A smartphone from Nokia landed on my lap recently. It’s Nokia’s answer to the raging smartphone war between the iPhone and Android. For the time being, we can ignore the Blackberry and Windows Phone 6 phones.
The phone feels comfortable in my palm. It comes with an anodised aluminium. I found the resolution good and the touchscreen sensitive. Moving from one function to another is smooth and quick. Calls are clear. The phone boasts a 12 megapixel camera and the photos look sparkling.
The new Nokia E7 smartphone. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
It will be probably be the first phone to be powered by Symbian 3, the new operating system, but it was not in the unit I had.
I had only 24 hours with the phone, but I hope that at Nokia World which opens on Tuesday in London, will let me try more of its features especially with the new Symbian 3 loaded.
Yes, I’m off to Nokia World on Monday. It’s quite exciting for me because I want to find out what Nokia is up to. Unfortunately, the media will probably not see the new CEO Stephen Elop. A Canadian, he was hired from Microsoft where he was president of Microsoft’s business division.
Officially, he becomes CEO on Sept 21 but I’m sure he’ll be in the background. But will we see the Finnish CEO that has been moved aside, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, more popularly known as OPK? He is due to give the keynote address on Tuesday. I’ll know when the time comes.
So what am I going to expect at Nokia World?
I would like to find out how Nokia intends to compete with its line-up of Symbian 3-based smartphones. The N8 is only one, rumour has it, that there will be an E7 and C7. So apart from the design of the hardware, I would like to know how good Symbian 3 is.
Nokia’s fortunes have taken a beating because it is like a tortoise in the Ferrari world of smartphone development. Every other week, I am reading about a new smartphone being launched.
Last year, at Nokia World, I saw the Maemo operating system for its high end handheld devices. It is now replaced by Meego, a Nokia-Intel project. On Tuesday, I may just be able to see the first Meego devices. That’s a key problem with Nokia: two main operating systems in their product line is very confusing for customers. I will want to know how Nokia moves forward with this strategy.
I’m also wondering what’s happening to Ovi World, Nokia’s app store. The App Store (Apple) that we all know now boasts 250,000 apps and 6.5 billion downloads as of Sept 1 2010. With Blackberry gearing up its own app store soon, I want to know what’s going on with Ovi. Perhaps the Ovi developers can tell me how Meego and Symbian are headed.
But I hold out hope for Nokia. In the last few years, I’ve seen its R&D division putting out new services that are now implemented in the developing countries, where Nokia still dominates with its feature phones. Working with public agencies in countries like India and Indonesia, it is providing weather reports and commodity pricing to farmers and fishermen. It is also providing financial services where residents in remote locations where there are no banks can transfer money via their phones to their families in another place.
This transformation of the company from a hardware company to a services company has been a gradual process over the last three to four years. Unfortunately, investors and board members are not likely to take it lightly when market share in developing countries are eroding because Nokia does not have smartphones that are good enough to go up against the iPhone and Samsung.
I may be able to find some answers to these issues at Nokia World 2010.