Randy Arnold's Blog

source: http://www.cellfanatic.com/

Nokia’s S40 operating system has long been relegated to non-multitasking offerings in its stable of devices.  Simple to implement and use, it’s the ammunition for Nokia’s carpet-bomb-the-developing-world-with-cellphones strategy. Symbian, and then Maemo, and then MeeGo and now Windows Phone 7 have been touted as the operating system(s) for the rich high end (excluding Vertu and some other exceptions).

The thinking seems to have been, “Get low-end Nokia devices into the hands of those who can’t/won’t yet use or afford smartphones, and then migrate them upward when the time is right”.

Great tactic in theory, but it has so far failed to succeed as needed.  For Nokia, anyway.  

Background

Understanding why is not difficult.  After joining Nokia’s US operations in 2005, I was astounded to newly discover N- and E-series devices. To my limited American experience, Nokia was the majority owner of the grocery store end cap, devoting its energies solely to cheap cell phones… especially pay-as-you go products for companies like Tracfone.  So in my mind, Nokia was synonymous with the low end.

If I had been alone in that assumption, Nokia would have been fine.  But history clearly illustrates that as America’s desire for smartphones ramped up, Nokia lost out.  So I can only imagine I’m not so alone.

The reasons for Nokia’s US decline are more complex than simple purchaser  perception, but that one is key.  If Nokia had succeeded in educating US citizens about its high end offerings, and how the company was about much more than “disposable” phones, then service providers would have surely been besieged by irresistible demands that Nokia smartphones be made available as subsidized options.  But because purchasers saw Nokia in a  single low light, that didn’t happen.  Handset manufacturers who did a better job of promoting their high end succeeded instead.  And ultimately, a consumer electronics company with no low-end handset legacy at all came out of left field to dominate with its iPhone.

This wasn’t limited to the United States, either.  Nokia worked the low and mid ranges in India, too, hoping to get the upgrade action going there.  Despite initial success, though, as observers suspected Nokia has recently seen competitors move in to capture many customers.  Retention, again, has been a problem.

Foreground

So we’ve covered the past.  Let’s talk about the future.

Nokia dropped some strong hints about its plans for “the next billion” at its Nokia Connection 2011 event.  Development framework Qt, HTML5 and operating system S40 have been recently discussed in such semantic proximity lately that the only reasonable conclusion is that Nokia is taking a new tack:  rather than pulling handset owners up to the world of smartphones, it will instead push that rich functionality down into price points that a few years ago would have been unfathomable.

Let that process for a minute.

As much as Nokia has stumbled during the past few years, it very well could make this work!  They have the expertise, the logistics, and surely the desperation required to change the smartphone game in a way that most competitors will be unable to meet or beat.  Beef up the power on low end devices and use Qt to create a truly breathtaking experience for users unused to smartphone niceties.  CEO Stephen Elop has already declared that a full touch UI is coming to S40.

Of course this comes with a caveat: these users don’t want complex.  Not all of them choose S40 for cost; many select it for its simplicity and responsiveness.  Both come courtesy of avoiding multitasking and third-party applications.  Now, putting high-powered CPUs into these handsets will certainly mitigate performance hits– but if Nokia is going to utilize Qt for UX/UI solutions, then they will have to expect pressure from third-party developers.  Clear, strong guidelines and a rigorous test/approval process should help.

Bottom Line

Before such a bold initiative could work, however, Nokia still has to battle ongoing perception problems.  Its strategy for the past several months has been flexible to the point of chaos.  Consumers, developers and service providers are confused, frustrated and as angry as Rovio’s birds.

Mobile pundits have long urged Nokia to start taking PR seriously.  Rethink retreats such as the closing of consumer-friendly flagship stores.  Ratchet up the advertising.  Improve outreach to bloggers like me.  Work like never before for that next billion.

If they don’t, they’ll be seen as disposable as those end cap phones.

My third Nokia N900 lost the ability to recognize a SIM card recently.  And the usual home repair tactics (bending the SIM, adding padding between the SIM slot and battery) had no effect.  I tried a cold reflash to no avail.

So I went back to my previously-trusty Nokia E61x only to find that the infrequent odd behavior it had been exhibiting (mainly going unresponsive when I needed it most) has now become the norm.  The little thing spends most of its time now in a coma and requires measures just short of serious abuse to awaken.  Factory reset didn’t help there, either.  It’s also not a mobile computer.  

