Paul Jacobson

Its my wife’s fault, really. Frustrated with the persistent unavailability of the Nokia X6 which she had her eye on for several months, she switched to a BlackBerry Storm 2 (her first choice was the Bold but the MTN store she visited didn’t have any in stock). BlackBerry devices hadn’t really interested me until she brought her Storm home with her and I took a look at it. In the time that she has had it, we’ve stopped sms’ing each other and switched to Google Talk instant messaging instead (free for her and a lot cheaper for me). I’m not too sure what the parameters are but free on-device data is pretty appealing in itself.

When it comes to my next mobile device, I’ve been pretty fixated on an Android device, largely because an Android phone will allow me to access all of my calendars and other information from my Google services on the device. That is a big productivity win for me because I’ve been reliant on a series of reminders and mobile Web-based access to my calendars to see a full picture of my day till now. I’ve used Mail for Exchange on my Nokia devices and while its kept my contacts in sync, calendar support is very limited. I used my wife’s iPod Touch to test that OS’s support for multiple calendars across Exchange and while I read that I should be able to add all my calendars and keep them in sync, when I set the device up, it just didn’t seem to work as I’d hoped.

That said, I decided to wait a couple more months before doing anything to see what the new HTC Bravo (aka the Desire and closest we’re going to get to the Nexus One in South Africa) will be do and perhaps even the next iPhone iteration. I am not a fan of the degree of control Apple exercises over its devices but the iPhone is an excellent device on the whole.

Still, BlackBerry devices and services started to appeal to me more and more. I received some great feedback about the Storm 2 and the Bold (9700) from some of our sharpest tech journalists. I like the touchscreen Storm but the Bold has received more accolades and seems to be a preferred device. I then discovered that, using Google Sync, I could synchronise all my Google calendars for one of my Google accounts (I have a Google Apps account for work and my personal Gmail account – both have a set of shared calendars so accessing either calendar gives me a view of all my calendars) together with my contacts. Mail is taken care of using a Google mail app/add-on for the BlackBerry that seems to add quite a lot of Google Mail functionality. That capability really got my attention and prompted me to reconsider what it is I want from a mobile device.

I realised that I use my phone primarily for various forms of messaging including email, IM, sms, Twitter, Facebook updates and, more recently, Foursquare. My Nokia N97 has the latest version of Ovi Maps which, in my opinion, is probably the best maps application around. I can do almost all of those things pretty well with a BlackBerry (with the exception of Ovi Maps which would be a real loss if I moved away from a Nokia device). BlackBerry’s App world seems to be fairly well stocked but it isn’t a match for the iTunes App Store or even the Android Marketplace but it may just have what I need. I should also point out that I use my phone largely for business purposes and the fact that most of my clients (and friends) have BlackBerries makes it a logical choice from a communication ease and cost perspective (it really seems that everyone has a BlackBerry these days).

One big issue for me was the unavailability of the Evernote app for the BlackBerry locally (I tried to download it to my wife’s Storm and was told that the app isn’t available here). This is a big issue for me because I am a fairly heavy Evernote user and want a device that supports an Evernote app. If the BlackBerries were blocked from accessing that app locally, that may just push me towards an iPhone or Android phone after all. Fortunately, Joe Diedericks over at MyDL came up with a solution which may just do the trick.

So all of this pretty much leaves me thinking that a BlackBerry may just be a device for me. Its UI isn’t as good looking at the iPhone’s or Android phones’ UI but in terms of raw functionality, it is pretty impressive. Add benefits like free messaging and a cost benefit begins to emerge. Nokia does have some pretty good messaging devices. The current Stuff magazine actually has a comparison between the E72 and the Bold and the E72 comes out on top, although it seemed to win by a fairly narrow margin. Unfortunately Nokia devices don’t have the free data benefit or the tight messaging integration that the BlackBerry platform seems to have. The N900 does have fantastic messaging integration and if it would allow me to sync my calendars properly, I’d give it serious consideration despite the absence of a free data option. Unfortunately I just couldn’t get it to sync my calendars properly and that is important to me given how I work.

I’d love to know what people think about the BlackBerry platform and the Bold in particular. Everything I have read is very positive. I have a tendency towards touch screens since I got my N97 but going with a BlackBerry may nudge me to update my aging iPod with an iPod Touch and the app ecosystem that comes with that (I really want to be able to use the OmniFocus app and take my tasks on the road with me without having to open my laptop to accomplish anything). That also opens the door to the iPad but I really need to see one of those in person, see the price tag and get some real world feedback.

