With Nokia Multimedia Transfer and iSync, I had a solution for interaction between my S60 handsets and my Macbook that was way better than the one I had earlier with my Windows XP-running laptop. But things didn’t remain pink all the way, and trouble was just around the corner.
The first thing that struck me was that when I put the CD that came in the N82’s box inside my Mac, nothing happened. Nothing. It’s blank. In order to run it, I had to do it through the Windows virtual machine installed on my Mac. What the hell is that? If Nokia didn’t have any software for Mac, I’d understand this (or try to), but they DO have Mac software! Let the CD recognize which system I’m running when I insert the CD, and either give me PC Suite and its dependencies on Windows, either Nokia Multimedia Manager and iSync on Mac OS. There’s no negotiating that.
Another issue somewhat related to this one, is that when I connect my handsets to my computer through USB mode, I am given “PC Suite” as an option on the phone. Nokia, for pete’s sake, just acknowledge Mac OS once and for all, let the handset know what I connected to and give me “Mac Connectivity” or something like it as an option, because as a first time user, I will be baffled if I see PC when I connect my device to a Mac.
One more WTF I faced was when I tried opening Nokia’s homepage on Safari. It rendered horribly, just horribly. This has already been pointed out by Steve Litchfield in his first article about S60 and Mac, yet Nokia has done nothing about it. And talking about Safari, the Nokia Music site doesn’t even open in Safari, neither in Firefox, my beloved browser. Mac users don’t have any way they can surf the Music Store without buying Parallels or VMware and purchasing a Windows license. This is bullshit, honestly. And they wonder why our North-American apple-loving friends don’t care about Nokia or why the brand name isn’t dominant in NA: you have to care about your market in order for the market to care about you. Seriously.
One more letdown is that all the software that Nokia releases is PC-only, meaning that as a Mac user, you’re denied the right to try or enjoy the Nokia Music client, Communication Center, Nokia Photos, Ovi Suite, Nokia Map Loader (ie you have no way to download maps or buy licenses other than on your handset, over the air). Also, if you download N-Gage games from the computer and not directly to the handset, they get downloaded as .exe meaning they won’t run on a Mac.
For a company that is trying to push its software and services to the masses, this is absolute bullshit: neglecting the development of software for one platform is a self-imitating self-suicidal decision. It’s true that Macs are still niche products, but look around and you’ll see that a lot of N-series users and S60 users in general are Mac users.
So does Nokia care about the Macs? A lot of facts, some of which were mentioned here hint that the answer is no. Yet other facts hint that yes, like the amazing Nokia Multimedia Transfer; and for example when I received an N81 to trial N-gage, there’s was a Mac friendly version of the press kit I got; and the fact that the recent video posted by Nokia Conversations to demonstrate the 5800 Xpress-Music was edited on iMovie (they don’t say it explicitely, but believe me, it is).
This concludes my look at the interaction between S60 and Macs, but join us tomorrow for the 3rd article in this series where I talk a little bit about S60 and Linux, and finish off with some thoughts on the other side.
[Image for this post and the series banner courtesy of Gilad's DeviantArt]
