Mobile World Congress 2008 Reflections
Neither Rita nor I were able to attend the Mobile World Congress this year, unfortunately, but there are several things that I want to pull from the handsets and services that were announced. These are things that are small when seen separately, but when you step back and take a look at the whole picture, it’s painted rather clearly and shows that Nokia is serious about several things, and it gets me even more excited about what’s to come in the rest of 2008.
A quick recap of the announcements for you: Nokia announced 4 new handsets, the N78, N96, 6210 Navigator, and 6220 Classic. 2 new Nseries and 2 new ‘Multimedia Phones’ (ones with 4-number names), all of which have cameras of 3.2 megapixels or better, and all of which have HSDPA, quad-band GSM, and GPS included, as well as Maps 2.0 and geotagging natively. The N78 and 6210 Navigator both have a US 3G variant coming, and that’s important.
Thus far, most fanboys seem rather disappointed in Nokia’s announcements, but I think there’s several things that no one has really picked up on. Click through to find out what Rita and I think about the announcements made this week at the 2008 Mobile World Congress….
Symbian-Guru’s Thoughts
1. The fact that there are US 3G variants announced at the same time is HUGE, and something we’ve all spoken out on. What’s even bigger, is that, given the features and prices of the N78 and 6210 Navigator, both stand a VERY good chance of being picked up by AT&T. I wouldn’t be surprised to see either, and honestly, I’d welcome it. However, they’re not dumbed down enough to be unsuccessful if launched unlocked/unbranded. They’re a perfect mix, I would say.
2. All four models, of varying market level, have at least a 3.2 megapixel camera or higher. That’s important, as it shows that we’re not likely to see any more of this 2 megapixel nonsense on Nseries, which are supposed to be top-notch. I would be really surprised to see any more S60 handsets at all from Nokia with less than 3.2 megapixels.
3. All four models have GPS built-in. Again, this is something that Nokia said was going to filter down and be a part of EVERY Nokia handset soon, and they’re now following through. Also important is tha, along with the Nokia Maps 2.0 announcement came word that an S40 version will be out soon. Who cares? Can someone please tell me what S40 handset currently has GPS built in? Aha, none. For now. I think, for Nokia, GPS just became as standard as Bluetooth.
4. The 6220 completely blows my mind. Why on earth would they bring a 5 megapixel camera and Xenon flash to a non-Nseries handset? I’m not quite sure what to think about this just yet, to be honest. However, I know several people who are intensely interested in this handset, but aren’t interested in the N82, so we’ll see how it fares.
5. There’s no flip phones. Nokia has always seen flip phones as ‘trendy’, and personally I don’t think we’ll see too many from the Finnish giant. I think candybars and sliders are to be the norm, with maybe 1-2 flip S60 handsets, just to say they have them. Nokia’s few flip offerings, at least in the S60 arena, were rather poor, to be honest.
6. Most seem to be disappointed that the N96 is so close in features to the N95. I think it’s important to remember that 1. the N95 product line is still selling phenomenally well. It’s over a year old, which is quite old in cellphones, but it’s still extremely popular. Also, in the next 60 days, we have CeBIT, CTIA, and the annual S60 Summit, all of which Nokia is a part of. That’s quite a few events, and I would imagine that Nokia has held back some handsets for these venues.
Also, Nokia isn’t likely to announce its new flagship device at a large event because they don’t control the news at events such as Mobile World Congress or CeBIT. They’re much more likely to have their own event, much like they did with the Go Play event and the original N95 event in New York City.
7. I’m completely thrilled with Sony Ericsson’s G-series announcement. These handsets not only look great, but also bring stellar camera functionality to the Symbian lineup and can only serve to improve the market’s view on Symbian, be it UIQ or S60-based.
8. I’m also completely thrilled to see the Samsung G810 and LG KT610 being announced, as I think it’s high time for the other S60 licensees to join the party. More to come on that later.
