Yesterday I almost scored a new N8
by Volker Weber
At the end of a session, the moderator announced. "We are previewing Xmas. On the way out, pick up your N8." As it turned out, that was only meant for developers. Dang. That would have been fun. :-)
The N8 should soon be available. Nokia is pleased with the pre-orders, and I believe the hardware has long been done. It's the software that is holding up the release. The devices Nokia was handing out still had a prerelease firmware.
At lunch I was sitting across from Dimitri, a developer who had a new N8. Strangely though, he did not care much. He played with it for a little, and then put it back in the box. I asked him why he wasn't swapping his SIM in, and he flashed his old iPhone. That was quite a theme at the event. Lots of people with iPhones. Some Androids, of course lots of Nokias, but many, many iPhones. And lots of iPads replacing notebooks.
So I was thinking: What if I had scored an N8? Would I have swapped in my SIM? Technically no, since I was using an iPhone with MicroSIM. But if that were not the case? Would it replace my iPhone, my Nexus One, my BlackBerry? For a couple of days, yes. And then? Would it sit there, to be used occasionally to test new stuff? Or would it live in my pocket?
How can Nokia get its sexy back?
Comments
It may not be that he didn't want to pull the SIM from his iPhone to put in the Nokia. It may be that he couldn't. From what I've seen, the SIM, like the battery is accessible to the user.
Trust me it is possible with a paper clip.
Two Words: E7, N9 ;)
Seriously, the E7 IMHO is the slickest and most sexy Nokia to date. I can not stop staring at the pictures. The other S^3 devices will also sell really well. But not sexy for us geeks, right.
For this, the N9 is just right. It should (from the leaked pictures) also look pretty good. And MeeGo should cut. I am particularly fond of the newest hire in this department ;)
If all this comes together, Nokia is indeed back. If not, they will continue to sell bucketloads of cheap phones, but this will eventually erode, as Samsung and LG are really gaining here.
Timothy, I would assume the N8 uses a normal SIM card. The microSIM in his iPhone wouldn't fit in there.
Only the iPhone 4 has a MicroSIM. Interesting, that you are trying to find a technical reason. As I said, I talked to him. And it was pretty clear to me that he preferred the iPhone. And it's not the hardware. The old 3G(S) phone is inferior to the N8 in every single aspect.
A new font would be a good start. Tastes are different and the typical Symbian fonts may be easy to read but they look so ugly to me. You can spot any iPhone by the beautiful icons and any Symbian Nokia because of its ugly font.
But the N8 still looks like a winner to me.
It's not the hardware it's the software. As you can read these days all over the Internet Nokia is still a hardware driven company. Software will be key, though. The whole Nokia situation sometimes reminds me of IBM/Lotus: Too many choices for the customer, no clear message. Too litle, too late. I don't see how the 3GS is inferior to the N8 in every single aspect. It's the software! Now start firing back :-)
Markus, in respect to the hardware, the old 3G(S) phone is inferior to the N8 in every single aspect.
Henning, I like the (new) Nokia font used in their touch devices.
Volker, as I said, hardware isn't the primary concern anymore. (Almost) Everybody builds great hardware these days. If the software/OS stinks you can build the best hardware on the planet, it won't matter. Speaking for myself I could only migrate to another phone platform if all (most) of the software I rely on also exists there. And I can tell you the list of software on my phone I'm relying on is growing and growing. And most of this software isn't free but paid for so for me switching to another mobile platform needs way better arguments than superior hardware.
Maybe you can clarify what you mean specifically when you state the N8 hardware is better in every single aspect that the iPhone's? (camera, keyboard, battery performance, speaker, ...?)
i tried to use the N8 @ IFA! i mean... i tried. symbian s3 is holy crap if you used iOS for about 3 years, even android is muuuuch better! the N8 felt like 2005 or 2006, not because of the hardware, just because of symbian!!
Markus, the list at the end of your post was a good start. Just list every single (hardware) feature and you are there ;)
True it is the software that makes a device today. I have had SE and Nokia hardware that beat the iphone (think the 3 or 5mp camera with a carl zeiss lense that was in the SE phones almost 5 yrs ago is still better then the crappy camera in the iphone4) but the problem with all these devices was that they made the phone useless for anything other then making a phone call, sending an sms or taking a picture. I want to to take a picture now and upload it with a caption to friends, letting them know exactly where I am. We want our phone to do more then to make a call now ways.
