Category Archives: SYMBIAN

It is fairly easy for Stephen Elop to make noises about the recent history of Nokia, but to make the noises still makes a lot of sense. Personally, I think that the leak of his memo could work to Nokia’s benefit. More at the BBC.

“The first iPhone shipped in 2007, and we still don’t have a product that is close to their experience,”

“Android came on the scene just over two years ago, and this week they took our leadership position in smartphone volumes. Unbelievable.”

The Nokia E7 will start to ship this week after what some would call a long delay. I am fairly convinced this will be the last big Symbian smartphone from Nokia.

Espoo, Finland – The highly anticipated Nokia E7 will begin arriving in stores in select markets this week, with broader availability building up quickly in several markets.
 
With its tilting 4 inch ClearBlack display, full qwerty keyboard and a fast access to a wide variety of apps directly on the homescreen, the Nokia E7 is the key to having a successful day in or out of the office. Importantly, the device supports business applications from leading enterprise technology partners including Microsoft and IBM.

Key features of the Nokia E7

- Easy access to private and business email
- Create, edit and share office documents and view PDF files with Adobe Reader
- Fast, secure intranet access with the built-in VPN
- High-resolution photos and HD video with the 8 megapixel camera and dual LED flash
- HDMI connectivity to project files, videos and images onto large screens
- 16 gigabytes of on-board flash memory
- USB-On-The-Go, enabling easy file sharing by connecting a USB stick to the smartphone

For business users, Nokia E7 provides direct, secure and real-time access to email, calendar, contacts, tasks and the corporate directory through Microsoft Exchange servers, as well as Office Communicator Mobile, developed by Microsoft for Nokia smartphones, which brings presence and corporate instant messaging.

Additionally, a wide range of entertainment and social services available on the Nokia E7 make it the perfect off-duty companion, and the Ovi Store offers a wealth of apps such as Bloomberg, Angry Birds and Sports Tracker.
 
The new arrival offers drive or walk navigation in 80 countries. The latest commercial version of Ovi Maps, available immediately via Ovi Store or Ovi Suite, adds visibility to subways, trams and trains, real-time traffic, safety alerts, visibility to parking and petrol stations, speed limit warnings, and improved search and location sharing capabilities.

Nokia Bubbles has made its way out of the Nokia Beta Labs and looks fantastic! This is the kind of interface the whole Symbian OS needs and shows that there are some imaginative developers withing Nokia. Check out the video demo below.

There are bubbles available for the following actions.

* Unlock the phone
* View new messages
* View/Respond to missed calls
* Control the music player
* Control the FM radio
* Change profile (profile timing also supported)
* Call/Message your three best friends
* Activate the backlight to use as a flashlight
* Show your current location using Ovi Maps
* Change the background of the Bubbles screen
* Display when battery needs charging
* Display statistics about bubble speed and distance (just for fun)

There are many features in Symbian^3 that people are unaware of, but a quick look at this in-depth review from Chris at Mobile Technology will open your eyes to many of the lesser known features with the latest version of the OS.

“I decided to make an in depth review of Symbian^3 OS, and the people at WOMWorldNokia were kind enough to send me a Nokia C7 for that purpose. I’ve divided the review into many chapters, each dedicated to all important apps included in this new OS. First of all, I have to say that the first thing that comforted me was to see that Nokia has finally linked the entire suite of Ovi services into a single account that you can log into first time you boot the phone. Another plus is the single tap to open items in lists, grids and everywhere, a thing that S60v5 did not have, as well as long press for item specific options. The whole experience is more fluent than any Symbian before, and the interface is much more polished than ever. The kinetic scrolling works flawlessly all over the user interface, so the phone is very snappy. Support for themes is and will always be a big plus for Symbian, and S^3 makes no exception. Throughout the review you’ll see many comparisons with the previous version of Symbian, S60v5 a.k.a. Symbian^1. That is because I do not want to make comparisons between S^3 and Android or iOS since they are conceptually different, and address different niches on the mobile market. So, on to the review.”

Nokia has published its results (PDF here) for quarter 4 2010 and both profits and market share are down. This is not surprising, but could be timely and spur some significant changes over the next few months.

- Nokia net sales of EUR 12.7 billion in Q4 2010, up 6% year-on-year and 23% sequentially (flat and up 24% at constant currency).
- Devices & Services net sales of EUR 8.5 billion in Q4 2010, up 4% year-on-year and 18% sequentially (down 3% and up 19% at constant currency).
- Services net sales of EUR 201 million in Q4 2010, up 21% year-on-year and 26% sequentially; billings of EUR 352 million, up 57% year-on-year and 8% sequentially.
- Nokia total mobile device volumes of 123.7 million units in Q4 2010, down 3% year-on-year and up 12% sequentially.

