find the HTC Sense UI is better and smoother than Samsung's.

 

[electrotune1200]

I do like the HTC's. They feel solid as. Their new lineup announced for the year are a bit dissapointing spec wise, but still great phones.

The only think I don't like about Sense UI is the big massive clock widget thing. A bit overkill.

 

[whs]

The Thunderbolt looks nice - once they upgrade it to Honeycomb. And what about the Motorola Atrix. That looks like a real winner and trendsetter.