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Nokia: "We're already selling phones compatible with Next Gen games"

12 replies · 2,334 views · Started 30 November 2006

Nokia's Jaakko Kaidesoja gave a very interesting interview to Pocket Gamer at the Nokia World event. Apparently, there will be between five and seven S60 smartphones which will support Nokia's Next Gen gaming platform when it launches next year, presumably with that number expanding as new models appear. Here's the interesting bit though: "Some of (the smartphones) are already being sold today ... if you have one of those devices, you'll just have to go to our website, download the application to your phone." Frustratingly however, he declines to say which models these are. (Thanks to Symbian Freak for pointing this story out!)

Read on in the full article.

First of all I would like to 10Q 4 the link back to SF and to inform you that I'll fix the problematic article tomorow morning from the office, sorry beacuse of the delay but I have some serious hardware problems :/

Phones based on the great OMAP 2420 chipset and 3D hardware (PowerVR MBX GPU) acceleration (N93 ATM and N95 ASAP), that's all about.. ..

User posted image

Cheers,
Teo

Since we're talking about nokia here let me remind you this is one company that would deliberately keep their phones, one feature short to make way for newer phones, which will have that one extra feature but might miss another one, then the company will name it a music phone, internet or sports phone when its actually nothing but a standard Series 60.
It would not amaze me one bit if we find out that nokia deliberately stopped the functionality in n93 where you couldn't press 2 keys at a time only to fix it when they launch the next gen gaming platform. Worse than that could be nokia coming out with a 'Gaming Edition' of n93 with that one bug fixed.

Thoughts invited...

Hardeep1singh wrote:It would not amaze me one bit if we find out that nokia deliberately stopped the functionality in n93 where you couldn't press 2 keys at a time only to fix it when they launch the next gen gaming platform. Worse than that could be nokia coming out with a 'Gaming Edition' of n93 with that one bug fixed.

Its already fixed .. .. .

Hardeep1singh wrote:Worse than that could be nokia coming out with a 'Gaming Edition' of n93 with that one bug fixed.
like Apocalypso write this is fix!
But good example Hardeep1singh how Nokia are disrespectful, what about 'Internet Edition' N93 IE :icon13:

FYI the button-bug has been fixed in the new firmware v20.0.058. There are no button-probs anymore whatsoever, and even diagonal movement works great (to my amazement). The buttons react very well, and because of the landscape mode, the N93 is really great for gaming. The N93 is in fact a next-gen NGage in disguise!

The button problem is fixed on the N93 in the latest firmware? Great! I'll alter the article!

"But good example Hardeep1singh how Nokia are disrespectful, what about 'Internet Edition' N93 IE"

Try this thought experiment: pretend new models never came out, pretend your model is the latest for the next few years. Would it make any difference to your use of the phone? No, it wouldn't. So what is there to complain about? Your pride perhaps, but you're not buying pride, you're buying a phone, and that's all you can hold a manufacturer liable for. If your pride depends on having the latest model of whatever then you're fighting a losing battle.

In any case, there's no significant difference between the N93 and the N93 internet edition. It's entirely about marketing: they just slap a load of pre-installed Yahoo apps on it, give it a new colour scheme, and claim it's a new edition. There's an internet shortcut key too apparently, if you can't be bothered to click the internet shortcut icon on the standby screen.

It's like the Nokia 5500 and 5500 Music Edition... there's no difference at all, none, apart from having a different sized microSD card bundled with it. (In fact the ME is a rip-off because they charge $75 extra for a $30 card, you're far better off buying the normal edition with a separate card.)

I just don't get how people interpret what is basically just a repainted model with a slightly altered name as somehow betraying existing customers. And even with the genuinely new models, Nokia brings out new models every month but that's what all phone companies do, dozens of models a year. Do you want them to stop for a year or two while you enjoy your particular phone without feeling left behind?

Even beyond phones, people claim (for example) Nintendo bring out new models of their handhelds to "force" people into buying the new models... That's just rubbish, you get what you pay for, and if there's a new model a while later that doesn't somehow magically stop your model working, it still does exactly what you were expecting it to when you bought it and the new games all work on the old model the same way they would have if the new model never existed. The only reason you'd worry is if you want to always have the latest model, but that's your problem rather than the manufacturers.

There were even people claiming the first N-Gage was made deliberately bad so people would have to buy the QD, which is about as backwards a conspiracy theory as you can get.

Superlatives of the kind used on Ringnokia are ridiculous: "If you've been reading Ring Nokia for a while you'll realize how much I dislike things like this. Dishonesty to the n-th degree. Stabbing customers of the first versions in the back I say."

Stabbing customers in the back? Dishonesty to the nth degree? By bringing out a new model? Really?

No.

Dishonesty is bringing out a model and not supporting it as promised, or bringing out a model that doesn't do what it claims to do, or refusing to honour warranties. Complaining purely because you don't get to keep up with the Joneses forever is just immature, that's the nature of manufacturing nowadays, not just in electronics either. If you want to wear the latest clothes, drive the latest car or listen to the latest music, you'll have to constantly buy new products, which is why it's probably sensible to just look for something you genuinely want without worrying if it's the absolutely latest thing. No large company ever brings out a model without plans to follow it up soon with an even better one. The bigger the company, the more models they bring out every year.