Dotsisx’ Thoughts
At first glance, I felt like what-the-hell-are-they-doing? In short, I wasn’t impressed. But some minutes later, when it all sank in, I saw the big picture.
Today Nokia didn’t go for the NEW-factor. Basically, all the new “technology” that they added to their portfolio is the FM transmitter on the N78, the kickstand on the N96 and S60 3rd FP2. Everything else, they already have developed, manufactured, marketed. What they really did is take all of the expertize that they had and aimed it at a new DIRECTION. This new direction is all about location-based services (all the new devices have GPS and image tagging), about connectivity (all have HSDPA and some even WiFi) and about plunging fully into the US competition (N78 and 6210 have US versions coming). You have to give it to them though, their strategy could be a killer!
Why? Because it costs them far less than cranking in a new tech, knowing that they have done it all before (A-GPS, Cameras, WiFi, HSDPA, DVB-H, Xenon, Naviwheel,…). Because if they wanted to introduce something new to their line, it would’ve been a VGA display and no one is doing that in the non-WM-or-iPhone market, so why would they? Plus they are probably leaving it to the Touch devices. Another main reason that gives this announcement some sense is the concomitant launch of the Share on Ovi, Nokia Maps 2.0 and Nokia Media Network. Nokia is shifting (or adding) focus more and more towards services and this 4-device launch is nothing but synergy and confirmation regarding this new strategy.
In short, what Nokia announced today might not be aimed at the WOW-factor, but it makes sense. They almost did what Ricky asked them to do a while ago.
On the other hand, I am really excited about the new G-series UIQ devices from Sony Ericsson, as well as the Samsung and LG S60 devices. It’s a pleasure to have them on board. It’s especially nice to finally see some consistent S60 devices from Samsung and LG, denoting that they are serious about the platform. After all, they have the license so why not use it? The UIQ from SE are also game-changing. I have had a loaned K750i for over a month a while back and I have to say that I’m not a big fan of SE’s interface. I believe it would do them a lot of good to invest more in UIQ and help it improve. The G-series are the seed of that thought and I agree with Ricky that it will be nice to see the UIQ touch vs S60 Touch UI battle when the latter is launched. Internal battles are always the dirtiest (and the most productive by the way).
Totally agree with both of your opinions on the G-series from SE. I see these devices as ’smartphones for the masses’, a la 6120 classic, and I think it’s a good move from SE, possibly the best announcements of MWC for them, despite the mighty coverage the X1 had (surprisingly, for me at least).
The N95 still sells very well,and why shouldn’t it? Does the competition have anything even close (again, except WM devices which, well..run WM)? Yeah, there’s the Samsung G810, but hold on, that was announced almost a year after the N95 got to the market. So from this point of view, the N96 makes sense (and I do like the new Nseries design and the fact that it is uniquely identifyable throughout the range a lot).
However, I must disagree on the screen res issue. Nokia has the N810 and the E90 with higher res screens. Why they haven’t pushed a higher res in the ‘flagship’ device is beyond me, especially since they’re marketing it as the ‘movie player’ or something.
Rick, on your point 4: No WiFi, no 3.5mm jack, more conservative look and target group = not a N-Series device. As simple as that. You could add on a more speculative note, a lower price point (N-Series probably carries a $10-$25 price premium just because it is N-Series) target?
totally agree about LG and Samsung jumping into the s60 world, its great news, and there announced devices are not too shabby either.
the nokia 6220c device is going to be a ate up by the public, i wouldnt be a bit surprised if it becomes very popular with those features at the estimated price
N96 seems a backward step in some ways, rather than a ‘flagship’ or ’successor’ to N95 (as per Nokia Promo) eg. it seems to lack 3D HW graphics acceleration according to this guy:
http://thesymbianblog.com/2008/02/12/hands-on-with-the-n96/
Then again, Nokia have omitted the N96 CPU details on Forum Nokia, so what gives ?