This is a little bit of a rant. And please don’t misunderstand this post, I love Nokia and everything they do. I love the fact that they encourage creativity, blogging and the rich community of Symbian fans everywhere. I can’t help but feel like they are falling into the same dangerous pitfalls other companies (i.e. Moto, SE, RIM) have. What can they do better?

You may ask, Andrew, what brought on a rant about Nokia’s downfalls? This is THE Nokia Blog afterall, you should be singing praises for Nokia 24/7. Wrong. I want Nokia to make the best possible handsets, if they didn’t I wouldn’t write for this blog.

Never in the time that I owned any Blackberry, Sony Ericsson, HTC/WINMO Device was I able to share the joy of a high end handset that I was able to when I had an N95 or N95 8GB. Being able to take great pictures (and show others where the pictures were taken) and video, and immediately share video online or even on TV is what helped me convince people that a cell phone is and should be capable of doing a lot.

People that were once stubborn that they wanted to only have a cell phone to make calls and did not want to spend a lot on a fancy feature phone were wowed by what the N95s could do. A few even bought the N95 8GB on my recommendation at full retail (~$700!) in the US after having seen the pictures I took on vacation as they were taken and uploaded in almost real time. I was never able to do that with any other phone, no matter how impressive the feature set.

Blackberry’s Update

That said, early in September I was lucky enough to be provided with a Blackberry Bold (one of my retailer buddies really came through for me and got me an unlocked one). A few bugs aside, I was blown away. Updated OS, Great new Look, lots of new media features, amazing Blackberry keyboard, High-res Screen, they really have a winner here. Release delays, and criticisms aside, the Blackberry Bold, is a PROPER upgrade from the last generation.

It took everything good with the previous product lines and made it better (looks, media integration, messaging), they left every good staple of their phones intact (Keyboard, Email, BB messenger, security features), and they worked on their downfalls (sucky mp3 player, 2.5mm jack, cruddy processor, cruddy browser, boring unattractive OS, and worst of all, having to choose between Wifi/GPS on different models of the same phone).

Many of my colleagues have been waiting for this phone since they first heard it was being released, ignoring the 3G iPhone, E71, Touch Diamond etc. There were physical upgrades, and there was innovation. All in all a good balance. Call me a Blackberry fanboy, but the only thing I feel that this phone is missing from a hardware perspective is a good camera.

Nokia Going Off-Course

All this made me really think of the way Nokia has been in the last year, and of course, their upcoming lines. And while I don’t think they are completely heading in the wrong direction, I feel that they are going slightly off course. Below, I’ve listed a few of the things I would like to see done differently as we near the end of 2008 into 2009.

Please update your OS, processors and hardware for 2008/2009. I’m not saying completely revamp all these things, but c’mon, at least make it look like you’re trying! SE added the Xross media bar thing to their phones, and is doing that panel interface thing to the X1, RIM has OS 4.6 on the Bold, HTC has that fancy touchflo on top of Windows Mobile, why can’t you spruce up S40/S60? Well maybe not so much on S40, but we pay out the nose for S60 phones, bring on some more polish to the OS.

Speaking of polish, I love that you have the OLED screen thing going on the N85 and the Carbon Arte, now up the resolution! In 2009 320X240 will not be acceptable, the iPhone has 480×320 on that big screen, the Bold about doubled the resolution from the curve to 480×320 (on a significantly smaller than iphone screen no less), the Xperia is going to be 800×480. Finally, up the power on that processor. Right now even your newest phones have sub 400 mhz processors. More hardware power = nicer software = we’re happy.

Take a look at my two poorly taken pictures, if only the N85 had this kind of screen resolution to match the OLED.

Less Phones

Wait WHAT?! Less phones?! I’m talking high end phones here. Make a couple of Nseries devices and make them amazing. Don’t do what RIM did with their 8800 and Curves. The original 8300 curve had no GPS or wifi, the 8310 had gps, the 8320 had wifi, it wasn’t until mid 2008 before the 8330 came out with both wifi and gps, nearly a year after the original was released. That just isn’t fair.

Cameras

Likewise, don’t bring out a great camera phone and put a crappy flash on it, or take the lens cover off. N96, N95 8GB, N85, N82, N81, N78, 6220 Classic. So many phones with overlapping features, each slightly different, and based on when they were released very similar price points. Most of these phones have 5 megapixel cameras, GPS, wifi 3.5g, and differ slightly. They all run on S60 3rd ed. Seriously why make us choose. Choose a couple of form factors, make one or two variants and make them damn good. Look at the Samsung i8510 innov8. That phone is like the culmination of all these phones + a better camera AND it has a similar price point to the N96, maybe even a little bit cheaper at release depending on where you’re from.
WHY?!

US Support

PLEASE get US carrier support. We Love you in North America, thats why we keep buying your phones at full price. US carrier support means greater exposure, and subsidized phone prices. Earlier this year I was thoroughly convinced that the N95-4 was the best phone money could buy. I tried very hard to convince people of this, some bought them, some didn’t. Those who didn’t only didn’t because they couldn’t stomach buying a 700 dollar cell phone. In fact, the last time I walked into a ATT/TMO/Verizon store, I dont remember seeing anything past 700 dollars for a standalone handset.

Better Email

HTML email + better internet browser for S60 out of the box. As I said in my earlier Nokia E71 review, by now, there’s no excuse for not having html email. It should be built into the client. The internet browser is chock full of features for a stock browser, but I can’t help but feel that its sluggish at times and sometimes just errors out and blows up on its own. Maybe this goes back to the slow processor not being able to handle it. Maybe the browser just needs a revamp.

Browser

Whatever, I just want to take advantage of the awesome 3.5g you put into my phone. This isn’t Windows Mobile. I don’t want to have a 3rd party browser because the stock one sucks (OK the S60 browser doesn’t suck but its no Skyfire).

Upgrades

Uniform and regular firmware updates across all regions. Probably easier said than done, yes, but many a N95-3 user felt burned by the lack of love.

I guess after using a Bold and seeing the difference between last gen’s BB compared to today’s latest and greatest, I can’t help but feel like the N96 is a slight incremental upgrade and not the super flagship model it should have been. Not to say that it isn’t looking to be a very good handset, but for that price why the slight upgrade? 8 Megapixel phones becoming the new high end standard, don’t fall behind! Other companies tried to imitate the 5mp Camera that was on the N95, they tried, some were close, many failed.

The Phone to Beat

The reigning champ is getting old, and the competition is newer bigger and faster. Don’t pull a Moto and start making pink N95’s now. We want Nokia to create the phone to beat again.