In the meantime, please let me know what you think? I have a tendency to focus intently on what I am looking at and sometimes need a little help pulling back and looking at the bigger picture.

Image credit: OrigamiPod : Let’s start! by hawkexpress, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution, Non Commercial, No Derivatives 2.0 license.

Nokia invited me to be part of a Joburg-based focus group based on its event in Finland titled “The Way We Live Next 3.0” which took place in the last few days. Its video pretty much sets the atmosphere for the event and presents a number of exciting possibilities for future mobile devices:

Rich Mulholland kicked off the session with a discussion about future tech and the kind of thinking we need to truly innovate. He showed us a quote by Alvin Toffler which sets the tone for this sort of thinking:

The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.

Rich spoke about how Nokia saw the need for different phones for different tastes and uses which gave Nokia a benefit in the mobile phone market. He brandished a demo N900 for much of the time which gave me chills (it is a very nice device!). He talked about a possible transition from the laptop/desktop form factor we are accustomed to now to a far more mobile form factor where a high powered version of your mobile device becomes your hub and you connect to available peripherals to take advantage of larger interface options. The bottom line here is that mobile devices are eating away at larger devices’ utility and will make even further inroads as these mobile devices become more powerful and more capable.

The model of building a business model around customers and developing new devices for customers’ needs is giving way to a model that revolves around developers. Rather than develop new devices to fit customers’ needs, create a device that can support a wide variety of applications that developers create to meet users’ needs. Nokia’s strategy has historically been to build a variety of devices although its Ovi Store and devices that support the Ovi Store fit in with the developer oriented model more. Developers still have the challenge of having to develop multiple versions of their apps to fit this variety of form factors and devices. It is still a challenge. Rich said that what Nokia should do is create a handful powerful devices that comply with strict standards that deal with things like screen resolution, location of certain buttons and so on to give developers fewer form factors and specifications to develop for.

What intrigued me is that Rich is a N900 fan (I think it is fair to say that). Rich sees the N900 as being pretty close to the platform ideal he believes would be more successful for Nokia (Nokia seems to agree based on the video above). This is telling because Rich is generally pretty critical of unsatisfactory user experiences.

Our next presenter was Nokia’s Patrick Henchie who started by taking us through recent developments in the Nokia/Symbian ecosystem including the Calling All Innovators competition and Symbian going open source under the Symbian Foundation. Maemo 5 and the Qt framework also make for a potent combination (Qt itself enables some pretty interesting cross-platform development which we are starting to see on Symbian and Maemo devices).

Patrick spoke about Nokia Maps (free and you pay for turn by turn directions) as well as the Nokia Maps Player that gives developers and users options that look a bit like Google Maps embedding and development options.

Location based services is a category of services that is attracting a lot of attention and for good reason. It is going to be a very exciting space and Nokia is probably going to have a range of good looking, powerful services. We will apparently see Nokia’s new lifecasting/lifestreaming app when the N97 mini is launched in early 2010 and that should begin to usher in more of a location-based experience for users.

As I mentioned above, I got to spend a little time with a demo N900 at the event and while I am a little cautious after my rollercoaster ride with my N97, the N900 looks pretty promising. The one thing I like is that it supports multiple calendars and given my fetish for contextual calendars and multiple Google Calendar accounts, support for all of these calendars would immediately put Maemo ahead of Symbian for me (as well as Android for that matter) as a productivity device. Add to that the Evernote application and a Maemo device like the N900 starts to come close to obviating my laptop when I go to meetings or go out of town for short trips. There are still a few limitations but my attachment to my laptop at those times would be somewhat diminished.

Its always a little difficult to predict what will happen in the future. I do think we will see more powerful mobile devices start to take away from laptops and desktops but exactly how we will use those devices and what form those devices will take remains to be seen. For the time being, there are some very interesting trends!

MTN is feeling a little backward lately. The outages on the network (which may or may not be Telkom’s fault) are just part of the mix. It also seems that Vodacom has managed to snag all the cool devices that are heading this way. One good example is the iPhone 3G which Vodacom secured the right to distribute when it came out last year. This morning I read that Vodacom is the network you need to go through to access Facebook Mobile.

Ok, this isn’t exactly the death knell for MTN but it is another indicator Vodacom is the network for the cool new gadgets and better access to social services on the Web. This may be due to Vodafone’s stake in Vodacom (Simon Dingle or Duncan McLeod can better speak to those things than me) but whatever the enabling mechanism, all I get from MTN is offers of crappy phones when I am due to upgrade and an average service.