I’ve been blessed with Nokia N8 and E7 devices thanks to Nokia’s Developer Champion (formerly Forum Nokia) program, but those ended up in the hands of my two young sons and good luck getting either back.  Despite adult reviews to the contrary, my teenagers love the things (their friends are actually jealous).

So I need a new phone.  Fast.

As I wrote yesterday I am (almost completely) enthralled with the MeeGo-ready Nokia N9.  Not the drama developing around it, for sure, but the device itself.

But it’s not out yet, and even if/when it’s made available I don’t expect to see it in the US any time soon.  Nokia apparently has a similar handset in the wings meant for Windows Phone 7, and it’s clear now that the two products will be launched in mutually-exclusive markets.  Even if the N9 makes it to the US, I won’t be able to afford it thanks to a severe reduction in salary since falling out of the Nokia nest and I doubt I’ll see this subsidized (although there are rumors of an AT&T offering at some point).

I’m tempted to turn to the AT&T store to grab something there.  In fact I even went so far recently as to purchase an HTC device, but the server choked on my order.  There’s some karmic irony in that, no doubt.

There are still some legacy Nokia phones gathering dust in my house.  My oldest son has an N93 that was never used since Nokia inexplicably chose to support T-Mobile bands but not AT&T’s.  I also have an E70, which I believe Nokia should resurrect with some modernization.  I think we have an old candy bar or two lurking somewhere as well.

I really, really miss using my N900 though.  Regardless of its faults, toting a mobile computer with cell radio capability worked best for me.  Hmmm… maybe what I really need is one of those N950 developer devices…

source: http://swipe.nokia.com

Unlike many friends and former Nokia colleagues, I have not had the pleasure of fondling a sexy new N9 so this won’t be a product review as much as a process and philosophy review.  That means something a little less structured than usual and loaded with unabashed opinion, pontificating and ranting.

So buckle up, this should be a ride that would do Tomi Ahonen proud.  

We have ignition…

Maemo and MeeGo community advocates didn’t begin with high expectations for the Nokia Connection 2011 event in Singapore on June 21.  Lacking the presentation pizzazz of Apple or even Microsoft, Nokia has a mixed history with this sort of thing and has too often bombed when it needed to blow something up.  So when we were bored with a Symbian Anna demo followed by an even more tiresome spiel on S40, the peanut gallery in a freenode.net IRC webchat augmented Nokia’s endless warm-up with the usual locker room antics.  CEO Steven Elop had promised a disruption; we were just distracted.

Then Marko Ahtisaari calmly and quietly claimed the stage.

Speculation had run rampant over who would more likely stun us with the allegedly disruptive device, but the consensus had correctly pinned Marko as the man.  He sealed the deal by very quickly getting down to business.

A presenter’s presenter, the well-spoken Ahtisaari peeled away layers of the slick N9 with the deftness of a professional magician.  I can’t speak for anyone else but our little web gathering was enthralled.  The catcalls and comic relief abruptly ceded to what amounted to geek sexting.  That’s the magic of what Nokia has pulled off here, with impeccable industrial design and a clever UI just begging to be swiped.

That’s also the problem.

The MeeGo Mambo

When Elop announced Nokia’s head-scratching new strategy (and I use that last term extremely loosely) back in February of this year, there was the promise of an undescribed MeeGo device to be produced at some point, to be followed by an anticlimactic year-long ramp-down of the project once hailed as Nokia’s high-end salvation.   Never mind that the N9 isn’t running pure MeeGo (but rather a mish-mash of Maemo 6 and MeeGo parts now curiously labeled as MeeGo 1.2 Harmattan).  To any end user, it’s MeeGo enough.

But the question becomes: why?

Why release something designed to run what is, for Nokia, a dead-end OS?  Elop says this otherwise-seductive N9 is intended as a test-bed for future Windows Phone 7 devices.  But how many consumers tolerate being tested?  Those few who fell in with Nokia’s steps 1 through 4 with Maemo can be forgiven for feeling too defeated to step up for number 5.  That would make the N9 a profit sink at a time when Nokia’s stock (NOK) is severely depressed.

