2007 - the year in review

Great roundup Rafe!

2008 could be even busier as Nokia's S60 handset services (music, n-gage etc) roll out properly, and we should see more of Motorola's UIQ ventures too (they must have some if they just bought half the company).

As for new phones, who knows... maybe the N96? E91? E63? 6120i?

(I have NO idea if these will appear incidentally, they're just popular model numbers with 1 or i added to them... 😉 )

krisse wrote: E91?

Would be nice for one that fixes all the niggles with the move from S80 with the E90. But seeing as the replacement time seems to be normally 2.5-3 years I'd not expect it soon. 😞

Would be nice for one that fixes all the niggles with the move from S80 with the E90. But seeing as the replacement time seems to be normally 2.5-3 years I'd not expect it soon

I don't think it would take as long this time because the move from S80 to S60 was a much bigger job than from S60 to another S60.

Also, it may be that one of the reasons they did move the Communicators to S60 was to make the hardware development process much easier and quicker. If they're making lots of non-Communicator S60 models anyway, that's bound to make development of a new S60 Communicator easier too.

It's interesting that a lot of the complaints on the E90 were about an accumulation of little things which should be individually relatively easily fixable, especially the software-based stuff. Perhaps we might see an E90i in 2008 which addresses these little things without a major redesign? (Again, no idea if we will, that's a pure guess.)

9000 (GeOS) - 1996
9110 (GeOS) - 1998
9210 (Crystal) - 2001
9500 (Series80) - 2004
E90 (Series60) - 2007

Now while there's a tendency for an "i" revision in the middle there's not a huge amount of improvement in the real world. (or in the case of the 9500 a cut down version ala 9300(i))

Now judging by past form for the Communicator series, I'd expect an (i) maybe by Q4 2008 at the earliest, but not expect it to address most of the issues with the device. They will come in 2010 with the next major communcator iteration.

9000 (GeOS) - 1996
9110 (GeOS) - 1998
9210 (Crystal) - 2001
9500 (Series80) - 2004
E90 (Series60) - 2007

The part in the brackets is the crucial problem with older Communicators though: Series 80 and its predecessors didn't have any other use for Nokia except in a low-selling very expensive niche phone. That meant Communicators almost certainly got a smaller amount of development resources than their mainstream smartphones based on S60.

Now that Communicators have switched to S60, lots of the development work that previously had to be done just for Communicators is already being done for Nokia's entire range of smartphones anyway and at a much faster pace. If Nokia wants to, they could make the gap between new Communicator models much smaller.

Whether Nokia does want to make the gap between models smaller is another matter of course, and there may be marketing reasons for not making too many Communicator models in a short space of time. But the important thing is that by moving to S60 the technical reasons for that gap have greatly diminished.

Downside to that logic, there isn't another S60 phone like the Communicator, so all the advancements for that are likely to only be for that. I.e. getting the calendar app working as well as the old S80 one, and further modifications to S60 to make it as easy to use as S80 was and better suited for the form factor.

Couple that to the fact that it is a low volume selling device, and the new ones mostly came out when the old one was sufficiently out of date that they could simply spec everything short of the kitchen sink for a new flagship device. Then let it go stale while technology wandered onward. They may sell lots of S60 devices, but they are all rather more traditional to the Communicator, unit sales are what will get faster revisions, and people buying them for the functionality will, like me, use it until the thing is falling to pieces then replace when the new model comes as there's nothing out there that comes close.

Downside to that logic, there isn't another S60 phone like the Communicator, so all the advancements for that are likely to only be for that.

You're right that apps whose interface depends on the screen shape would still have to be specially written or adapted for the E90, but there are loads of other things (for example the behind-the-scenes stuff) where the screenshape doesn't matter that much.

Couple that to the fact that it is a low volume selling device, and the new ones mostly came out when the old one was sufficiently out of date that they could simply spec everything short of the kitchen sink for a new flagship device.

Yeah, I agree, no company is ever going to sell very many Communicator-style phones simply because not many people want that shape of phone, especially not at such a high price. It wouldn't make sense to bring out new models very often unless the sales rose dramatically.

While we might not see an E90 upgrade any time soon, we may see another "interesting form factor" in 2008, simply because Nokia seem to like throwing random stuff out there. Maybe another N93?

When is touchscreen meant to be incorporated into S60. Wouldn't be surprised if they tested the water with another 77x0 styled device, though, 800x400 screen, the angle sensor doobery so it can auto change from a UIQ/Quartz type layout to a Communicator style layout.... Meh, I'll shut up now.

Can you please provide more coverage of the Nokia N810 and Maemo? I realize it uses a superior operating system to Symbian but it still should be covered as it is not a phone but is marketed as an accessory to Symbian phones. It is a Symbian accessory and should receive more thorough coverage on your site. In fact, it is even possible to emulate Symbian on the Linux kernel so it could even be made into a Symbian device if you wanted to downgrade it. Why don't you test a Nokia N810 with a Nokia 6310i via Bluetooth?

Also if you took a Nokia E90 and a Nokia N810 and glued them together with krazy glue, you would have a Symbian device that runs Linux. Perhaps you could explore other combinations of Symbian devices to work with the N810. What I would really like to see is a Psion Series 5mx with a Compactflash card providing GSM, GPRS and bluetooth connected to a Nokia N810 and maybe a bluetooth headset. That would give the best of all worlds.

Also more coverage on prepaid data plans around Europe and the world.

GnudistFrdmFtr wrote:Can you please provide more coverage of the Nokia N810 and Maemo? I realize it uses a superior operating system to Symbian but it still should be covered as it is not a phone but is marketed as an accessory to Symbian phones. It is a Symbian accessory and should receive more thorough coverage on your site. In fact, it is even possible to emulate Symbian on the Linux kernel so it could even be made into a Symbian device if you wanted to downgrade it. Why don't you test a Nokia N810 with a Nokia 6310i via Bluetooth?

Also if you took a Nokia E90 and a Nokia N810 and glued them together with krazy glue, you would have a Symbian device that runs Linux. Perhaps you could explore other combinations of Symbian devices to work with the N810. What I would really like to see is a Psion Series 5mx with a Compactflash card providing GSM, GPRS and bluetooth connected to a Nokia N810 and maybe a bluetooth headset. That would give the best of all worlds.

Also more coverage on prepaid data plans around Europe and the world.

Thanks for the feedback. We've got some Maemo / N810 features coming up soon - watch this space. I don't think I'll rise to your bait about OS and their superiority... 😊