"this is one company that would deliberately keep their phones, one feature short to make way for newer phones"

I can't think of ANY examples of that, particularly in the Symbian world. And as you saw with your N93 one, they've fixed the problem so it can't be deliberate.

I would sure not want to make you angry but believe me i don't make a statement if i don't have facts to support it. Being an avid symbian user, i've enjoyed many s60 phones, along with that i've cried and howled at missing features as and when new s60 phones came out Its good news that nokia has rectified the button issue with n93 but i do wonder how years ago ngage lost its art of playing stereo music, if it wasn't for ultra mp3, it nearly lost the art to play mp3 when it became QD. I could've rubbished it off as a pure goof up but there came another jolt in disguise of 3230 which could play FM stereo but mp3 as mono. Does that make us wonder why? Now before i start cribbing about where 6630 lost its ram, let's agree that nokia's a corporate and not a saint.
:Peace:

I'm afraid your reasoning is just conjecture (the result of incomplete facts, or just looking at partial evidence, and lack of understanding of what it really takes to produce a mobile phone).

I say it without malice. I happen to know from my line of work how mobile phones actually are designed and built, and what kinds of rules, processes and economics apply.

The N-Gage QD was the first attempt at making an economical smartphone, so a lot of hardware (like the stereo sound output, FM radio receiver chip and USB in the original N-Gage) was removed to reduce the cost.

On some S60 2nd Edition FP1 devices the FM radio was able to play in stereo, but Symbian/S60 apps had only access to mono/single-channel audio output on those (they could play stereo audio files, but there simply was no hardware to make both channels go out to a headset). The 3230 was an S60 2nd Ed. FP1 device like that.

Since S60 2nd Edition FP2 (6630 and later), stereo sound output has been a standard feature on all devices also in terms of hardware, as far as I can tell.

One thing still missing on available S60 based devices is built-in support for Bluetooth stereo audio output (the Bluetooth A2DP, Advanced Audio Distribution Profile).

Whether these "theories of conspiracy" are true or not, seems to be a matter of personal interpretation. One thing with Nokia I've noticed, though, is that the company leaves a lot of room for custumers to speculate about these things.

It's obviously part of the business to keep secrets, but it's also about timing and business politics if and when to release early specs (sometimes over a year in advance like SE P990i, sometimes never). It's obvious that they sometimes try so hard to target different categories of the market, that they lose the simple goal to always release the best phone for least amount of money. Many times it's, quite frankly, a lot of obstructing PR bulls**t involved. And yes, sometimes maybe the buyer of the phone isn't the targeted audience, and discovers this after some time of use. Granted. BUT, why this secrecy about already released and bought phones?

Take the N93 button problem for instance. Why couldn't Nokia just clearly state to its customers that they intended to fix this (or even considered to fix it)? Instead they give us ambiguous messages like "the N93 has no multi button support", whatever that's supposed to mean. At the same time it's frequently appearing in next gen gaming contexts, like press shows. No matter how hard you try as a customer you won't get some answers whether or not this is a hardware issue and thus will be doomed to stay in this "no multi button support"-state forever. For me (and also some other N93 owners, I've learned) it's basically a "do or die" and "better start saving for a new phone tomorrow"-issue. Meanwhile forum freaks and symbian geeks (I say that with love) are left to wildly speculate and debate if this is a "just a camera phone not intended for gaming", "a multimedia computer" or "a part of the next gen gaming platform". Not only do we have to speculate about future releases, but also on the products we already own. How do we then know if a product really is for us, when not even the forum "experts" have a clue and Nokia won't tell us?

So, what did Nokia do? They gave their customers the ever silent treatment, but fixed the problem and left it out in the released list of fixes for FW .058.
Still not a word on the issue from them. For me it's like having a new phone, so I'm happy, but why this Kafka novel inspired "customer care"? No wonder there are conspiracy theories.

Well put GoodCop.

All in all i personally am just very very happy indeed that the N93 turns out to be a NGage in disguise anyways.. I wonder if they'll start marketing it as such too, when the new platform gets released. I can hardly even imagine Nokia making a NGage2 that would be better suited for the job then the N93..

One thing Krisse about these different edition phones, sometimes it does make a difference. The N73 Music Edition for example, has a better music player, which broadens the stereo effect and has a better equalizer, which really makes it produce better sound. Of course this is really only software, so you're starting to see a lot of people falshing their N73s to N73ME''s...

Would Next Gen games necessarily mean that they will require a device with graphics acceleration? Not all N-Gage games were 3d action games, so if Nokia releases a turn based game like Settlers of Catan or something like that then most current N-Series devices should have sufficient graphics power, right?

-Marc

As all devices are unlikely to have 3D hardware accelleration, I wouldn't expect all games to require it (or to be any kind of 3D games, necessarily).