Nokia to use Window mobile 7

[Peter Marks]

>From my perspective, the combination of features on Nokia handsets make them, for me, the only "smart" phones available outside of Japan now. No other handsets available here can provide all of this out-of-the-box right now:

- Full bluetooth stack (for wireless file transfers to and from the handset, for example)

- Builtin SIP (for VoIP without needing to run an application like Skype)

- Builtin DLNA/UPnP (for multimedia streaming to and from the handset, without having to buy Apple TV)

- Real multitasking (take-a-snapshot-and-email-it-to-the-person-to-whom-you're-talking-while-you're-still-talking multitasking)

- Mount remote webDAV folders

- USB-on-the-Go (plug in USB drives and other devices)

- OTA firmware and software updates (completley independent of a desktop computer)

- SyncML support (I sync contacts, calendar events, and tasks with my Linux box OTA with ease)

- Internet radio

- Hardware GPS (no data needed, as with A-GPS, though A-GPS is also available on the handsets)

- Maps with free walk-or-drive voice navigation and maps preloaded on the handset (no data plan or Internet connection at all required to use maps, unlike with, say, Google Maps; still can't believe that Nokia handed this "crown jewel" to MS; Nokia was never able to tell the OVI maps story; MS apparently fully understood what it is though)

I've had those features on my Nokia handsets for years (save for USB-on-the-Go, which is available only on the handsets introduced last year), without needing 3rd party applications. (Add two applications - Joiku-spot and SMBSync - and I've had Wi-Fi sharing and the ability to browse Windows, Linux, and Mac PCs from my phone, and my phone from those computers, since 2007).

And now Nokia is moving to an OS that doesn't have a fraction of those features (not even copy-and-paste for goodness sakes), though undoubtedly it will be prettier ("animated transitions!"). I suspect that consumers and the carriers don't really want "smart" phones. They want phones with web browsers. In which case, Nokia's play may just meet with success.

(As for the supposed difficulty or complexity of the Symbian UI, all I can say is my wife, who is decidedly non-technical, has no trouble using her current S^3 device, including VoIP, email, file transfers and Internet radio. And this without a data plan at all, by the way, just Wi-Fi. In fact, she can use the handset for calls and email without even having a SIM card in the handset, which I imagine is not something that enamoured Nokia Symbian handsets to North American carriers.)

Nokia was never able to tell its "smart" phone story here (North America). Apple adds copy-and-paste and (limited) multimedia streaming and everyone knows about it. Even many owners of Nokia handsets don't know what it can do (yes, partly the fault of the UI I grant, but marketing also played a big part, in my opinion), so they install Skype instead of just signing up for, say, voipcheap.

PM


 
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