Recent News Headlines - Industry
US vs Rest of the World
It's official - Tomi Ahonen is Rafe Blandford and I claim my £5.... Industry luminary Tomi is famed for his mobile-related books and essays and here goes into interesting (but extensive) detail on the history of the smartphone and why the US market is different to the Rest of the World. Can Nokia ever crack the USA? Will RIM or Apple take over everywhere else? Tomi echoes many of the conclusions that Rafe has come to in recent podcasts and I guarantee you'll find yourself nodding in agreement.
Nokia N86 8MP is now shipping
Nokia's 8 megapixel N86 smartphone is now shipping according to Nokia Press Bulletin Board. Outwardly similar to the N85, the N86 features a slightly redesigned casing, kick stand, non-flat chunky keypad, and of course an 8 megapixel af camera which is the highest resolution on any Nokia device so far. Our camera expert Steve will be examining this hardware in detail of course, but just to give the official specs the N86 has a variable aperture for low-light photography, a fast mechanical shutter and automatic blur reduction. The N86 runs Symbian S60v3 FP2, is compatible with N-Gage and Ovi Store, and comes with 8 gigabytes of on-board memory as well as a separate microSD card slot for extra memory. (via ZOMGitsCJ)
Where Will The 2.0 Money Come From in 2009?
One of the hallmarks of web based applications in the last few years is the cost – for the most case they've been free to the users. Of course someone must pay for all the servers, coders and everything else needed to run a company. While the good times and the VC investment money flowed in, many companies have focused on growing the user base rather than build practical foundations of income. But are we in for a shock as our favourite applications start to reach into our pockets?
Twitter is a broadcast medium - "10% of users generate 90% of content"
Judging by our readers' interest in S60 Twitter clients, there are a lot of Twitter fans on All About Symbian, so you may be interested to know that a study of 300,000 Twitter users by Harvard Business School has found that the main pattern of Twitter use isn't as a social network but as a way for a small number of content generators to talk to a large number of listeners. Twitter now has around 30 million users, but 90% of tweets come from just 3 million users, with most users tweeting either once or not at all. If this study is accurate, it would suggest that Twitter isn't a rival to Facebook or SMS but more like an "RSS Lite", and much more a consumer service than a communication service.
Symbian Foundation adds Larry Berkin and Dietmar Tallroth
Today the Symbian Foundation has announced two key additions to its management team: Larry Berkin, formerly a VP at ACCESS, who will head Symbian's US office and act as Head of Alliance Management and Dietmar Tallroth, formerly Director of Legal for Nokia's Open Source and Java, who will serve as Symbian's General Counsel. The Symbian Foundation continues to recruit staff as it grows towards it goal of around 200 employees by the end of 2009.
AAS Insight 72 - moments of change
In All About Symbian Insight 72 (AAS Podcast 131) Steve, Ewan and Rafe round up an eclectic collection of news including Google Calendar Sync, Spore, recent MOAP devices, recent stats and Omnia HD availability. In the second part of the show discuss moments of change - times when we've seen a device of technology that marks a significant shift. You can listen to AAS Insight 72 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
Ovi Maps Player API - how Nokia puts Apps on Maps
At their recent developer summit Nokia described how it would be opening up the Ovi platform to third party developers. Apps on Maps was given as the initial example and now, at the Where 2.0 conference, Nokia has announced more of the technical details for the web side elements. The Ovi Maps Player API will allow developers to embed Ovi Maps on third party website and create 'mash-ups' by overlaying data and interacting with the map. As such it will be in direct competition with the Google Maps and its accompanying APIs. Read on for more details.
Latest worldwide smartphone stats
Always interesting to see the latest figures coming out, this time from Gartner for Q1 2009. Nokia's market share in the smartphone world had fallen slightly, to 41%, but they still sold more devices (15 million) than the next four manufacturers put together. The 5800 in particular was pointed out as a success story. Behind Nokia in the stats were RIM with 20% of the market, and Apple at 11% with their iPhone. In terms of smartphone OS, Symbian powered just under 50% of devices sold. Comments welcome!
The Quest for the Perfect Form Factor
Hopefully pulling no punches, I've been mulling over all the different form factors seen in the smartphone world in the last half dozen years. Is there a common consensus 'perfect' form factor? No. Could there be one in the future? Yes, I argue in The Quest for the Perfect Form Factor. And, to the point, at least one of 2009's smartphone contenders is achingly close, at least in terms of hardware, to the ideal. This being something of a contentious subject, your comments more than welcome of course!
Ovi Store launching soon?
Many people have noted that the Download! client now gives a message saying that it will be "temporarily unavailable" today, while at the same time the Ovi Store site currently asks for a name and password to access it. Could something be stirring behind the scenes at Ovi Store?
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