Is this just a stopgap until Windows Phone 7 graces similar Nokia hardware?  If so, will enough purchasers succumb in the meantime to this obviously alluring work of art to at least cover its costs?

Conspiracy theorists are having a field day with this, pointing to admittedly mind-boggling statements and steps that, like the pieces from different puzzle sets, do not fit together.  One of the more prevailing and extreme speculations is that the N9′s strange release is actually a deliberate move by Microsoft-via-Nokia to torpedo the prospects of MeeGo– not just within Nokia’s domain, but in toto.  The old Fear/Uncertainty/Doubt (FUD) machine grinding up another competitor.  I’m resisting this line of thought, but… but…

The Maemo Legacy

Nokia struggled with its last Maemo device, the N900 mobile computer, both in terms of consumer adoption and reliability issues.  Can the company afford to repeat that with the N9?  And will the life of the typical N9 exceed Nokia’s willingness to support it?  The track record isn’t good there.

It’s all… bewildering.

Back to the device unveiling.  Again, Elop referred to this little beauty as disruptive.  He even went so far as to invoke his favorite word, ecosystem, although the N9 doesn’t appear to come with one.

So what could the N9 disrupt?  Well, so far it’s done a number on the MeeGo and Maemo communities, particularly the latter.  maemo.org members are largely polarized on included or excluded features like hardware keyboards, Adobe Flash support and HDMI.  Nothing new there.  But this is likely the last time the Maemo community could survive a foundation-fracturing device.  It’s already on shaky ground as legacy Maemo devices and long-standing community leaders run out of steam or just plain run out.

Long Limbs, Thin Ice

Many Maemo/MeeGo fans are looking at the glossy N9 with a glint of hope.  Maybe, just maybe goes the logic,  success for the N9 could change Elop’s mind on MeeGo.  Maybe the Linux-based operating system really is a Plan B– one that advances to Plan A under the right circumstances.  If Windows Phone 7 falters, and that’s a reasonable conjecture based on current sales, what else is Nokia going to do?  Stay with Symbian, which it tossed over to Accenture?  Elevate S40?  I don’t think even bringing Qt to S40 could happen fast enough.  If the N9 sells out completely, or close enough, will that trigger a slow-down in Nokia’s ramp-down?  If so, does Nokia have the ready staff for it, or have too many abandoned the wayward ship?

Detractors are saying this is all pointless, that there’s no room for MeeGo in a two-horse Android-plus-iOS world.  How selective amnesia can be; there wasn’t room for them, either, a few years ago when Symbian owned the playing field.

MeeGo could actually succeed with a similar approach to Apple’s: highly target a select demographic comprised of, say, fifteen to twenty percent of a given population and please them to no end.  But instead of the same demographic, cater to those at the complete opposite end of the open-closed spectrum.  In other words, the Maemo/MeeGo crowd in addition to those largely invested in Android because it isn’t iOS.  Then let Android, WP7, and the rest battle for the middle.  Select markets generate higher margins than mass markets, as Nokia has learned the hard way.

Summing Up

I found the Singapore event a crude juxtaposition of a lethargic Singapore (and similar) market address awkwardly combined with a brief, exciting N9 reveal.  This was the wrong venue to introduce this device.  The better one would have been the MeeGo Conference 2011, which sorely needed it.

Those who read here regularly will expect me to be completely candid, so I won’t disappoint.  There are aspects of the N9 I don’t like.  Sealed-in battery, lack of memory card slot, last year’s CPU, and a few others.  But I’m not the type to lose the forest for the trees.  From a big picture perspective, I love the Nokia N9.  Yes I drooled over its renderings.  Yes I find that uniquely-curved screen to be cool enough to touch.  Yes I want one NOW.  I will forgive the known shortcomings.  Heck, even Engadget likes it.

And as for MeeGo: it still enjoys strong support from Intel and partners.  It just needs a high-profile, lust-inducing handset to improve its consumer recognition prospects.  The N9 shows it can be done in spades, despite Elop’s disputable claims to the contrary.

I fully intend to explore this further.  Probably in many directions.  Where that goes might well be determined by you readers.  I am expecting an interesting mix of comments on this article.  Don’t disappoint!

