Stefan at RingNokia has created a new category and coverage for his blog called, "Why Aren’t You Built In?" It’s basically a list of 3rd Party Applications that are so good at basic things that Nokia should just buy them and start shipping them with every S60 phone. I was going to mention Agile Messenger or IM+, when I realized something.
It’s not so much that Nokia needs to ADD more functionality and apps to their phones, it’s that they need to take a complete inventory of what they DO provide, and replace some with obvious choices, similar to my RealPlayer rant from a few days ago.
Click on to read my list, and feel free to voice your choices for items that need to be reassessed in future devices.
The first is going to be IM. I have used Nokia’s phones for a long time, from the 6190 to the 3360 to the 6620 and on to my current pairing of N73 and E62, and I have yet to use Nokia’s built-in IM program. At all. It’s absolutely useless. But, has TONS of cool ideas that COULD be implemented. For example, the whole Presence thing. Basically the idea is that if you pull up your contacts list, you could see a real-time status of your buddies to see if they are online to chat with.
As it stands now, at least in the US, the only way to use Nokia’s built-in IM program is with a 3rd Party called Yamigo, and it’s hit-or-miss. Recently, Nokia did strike an agreement with IM company OZ Communications, but that’s only for the client. It still is on the Carrier to support it, and more importantly (and disappointingly, to charge for it). Ed over at E-Series.org has a good comparison of the big guns, and some small shooters, too.
Why Nokia can’t put an IM program that uses a data connection (or better yet, allows you to pick whether it uses data or SMS) and is implemented into the contacts is beyond me. I’d like for it to have such tight integration that if I want to find John Smith, I can either pull up the IM app and scroll through all my "buddy lists," or go straight to John Smith’s contact page and see what networks he’s signed onto, and if he’s available. THAT would be something worth taking up memory on my phone. What do you think? What other apps/features should be dropped in favor of something more robust?