- Nokia converged mobile device (smartphone and mobile computer) volumes of 28.3 million units in Q4 2010, up 36% year-on-year and 7% sequentially.
- Nokia mobile device ASP (including services revenue) of EUR 69 in Q4 2010, up from EUR 64 in Q4 2009 and EUR 65 in Q3 2010.
- Devices & Services gross margin of 29.2% in Q4 2010, down from 34.3% in Q4 2009 and up from 29.0% in Q3 2010.
- Devices & Services non-IFRS operating margin of 11.3% in Q4 2010, down from 15.4% in Q4 2009 and up from 10.5% in Q3 2010.
- NAVTEQ net sales of EUR 309 million in Q4 2010, up 37% year-on-year and 23% sequentially (up 33% and 27% at constant currency).
- Nokia Siemens Networks net sales of EUR 4.0 billion in Q4 2010, up 9% year-on-year and 35% sequentially (up 7% and 37% at constant currency).
- Nokia Siemens Networks non-IFRS operating margin of 3.7% in Q4 2010, down from 5.5% in Q4 2009 and up from -3.9% in Q3 2010.
- Nokia operating cash flow of EUR 2.4 billion and cash generated from operations of EUR 2.5 billion in Q4 2010.
- Total cash and other liquid assets of EUR 12.3 billion and net cash and other liquid assets of EUR 7.0 billion at the end of Q4 2010.
- Nokia taxes continued to be unfavorably impacted by Nokia Siemens Networks taxes as no tax benefits are recognized for certain Nokia Siemens Networks deferred tax items. In Q4 2010, this was more than offset by a favorable profit mix and certain current quarter benefits both in Devices & Services and in Nokia Siemens Networks taxes. If Nokia’s estimated long-term tax rate of 26% had been applied, non-IFRS Nokia EPS would have been approximately 2.5 Euro cents lower in Q4 2010.

Paul has sent in a link to a fascinating story concerning mobile-review. I haven’t had time to digest it fully, but it is on InstaPaper ready for me later. Sounds like some serious mobile related gossip.

“As you’ve probably heard, Murtazin is responsible for a huge leak about one of the most anticipated Nokia products this year – Nokia N8. In this blog I’ve posted articles telling you the true facts about upcoming Nokia N8, exposing false info Mr Murtazin provided. For example he was acclaiming, that Nokia N8 has a worse camera, than SE Satio or Samsung S8500.  At this moment it sounds like a real joke, but at the moment of the publishing it created a lot of hype leaving huge audience concerned and disappointed. Not for long, but anyway.

After the initial leak Murtazin published several  articles on mobile-review.com severely criticizing Nokia N8 in different ways but somehow less and less people were convinced by his articles, because his prejudice was becoming more and more obvious every day.”

The Nokia Guide has posted a story called Thinking Of Leaving Nokia? in which it lists various reasons why you you stay such as long battery life, the best cameras etc. The operating system and apps are conspicuous by their absence though.

The mobile space has changed a lot. It’s very different from just a few years ago and there is a lot of competition. Strong competition. All good reasons why Nokia fans might be considering other brands  as their main device or as a second phone. Think again. Here are a few reasons why you should reconsider getting another device…

The Nokia C5-03 is now available to buy from Nokia for just £189 SIM free. Despite the less than stellar OS, this is a very good piece of hardware for the price. via AAS.

# Touch screen mobile phone with on board QWERTY keyboard and stylus support
# Add contact shortcuts directly to your home screen
# Free navigation with turn-by-turn voice instructions
# Access the Internet through a 3.5G / 3G network or use as a Wi-Fi mobile phone
# View web pages as they should be seen on the large 3.2” high quality touch screen
# Stay connected with real time feeds from Facebook, Twitter and other social networks
# Capture life as it happens with the 5 megapixel digital camera
# Record videos and post your favourite clips to YouTube
# Make it your own – fully customisable home screen
# Add shortcuts to your favourite websites and apps
# Micro USB connector
# MicroSD memory card support
# Thousands of mobile apps at the Ovi Store

Nokia has finally given up on the subscription based ‘Comes with Music’ service that promised so much when it was first announced. So why didn’t it work? In theory the idea should have been a big winner with most customers, but it faltered initially because it was bundled with Nokia phones that were not the best at producing a quality music experience. And then followed a slow decline in Nokia sells which maybe highlights that the best services still require the best phone experience to succeed.

From Reuters- “Nokia will continue to sell phones with 12-month subscription to free music downloads in China, India and Indonesia and with 6-month subscriptions in Brazil, Turkey and South Africa.

All four major labels — Vivendi’s Universal Music, EMI, Warner Music Group and the music arm of Sony — signed up for the service, which was seen at start as a major challenger for Apple’s iTunes.”