Yet another post before getting into actual MeeGo Conference coverage.  I’ll share some logistics lessons in the hope that some will find them helpful,  along with some related details.  I’ve written on this subject before but there’s more and newer stuff to cover now.  

Expenses

Lack of a personal credit card tends to trip me up when it comes to purchasing airline tickets.  This time good friend and conference roommate Jens Wiik stepped up and covered the upfront cost.  As it turns out, though, roundtrip airfare from DFW to SFO and back was just under $240 USD, and we wound up having enough to cover it after all.  Still, many thanks to Jens for the help!  Moral: one can never have too many friends.

One of my biggest out-of-pocket expenses tends to be food, so I try to limit this as much as possible.  That means bringing some cheap breakfast bars and similar snacks, and taking advantage of every free meal.  Of course, no price can be put on the value of socializing so outings can be unavoidable.  Just make sure to expect higher-then-home costs and budget accordingly.

Reference

Past device failures and access issues have led me to print out all logistics info ahead of time.  Plane tickets, hotel info, maps, event stuff, whatever.  If I’m taking 2 separate bags then that’s two copies.  I’ll also leave my wife with printouts of air and hotel arrangements, tacked prominently to the refrigerator.

Packing

I find that I forget one item when attending events, so I get religious about preparations.  For this trip I started a week in advance, setting up a staging area in our living room much to the dismay of my wife.  After all these years and trips she has not yet adjusted to my peculiar habits and coping mechanisms.  Maybe we just need a bigger house, with a room I can mess up without her ever seeing.  Anyway, as it turns out, I only forgot my Nokia “barrel” connector adapter, which adapts chargers from the old larger size to the more recent narrower diameter.  That was a minor inconvenience, as I made sure to have more than one mode of charging devices.  A hard lesson learned before!

I also make sure to pack an extra phone.  That has proven to be a lifesaver at so many events (including this one, where my N900′s SIM connection failed) that I might as well just leave one in my backpack.  For this trip I brought along my E71x, the AT&T variant of Nokia’s slick little business phone.

Speaking of backpacks, on my trip to MIX11 I was informed by American Airlines that my smallest roll-around luggage was just a bit too big to fit in overhead storage on the way to Las Vegas.  That was confirmed on the trip back, where they let me carry it on only to find it had to be jammed into the compartment.  In addition, I tend to add a backpack or computer bag and lugging both can get awkward.

So prior to flying out this time I ordered the ideal luggage for my domestic trips. It’s a combination 22-inch roll-around plus daypack from High Sierra; the latter can be zipped onto the main bag for easy hauling.  It wound up being almost perfect.  You can find my review on it at Amazon.com.

Contacts

Another area of preparation is making sure I provide and retrieve contact info with necessary parties beforehand.  That meant starting with co-presenters of the local community talk and extending to many other MeeGo community members.   One helpful trick is to go through the attendee list and enable Twitter’s “tweet-to-SMS”.   See the first round green icon just to the right of the Following button?  That enables the feature.  Makes it easy to keep track of friends at the event.  When you return home, just unselect those you no longer need echoed to your SMS list.

Getting Around

It’s always a good idea to know the destination transportation options before traveling.  San Francisco is one of the better-equipped US cities with its extensive Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system.  BART rail can get visitors from either of the two major airports (SFO, OAK) to many of the major sites in San Francisco, including hotels.  I printed out the main route and marked my stops before leaving DFW.  The ride was only $8 and very convenient, delivering myself and friend Arek within a short distance of our hotel.  Kudos to the city for maintaining such an excellent resource!

Long Walk, Short Pier

But you can’t take the train everywhere.  On my last trip to California my good friend Henri Bergius put my poor feet through the wringer on the crazy-steep streets of San Francisco.  So this time I was determined to be prepared for his wickedness.  I spent weeks searching and researching the best shoe for the occasion.  Just before flying out, I believed I had found it: the Propét Summit Walker.

This shoe has everything.  Support, protection, laces to the toe and a convenient zipper just perfect for quick removal at airports.  I decided to place an order and have them shipped to my hotel, where they were scheduled to arrive the same day I did.  I wore some old, tight shoes there with the intent of donating them to a local charity.

