Over at the semi-official Nokia Conversations, there's an interesting post today, responding generally to iPhone mania and talking a lot of sense. It also refers to a pet subject of mind, i.e. whether a user wants to use one or two hands (or thumbs) for their phones.
Read on in the full article.
I'm just getting sick of this whole "X vs Y" thing which iPhone conversations seem to attract. A small number of hardcore Apple fans and hardcore Apple haters seem to think that praising one phone must involve attacks on other phones, which seems a bit immature to be honest.
Phones sell 1 billion devices a year now, and all kinds of people buy them, from poor farmers in Tanzania to rich businesspeople in Japan. Does anyone really believe that one type of device can serve the needs of such a broad market?
Editorials on tech sites seem to focus on smartphones, but the entire smartphone market is only 10% of phone sales as a whole, the vast majority of people prefer cheaper and less sophisticated devices.
There's more than enough room in the phone world for all kinds of devices to co-exist, just as they do with other kinds of product. There isn't going to be any single device or company dominating it. Even Nokia, which has twice the sales of its nearest rival, only has 40% of the market.
Aw, come on, without device and platform advocacy wars, where would be the **fun**?
Coke vs Pepsi, Nikon vs Canon, Windows vs Apple, Boeing vs Airbus, Budweiser vs Beer they all run on and on and they are all different from Blu-Ray vs HD-DVD because there is room in the market for all of them, they all work together with the same fundamental standards and with all of them competition is healthy. There is no Nokia vs iPhone thing because anyone that starts on the subject is immediately dismissed as a bit sad and ignored.
I'm not too concerned with the fanboys on either side of the debate...they will always be there and they are easy to tune out. To each his own I say. I know which handset suits my needs and what I like and don't like about it.
What i'm more concerned with is the people who should know better. The manufacturers and developers. Over the last year I've seen several companies and organisations who were previously trying to find ways to intergrate their services into a wide range of mobile devices abandon all those projects for the iPhone. The BBC released their iPlayer for the iPhone, a phone with less users than the S60 browser could reach and one they had less time to study but with much more hype behind it. Facebook not only built a slicker web version of their site for the iPhone, they have now also released a more fully featured app for it. Try viewing a photo from the mobile Facebook site on your S60 browser...it's less than useless. I enjoy using Last.fm, I emailed them asking if there would ever be a mobile version and was told there were no such plans...lo and behold they just released an iPhone app.
With the likes of Trufone, Fring, Twitter, Google, the BBC, and now games developers who don't seem too keen on N-Gage clamouring to be part of the iPhone party, I fear S60 could become stagnant. The trouble of getting certain apps signed is also a seemingly uneeded barrier.
On top of that I'm just REALLY not keen on a all out jump over to touchscreens.
The debate is not about which phone is best, but about which phone is the coolest, i.e the one most people would buy if they have enough money to do so, the one everybody is talking about, the one that is considered by everybody as the benchmark.
Nokia being the seller with the biggest volume is good for them and their bottom line, but that fact doesn't make their phones cool.
People who consider phones as cool or uncool are automatically uncool and laughed at.
I'm not keen on touch either. I won't be getting a tube when its out, tactile feedback or not.
Over the last year I've seen several companies and organisations who were previously trying to find ways to intergrate their services into a wide range of mobile devices abandon all those projects for the iPhone. The BBC released their iPlayer for the iPhone, a phone with less users than the S60 browser could reach and one they had less time to study but with much more hype behind it.
BBC News seem Apple-mad, with any Apple-related stories getting coverage totally out of proportion to their significance or userbase.
When the iPhone got a firmware update (so not even new hardware or anything, just a firmware update), that was one of the main three stories on the front page of the BBC News site. Not the tech section or anything, but the main front page along with all the news about wars and elections and stuff.
Is ANY product's firmware update really worth putting in the top 3 stories of a general news site?
Here's something very interesting: Private Eye magazine carried a story last year which revealed that members of the BBC get a staff reduction on Apple products such as Macs and iPods. No explanation at all for how this arrangement came into being, or whether it affected the BBC's impartiality, but that's what they reported.
The debate is not about which phone is best, but about which phone is the coolest, i.e the one most people would buy if they have enough money to do so, the one everybody is talking about, the one that is considered by everybody as the benchmark.
...do they really mean "everybody"? Or is it just a small clique of American-European journalists?
The world is a very big place but I've never seen any Western tech journalist write about what's hot in Asia or Africa, even though that's where the majority of phone sales are.
Some American tech journalists go so far as to totally ignore things like Symbian simply because they're not popular in the US, with the presumption that anything outside America isn't worth talking about. I've seen some say stuff like "who uses Symbian any more?", which is crazy when you look at its market share.
Tzer2 wrote:BBC News seem Apple-mad, with any Apple-related stories getting coverage totally out of proportion to their significance or userbase.When the iPhone got a firmware update (so not even new hardware or anything, just a firmware update), that was one of the main three stories on the front page of the BBC News site. Not the tech section or anything, but the main front page along with all the news about wars and elections and stuff.
Is ANY product's firmware update really worth putting in the top 3 stories of a general news site?
That's one of the things that makes a cool device cool. And the wet dream of the PR department of all device manufacturers, I expect.
Here's something very interesting: Private Eye magazine carried a story last year which revealed that members of the BBC get a staff reduction on Apple products such as Macs and iPods. No explanation at all for how this arrangement came into being, or whether it affected the BBC's impartiality, but that's what they reported.
...do they really mean "everybody"? Or is it just a small clique of American-European journalists?The world is a very big place but I've never seen any Western tech journalist write about what's hot in Asia or Africa, even though that's where the majority of phone sales are.
Some American tech journalists go so far as to totally ignore things like Symbian simply because they're not popular in the US, with the presumption that anything outside America isn't worth talking about. I've seen some say stuff like "who uses Symbian any more?", which is crazy when you look at its market share.
I find it interesting that what would be called underhand and downright sleazy business by any other company (especially Microsoft) is applauded in Apple as genius marketing. I see it on the net all the time, someone begins to cheerlead for a product or service a little too enthusiastically and they are instantly accused of being in the employ of the company in question and hounded off the net for spamming. Apple fans do it and �That's one of the things that makes a cool device cool�� apparently.
If one product is better than the other because it provides a service the other product cannot, that�s one thing�but if the product is only presumed to be better because there is some incentive NOT to offer the service to other customers, then that�s dirty pool old boy. Who�s to say Apple don�t give the BBC a �special discount� in return of holding back an s60 compatible iPlayer service? Would this be hailed as marketing genius if Microsoft did it?
For me it�s the chicken and the egg. Is the iPhone cool enough to garner all the press coverage? Or, does all the press coverage make the iPhone seem cooler than it would actually be? People agree that if it wasn�t such a great product it wouldn�t get all the publicity�well I�m sure most people out of their teens are more discerning when it comes to their music as I can guarantee the bands and artists that garner the most press coverage are there due to PR hype and rather than talent. Why do we accept it with tech?
ok. I don't know for what reason I have not registered myself here. I keep on reading news, reviews, articles and comments on this site. Well, I am from India where iPhone is supposed to be launched in October. There is a booking going on for this! They are taking $50 for booking.
This iPhone thing, from my point of view, is nothing but an exaggerated piece of marketing. iPhone fans, don't get me wrong here. I love reading about iPhone on various cell sites. But at the end of the day, I am much satisfied and happy with my nokia n82 and will not trade it for iPhone even if its free. I am writing my comment from my cell only right now.
For the future of symbian, well, it will only get better for sure.