Nokia: Connecting People
Wow. I’ve spent the past few days formulating my thoughts
in regards to the Nseries party at the Hollywood mansion in L.A. First off, as
I’m sure you know by now, no one made any correct predictions as to what
exactly the shin-dig was for. That doesn’t surprise me. Everyone – myself
included – wanted the event to be some super-secret launch party for a new
device, or, as Olly hoped, a new partnership announcement. No one could really
believe that so much planning and money would be spent just to hang out with Nokia at a
cool house. But that’s exactly what it was…
The whole night, as I discovered, was dedicated to making
connections. The conversations that I had with Nokia execs, other bloggers and forum members,
Slingmedia execs, and Symbian-Guru readers were what the entire evening was
about. I was able to have a killer conversation with Bill Plummer. Yes, THAT
Bill Plummer. Apparently he’s a Symbian-Guru.com reader, which is incredibly
flattering. But talking to Bill was not an opportunity for me to grill him on
recent Nokia downfalls, nor was it about trying to extract a leak of some sort.
Bill and I talked about how our Nseries devices enrich and enable our lives,
something I’ve talked about before. Bill mentioned that he loves finding new
applications and uses for his phones, and I asked what the latest was. When I
asked that question, it was really awesome to see Bill’s face completely light
up as he went through his phone, showing apps that he’s discovering, and
sharing how he’s using those in his
life.
The more and more I chatted with Bill about this concept of
your mobile phone being a mere extension of real life, the more animated he
got, and the more he was like a kid in a candy shop, eyes wide open and the
excitement of it all just making him shake. Through the conversations I had
with other Nokia people, it was very apparent why I was there and why they’d
setup the event. Nokia is a company that “gets it.” Or at least they’re
starting to “get it.”
I also had phenomenal conversations with Symbian-Guru
readers and people that I know through HowardForums. It’s interesting to hear
the same announcements and speeches and presentations as someone, and then find
out what they took from it, versus what I was able to glean. Different people
see things from such different perspectives. I for one am really excited to be
involved with this new direction for Nokia. It’s very much about enabling.
I was also very impressed to see how prominent the N800 was
featured. They had several little stands setup with the Gtalk client, and a
Nokian would send your drink order to the bar through it, and then the bar girl
would bring your drink. Very innovative use for the tablet. I was able to have
a killer conversation with Daniel from Tabletblog.com regarding the N800.
There’s several things that we both agreed that Nokia need to bring to the
Internet Tablet. For instance, the camera is quite possibly one of the most
under-utilized features. Why can’t 3rd party apps access it? How
neat to be able to walk around with it, in a Justin.tv type format? Also, when
asked about the next Tablet, Bill Plummer said that the 770 was for hackers,
plain and simple, and Nokia learned A TON from them as to what they want a
Tablet to do and how it should look and feel and work. Thus came the N800. It’s
slightly more focused towards the consumer, but still very much a hacker/geek
toy. There’s a slow evolution there. That was the only hint we got towards the
next one, and I’m going to admit that I’m excited about it.
I also had a very promising conversation with several people
regarding Nokia’s recent surge in accessories. Watch this space for more on
that soon. I think there’s going to be some exciting things happening.
Are you noticing a trend here? Conversations. That’s what it
was all about. Nokia’s learning to be a very open company, and is putting a
large emphasis on having conversations with the “early adopter” group. Why?
Because we "early adopters" (Nokia has other names for us, even further categorizing. They’re very much into market research) are the ones who set the tone for the rest of the consumers. If we think something is cool, that filters down the chain, the same as if we think something sucks.
It’s really an exciting thing, to see a company connecting to its customers in such a way. It’s really exciting to look ahead and see that trend continue. I love it.
So that’s my recap on the event. Did I end up with any free phones? No. Do I really care? A little. But I’m also able to look back on the event as such a milestone, and indicator of what’s to come out of this Finnish giant. I also didn’t really get a chance to play with the devices they had there, I was too busy connecting with people.
wish i was there, nice write up. glad to see this was less about the devices and more about the people.
Ricky — I totally agree with you about the camera on the N800. But it’s not as ‘tho it’s totally usless… Gizmo and a few other applications do let you use it.
Interesting.. would love to hear more about your conversations, in particular the one on the accessories, which are often a bit overlooked/only mentioned in passing in blogs etc.
E.g. it would be interesting to hear if there was any hint of a gamepad coming, e.g. somethinkg along the lines of what can be seen on the background of the first pic here:
http://bp1.blogger.com/_h5hOmDEy1n4/RvpIS1NGsuI/AAAAAAAAZXw/q71SHx39gzU/s1600-h/n.jpg
http://bp0.blogger.com/_h5hOmDEy1n4/RvpIKlNGspI/AAAAAAAAZXI/HEbKZXMN_8g/s1600-h/n1.jpg
oh and sounds like the event was not only a great strategic move for Nokia, but also a huge PR success..
Thanks for the headset again Ricky and glad we met in person. You’re definitely right about the party being making connections. At the Q&A session, Bill kept insisting to everyone “Don’t spend too much time here. Make sure you go downstairs and talk with everyone.”