Unfortunately there was an inventory feed count error from the distributor to Amazon, and there were no shoes to ship.  Result: one unhappy customer.  I ended up buying some Skecher Flex tennis shoes at a local SF discount store (and of course leaving the old ones behind for donation) but I still want a pair of those Propéts.

The Event

I’ll cover the MeeGo Conference itself in more detail in my next article.  Yes, I’m a bit late but I had intended to do it in retrospect anyway.  But in summary, the venue was perfect for the size and nature of the conference.  Suffice to say for now that the organizers got the important details right.

image source: http://creattica.com

In this age of electronic identification, paper stock business cards may seem a little passé, but they’re still the most common mode of contact exchange as far as I can see.  But they need not be “dumb”: even lowly paper media can be enhanced with smart elements, such as 2D (matrix) barcodes and, some day, electronic ink.  

I’ve been designing and printing my own cards for years now, usually because I only need a handful at any given time.  But it occurred to me that I was not taking full advantage of this habit when I was once handed a card with printing on both sides.  My new contact had merely thought to add a large logo on the back side, and I realized that this was real estate I had completely ignored by thinking too traditionally.

The face of the card is the default location for contact information, of course, so other than graphics, catch phrases or the like, what can the back be used for?

Context is Everything

I’ve seen some place their photo on the back side, and that’s a great idea.  It adds to the connection between card presenter and recipient, and aids in recognition and recollection.  But that can go a step further.  When you hand out cards at specific events, you want the new contact to leave with something that helps him remember where he met you and why he should care.  Including content relevant to the event itself is the key.  I’ve taken to adding text like “You met me at:” followed by graphics designed for the event.  Such design elements are easy to find at the event website or, failing that, via a web search on relevant images.  Here are examples of some I’ve done for Maemo and MeeGo activities as well as a visit to South by Southwest earlier this year:

my typical business card face

card back for South by Southwest 2011

card back for MeeGo Network DFW

card back for MeeGo Conference Spring 2011

When I first passed out cards like this, I was amazed at the response.  The consensus has been unanimous: this is a useful addition to business cards handed out at such occasions.

Going Further

Some of the most compelling cards I’ve seen incorporate aspects of the presenter’s business, usually in the design elements.  If you are challenged in this area, enlisting the aid of a gifted graphics designer might be worth the expense.  To keep cost down, try to find a student or newly-minted professional who could use the exposure and allow them to include a “designed by” tag on the card.  Hiring someone with expertise in card design would be particularly helpful, since there is a special talent in getting an idea across in such a small format (I admit to still being an amateur here).

When I was planning this article I had only my own examples in mind to share.  But then twitter friend and business card fan Charlene Jaszewski of TheRedHeadSaid fame pointed me toward ILoveBusinessCards.  Wow!  My own advice is for anyone stuck on card ideas to spend some time browsing the images there for inspiration.  I especially love the vintage passport and hand-stamped versions.  Unusual shapes can be quick eyeball grabbers, too, especially if the shape magnifies the card motif.

Other Suggestions

Charlene also advises using non-gloss card stock (at least on one side) so that the cards make a good writing surface for notes.  Including reasonable white space will help there, too.  Cluttered cards tend to be a no-go anyway.

And while printing contact info on unique form factors like drink coasters is a great attention-getter, I would only recommend going above the usual sizes and shapes in very specific cases.  You want your cards to slide easily into pockets and of course card holders.

The Future

I suspect we’ll continue to see increased use of mobile devices as a means to quickly share personal and business data, mainly via bluetooth and near-field communication (NFC).  Apps that use close contact or “bumping” to facilitate such transfers are rapidly gaining in popularity.

But I doubt we’ll ever witness the complete death of the paper business card.  Exciting developments like electronic ink promise to bridge the modern and traditional, adding intelligence and dynamics to an otherwise conventional format.  And even without going that far, simple customizations as I’ve shared here can go a long way toward grabbing the immediate attention of your audience or customer.  Keep the lessons of this article in mind when you prepare for your next conference or presentation and you’ll strengthen the connection between you and your new contacts.

source: maemo.nokia.com

Smartphones (aka “converged mobile devices“) have been around in one form or another since 1992.  The moniker itself has elicited snickers and outright derision, but the mobile industry grasped for a good description of where cell phones were headed and this is what stuck.  It still sounds silly, but has defied reason by surviving… but probably only due to lack of a clear competitor.  