I think I am due for an upgrade soon and I am starting to think about moving across to Vodacom. The one thing that holds me back is that I have been told that MTN has a lower subscriber density (or whatever the term is) and I believe MTN is currently building trenches and building capacity. If only I could get better than EDGE connectivity in my house …

I’ve been thinking about comments people (including me) have made about the Symbian operating system as it has been implemented in Nokia devices. For my part I have regarded S60 implementation as looking outdated, quaint even. Nokia’s people in SA have said that the interface is intentionally very familiar for various reasons and I haven’t been sold on that. Comparing S60 to the iPhone inevitably leads to conclusions being drawn about the iPhone’s obvious superiority over S60 and Symbian generally. I have often said in conversations about the iPhone that while its hardware specifications are very disappointing, its software is clearly superior.

What is clear is that the iPhone’s operating system (a derivative of the same operating system I have running my MacBook) is fantastic. It works well and it looks amazing. The iTunes application store is well stocked with loads of useful, appealing and groundbreaking applications designed for such a powerful mobile platform. I am sure Apple will eventually produce a device that doesn’t have sucky hardware, perhaps as soon as next month when many expect an announcement of a new iPhone or even a tablet device.

On the other hand, Nokia’s hardware for its smartphones has been superior to the iPhone since before the iPhone launched. Heck, my much reviled Nokia N73 Music Edition had better hardware than the iPhone in many respects.

My experience with the 5800 Xpress Music recently reminded me of this debate about the software running on the iPhone and Nokia’s smartphones, including the upcoming N97 (if there is a drinking game based on how often I mention “N97″, you’re probably happily drunk by now). The icons in the menus do look pretty retro and the UI hasn’t changed all that much for some time now. I’m not so sure about the need for consistency (especially at the expense of progress) but I am beginning to think that if you look beneath the colour schemes and other, perhaps superficial, interface elements it seems to me that Nokia devices have a pretty robust operating system. I’ve been installing a number of applications on my E71 the last day or two and they continue to surprise me with great looking interfaces and powerful functionality for such a little device. The software isn’t perfect and some of the applications still bug me but on the whole, I believe S60 is too easily underestimated and dismissed by iPhone and other device fans.

Nokia is due to launch its Ovi Store in the near future. As with a couple things Nokia has done, one of my first thoughts was that the Ovi Store is another “me too” initiative built on the heels of the incredibly successful iTunes application store. It seems that every phone manufacturer has a store all of a sudden. It struck me, however, that the similarities of Nokia’s approach to Apple’s aside, the Ovi Store is probably another underestimated service that could well have a dramatic effect on Nokia’s position in the mobile services marketplace. This preview of the Ovi Store shows some real promise and if you look beyond the less appealing menu options, you may agree with me that there is tremendous potential here, especially considering Nokia’s strong position in the global market:

And here is the pitch to developers. Very much a fluff piece but worth watching and considering:

S60 is looking a little dated despite the pastel colours we are seeing in the 5th edition devices like the 5800 Xpress. At the same time it is important to remember that Symbian is going open source and will be developed by a number of high profile companies, each with a vested interest in the operating system. Sure there are other promising operating systems (I am pretty excited about Android too) but this is an operating system with a good many years of testing and development under its belt. There is already a range of applications available through the Download! service (which looks even more antiquated than the S60 UI itself) which is soon to be replaced by the Ovi Store. Nokia’s WidSets (I recently re-discovered this service and I am glad I did – the Facebook application alone is worth using it) is being integrated into the Ovi Store, as is the content and media service. We are probably about to see a halfway decent challenger to Apple’s iTunes store, especially if you take the Nokia Music Store into account (despite its crippling DRM) and that is not something to sneeze at.

While I have little doubt the iPhone will go from strength to strength with its newfound ability to do innovative stuff like send MMS in iPhone 3.0 (among other things – ok, yes, that was very tongue in cheek but I think you get my point) and Android will start to pick up momentum as the range of supporting devices increase, it will be foolish to write Symbian off because its UI isn’t as pretty. It still needs work to address a number of issues, big and small, but it is a pretty solid mobile operating system. It also keeps getting better and feature-poor applications are being upgraded or replaced by a vibrant developer community, both internally and externally (take the introduction of Nokia Email as a standard install on the E75). This is a potent option!