A decade ago, Stephen Elop made the announcement that Nokia was adopting Windows Phone 7 as its platform of choice. Being the mobile nerd that I was, I live Tweeted the press conference. Terence Eden is on Mastodon@edentRight, where can I watch thus #Nokia press conference? Is there a mobile friendly live stream?❤️ 0💬 0♻️ 007:31 - Fri 11 February 2011 Let's take a look back to see what Elop and I got right or wrong. Terence Eden is on Mastodon@edentSo, looks like Microsoft kills another Linu…
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A decade ago, I was invited to the UK launch of Windows Phone 7. It was Microsoft's attempt to compete with Apple's iPhone and Google's Android. Sure, Microsoft could make a brilliant OS and had excellent hardware partners - but could they convince developers to use yet another system? At the time, I wrote: The revenue share is 70/30. I really think MS have missed a trick here. It’s an “industry standard” price point because no one wants to get in to a price war. Increasing the share th…
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I was working in the mobile phone industry just as smartphones were taking off. I saw the Palm Pilot rise and fall. I witnessed NEC and Sagem and a host of companies launch smartphones and then disappear. But the greatest tragedy of them all was Nokia and their Symbian Operating System. (Actually, Symbian's ownership and relationship with Nokia is complex. But let's gloss over that for now.) Symbian was, for its time, a brilliant OS. It ran 3D games smoothly, had terrific hardware support, a…
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Last year I complained about a dangerous change to Google's Maps app. When driving, you want to spend the majority of your time concentrating on the road ahead. Flicking one's eyes to the mirrors & speedometer should be enough to quickly assess one's environment. The same applies for SatNav apps - every second that is spend trying to figure out what the graphics means is a second where the road goes unobserved. Recently, I've been trying Nokia's new Here maps for Android. There's a lot to…
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It was the best of phones - it was the worst of phones... I want to start this review by saying three things: I got this phone for free - thanks Nokia! I'm an extremely demanding mobile user. I recognise that I am an edge-case; what I find annoying, you may not. I've tried to stick to actual bugs, not just "it does things differently." Sergeant Elop's Lonely Phone Club Imagine, of you will, you have just purchased a brand new copy of Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band on…
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Stephen Fry has recently recorded a BBC podcast about the history of the mobile phone. It's a really great series, and I encourage you to listen to it. At one point in episode 4, Stephen sings the Nokia ringtone. So, here it is for your edification, and delight. 🔊 Stephen Fry sings the Nokia Ringtone🎤 edent 💾 Download this audio file. Feel free to set it as your iPhone's ringtone :-) All together now, "Derr-nerr-nerr-nerr Derr-nerr-nerr-nerr Derr-nerr-nerr-nerr Nerr!" …
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Nokia's marketing team are idiots. They've used URL over which they have no control on an advert for one of their premium handsets. This is the story of how I hijacked stole hacked recycled it and, in doing so, prevented Nokia from having a serious PR problem. E7 Poster This is advert for the new Nokia E7. It really emphasises the tweeting capabilities of the handset. Nokia's marketing team have illustrated this by showing off a couple of tweets on the handset. One of which contains a…
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There's a delightful video doing the rounds of an Augmented Reality game for the iPhone. What better use of technology than to simulate the destruction of TIE Fighters? While undoubtedly cool, what amuses me about this game is why it has taken the gaming world so long to catch up with Symbian! Way back in 2003, I got my hands on the Siemens SX1. It was the first non-Nokia handset to be running Symbian. As well as "modern" features like GPS, web browsing, and apps - it also came with a…
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Way back in 2010, I was sent a Nokia N8 to review. It was dreadful. Simply one of the worst devices I've ever used. My original ranty blog posts have been lost from tumblr, so I've reposted it here as a single post. It is pretty slapdash. I've added some commentary. Warning! There be swearing ahead! On signing in to the N8, I was prompted to log in with my Ovi account. I have an account, but I can't remember the password. In order to retrieve it I must prove that I am human. Oh, cool! A…
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Three failures and one giant lost opportunity Failure 1 - Targeting This version of the Tesco shopping app is only available on Nokia phones. Nothing wrong with that - Nokia are still the biggest phone seller on the planet. So why allow the advert to be shown to Android users? It will annoy users, reduce your CPM, and make users less likely to click on adverts in future. Failure 2 - Sizing This is the full resolution on the advert. (full resolution) 168*28 is barely enough to contain…
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I've mentioned Nokia on here a few times. For a mobile focused company, they seem to have a real problem with mobile advertising. It starts well enough with an animated GIF. The site it links to is http://music.nokia.co.uk/ - cleverly, Nokia redirect mobile users to a specific mobile version of the site. That's where it all starts to go wrong... (more…) …
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Sauntering down Oxford Street, Mauricio Reyes spotted Nokia's secret Android plans. Nokia phones "running" Android Is this just a hapless Photoshop mistake - or a sign of things to come?!?!?!?! (more…) …
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