Nokia tried breaking out of the smartphone mold with its internet tablets.  ”Internet” was prefixed to illustrate the fundamental difference between these devices and their cell radio-enabled brethren: the wide open web was the intended domain.  Freed of the restrictions of cell service providers, and limited only by the availability of wifi.

But those zealous providers protected their turf, at least in the US, by attacking “munifi” as unfair competition.  The law took their side, and the necessary pilot infrastructure for internet tablets vanished in the blink of an eye.

Nokia reduced the product size, plugged in a GSM radio, and the N900 was born.  Its predecessors were left to languish unsupported in a shrinking niche.  Apple’s iPhone, however, proved to be more compelling than the N900 and the rest is history.

Not so fast though.

The first half of “internet tablet” was meant to signify increased freedom of use, but as it turns out, “tablet” alone became the standard nomenclature.  Even the popular iPad is referred to as a tablet.  Consumers want things nice and simple, even if somewhat nondescriptive.  But then, how best to summarize what today’s computing tablets do?

After “internet tablet” failed to resonate, Nokia switched to “mobile computer” with the N900.  This made a lot of sense.  The N900 is a computer first, phone second.  Distant second by some counts.  And despite its keyboard-laden thickness it’s certainly mobile.  The N900 was, for me, the first computer I could absolutely take anywhere.  Yes, there have been bumps due to one quality issue or another but the product got mobile computing right.

But again we’re faced with a two-part, slightly misleading descriptor.  Nowhere does “mobile computer” give you the sense there’s a cell phone inside.  And other names for this class, like MID or UMPC, don’t cover enough ground, either.

“Tablet” however is working for many people, and at some point we may see some convergent term like “tabphone” emerge in a customery lexical evolution.  I see the touchscreen cell phone form factor settling into a 5-inch-or-so face size with little or no actual edge, replacing checkbooks as the bulkiest common item on our person.  At that point checkbooks will be passé anyway.

And it isn’t just electronic devices suffering the name game.  Operating systems play it too.  The latest reports for Windows 8 suggest that it’s leaving a long windowing legacy behind, to be replaced by similar yet different paradigms like pages, strips and really big icons.

Linux-powered MeeGo looked to have storybook potential when Intel and Nokia threw a big party for it in Dublin.  But months later, Nokia’s retreat from MeeGo was followed by dismay amongst the faithful and abandonment by the casually interested.  Many were put off by the name “MeeGo” and are now left to wonder if the childish-sounding appellation has some involvement in the operating system’s recognition problem.  While the commonly-deployed default UI may lack sophistication, the OS itself is no less capable than Android.  But Android has a cool name.  It’s the sort of thing that members of the tech news media can latch onto.  That marketeers can wrap slick ads around.  That fans will spread virally.

I’m a diehard supporter of the community, but even I’m still put off by the name MeeGo.  Others seem to accept it with a wince or a shrug.  Bounce it off the uninitiated– and you’ll likely see bemusement or even scorn.  The sum of its parts don’t add up to a sound that says “cool technology”.  More along the lines of “cartoon character”.  And in that vein, MeeGo has its engaging critters, but stand one beside the Android mascot and ask the average customer what they are.  I’m betting only Android’s get recognized the vast majority of the time.

Could MeeGo’s name be hurting its chances?  I know it sounds trivial, but at some point adoption and acceptance are driven by marketing more than anything else.  When consumers are faced with dozens of products that really aren’t differentiated at a meaningful level, then buy-in comes down to presentation.  The best-looking of the bunch.  The most clever commercial.  The coolest name.

Nokia shifted its hardware identification strategy when it became obvious that its cumbersome,  conservative conventions found no home in the hearts of typical consumers.  Yet when it became time to identify a successor to the cool-sounding Symbian, the quirky name Maemo was crafted.  Then Maemo married Intel’s Moblin to produce MeeGo.  The derided operating system.

It’s late in the game for the Linux Foundation to try a rename… but a relaunch of the operating system with a shiny new name might actually help.  But I don’t see it happening.  Instead I see MeeGo in desperate need of cool campaigns to generate interest around what we have.  Lacking any commercial entity driving that, maybe the effort will be borne by the community.  First, we need a slogan…