No more Major F/W updates for N97 ?

About Nokia N97 flagship support. Nokia decide not to improve this phone SW. Only minor updates in 2011. No big SW updates

Hmmm, I'm swaying between sad and happy about this.

As I intended to purchase an N8 before the end of February (by which time I'll have kept the promise to myself not to buy a new Nokia device until it has been on the market for four months) I guess no more N97 firmware updates will save me two days of reinstalling and reconfiguring, and ultimately being disappointed with the lack of difference it made.

The amount of functional use and wear & tear my N97 has had I have to say that I'm more than happy with how it has fared. The occasional crash and keeping an eye on ram was a small price to pay for the usefulness it has provided during the past eighteen months.

The lack of any more firmware upgrades since a year ago to me seems to be Nokia's admission that this device is a failure and resources are probably better spent elsewhere in the organisation. As a former N97 user, I reached a point where I felt that it was in my best interest to purchase a new phone at full price (as I was only 7 months into my contract) rather than wait and hope a firmware upgrade for the N97 would satisfy me. I think that there are probably many other people that did the same thing ans I. The day I purchased my new phone, I met a person at the store who said his girlfriend also had an N97 and had issues. I tried to help her out, but eventually, she also gave up on the N97 and decide to get a new phone. With so many people already jumping ship to another device, there probably isn't much incentive for Nokia to put any more resource into a product that fewer and fewer people are using.

There was a video clip I saw where a Nokia exect admitted that there were issues with their process in developing the N97. They claimed that they have rectified the situation. It was too late for the N97. At least devices afterwards seemed to not have the same amount of issues as the N97.

Stuntman wrote:
There was a video clip I saw where a Nokia exect admitted that there were issues with their process in developing the N97.

The issue was/is the process where shipping a product at a certain time is more important than making a good product.

Seems to me that Nokia has been directing their technical "talent" everywhere but in fixing their so-called "Flagship" phone.

First it was doing touchscreen interfacing on blocks of ice:

[INDENT]http://research.nokia.com/news/11362[/INDENT]

Now they (Nokia Siemens) are spending time making iPhones faster and more efficient:

[INDENT]http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hardware/ios-42-supports-network-controlled-fast-dormancy/10586[/INDENT]

The press release from Nokia about no-longer-supporting handsets beyond 18 months is most likely the "official" statement to N97 users to not expect any more firmware updates...after all, our N97's have been out now for over 18 months.

As soon as my contract is up, I will be dumping Nokia forever.

I will probably move to an android based phone unless something better comes out between now and July.

Even running pirate firmware, the N97 is slow and clunky.

Never again will I buy Nokia.

dog-man

Well 18 months ago when I first had my nice shiney N97 our whole family was Nokia and had been for years about 8 years.

18 months on I am the only sucker still there because of of the 2 year contract but then I too will be an Android 😮 user.

After the terrible experience I have had with the N97 I have convinced the rest of the family to move to something else.

There must be something seriously wrong with the management at Nokia to release something so obviously flawed as the N97. And then having made the mistake of releasing it, they compound the mistake by not fixing the bugs or adding new features.

It will be a cold day in Hell before I or the rest of the family go near a Nokia again 😡

Is the disaster described here of the N97 also true of the Mini ??

I have a few days in which I can get my money back and am still struggling with getting a feel for its limitations. The sort of issues listed here only become evident over time. I am not into the consumer thing so 18mnths and then into a recycle bin to me is wholly unacceptable.

I REALLY sympathise with the Nokia hate thing. I too promised never again since I "upgraded" to a 7600. But having tried an Android, and come smack up against the Google-Borg thing, I changed track and went for the Mini, but now ..... At least the Mini has a half decent camera thanks to the Zeiss optics, which they seem to have taken out of all subsequent devices!!

As far as I can see things continue to get worse at Nokia not better. Maybe something decent will come out of China, when they've absorbed the info the need to engage with our markets, but Nokia seem to be the only game left in town (if they are left) that even pays lip-service to open source. The rest of it is all tie-ins, cartels, and spyware. Nokia's word is as reliable as that of the Borgias!

I would really approciate some experienced user info on the Mini. I thought the problems of the N97 had been fixed on it ..... 😞

Hi Talvi,

I have been a mini user for the past 14 months, and last week I had finally had enough! I went to activate the keypad during a call and the call disconnected. This, the latest in a string of minor software glitches have made using my mini an unpleasent experience. All I ask for is a phone that does what you ask it to do without having to reboot it every second day and hoping it will fix the problem, and after holding out for the firmware updates to fix these minor problems, and subsequently learning that Nokia have ditched us in favour of their newer phones, I have decided that it's time for me to sell my mini to someone more patient!

One minor problem itself isn't a big deal, but several minor issues soon add up. I can't fault the hardware, but the software makes the phone and Nokia have a big FAIL from me on this one. Custom firmware didn't really fix the issue for me, and as others mentioned on here, the phone can be slow and unresponsive, with applications failing to load or perform.

I have also gone down the Android route, and have found the Desire HD a very pleasent phone to use. It will be a while before I will look at another Symbian based Nokia again.

Kiwi_dude wrote:
I have been a mini user for the past 14 months, and last week I had finally had enough! ... All I ask for is a phone that does what you ask it to do without having to reboot it every second day and hoping it will fix the problem ... I have also gone down the Android route, and have found the Desire HD a very pleasent phone to use ...

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooo!! :''(

Thanks Kiwi_Dude but ....... WRONG ANSWER!!! :bawling: LoL

What I couldn't accept with the Milestone was the tie in to the Collective (the Google-Cloud). Nokia are trying to ape that with M$ as their "new" partner but Android on the other hand seemed to offer NO alternative! The choice has been like the devil or the deep blue sea to me!! 😡

The Mini seems to have the capability to create and transfer information quickly and simply in formats that are readable etc by other basic programs. Am I wrong??

I haven't found a way to have a calendar app without submitting to M$ but ... I am assuming there is something out there?? Same with Notes, but DEdit is a contender there.

I don't use multi-media, watch videos, play games, or even want to use it for social networking, so hopefully it will work as just a Camera, PDA, phone ok???? + VoIP ?? Of course the bells and whistles would be great but the basics are what I actually need. Any hope???

getting to "know" my mini, slowly, it seems to me the SW is cobbled together out of bits anf bobs. It even makes M$ Office look like a SW suite. Maybe it's simply unsalvageable and better to start again with some backward compatibility?

Talvi wrote:Is the disaster described here of the N97 also true of the Mini ??

I have a few days in which I can get my money back and am still struggling with getting a feel for its limitations. The sort of issues listed here only become evident over time. I am not into the consumer thing so 18mnths and then into a recycle bin to me is wholly unacceptable.

I REALLY sympathise with the Nokia hate thing. I too promised never again since I "upgraded" to a 7600. But having tried an Android, and come smack up against the Google-Borg thing, I changed track and went for the Mini, but now ..... At least the Mini has a half decent camera thanks to the Zeiss optics, which they seem to have taken out of all subsequent devices!!

As far as I can see things continue to get worse at Nokia not better. Maybe something decent will come out of China, when they've absorbed the info the need to engage with our markets, but Nokia seem to be the only game left in town (if they are left) that even pays lip-service to open source. The rest of it is all tie-ins, cartels, and spyware. Nokia's word is as reliable as that of the Borgias!

I would really approciate some experienced user info on the Mini. I thought the problems of the N97 had been fixed on it ..... 😞

Hello

I love my Mini. It doesn't crash, doesn't cut out, and doesn't irritate me. I love its keyboard, its screen and its camera.

I have taken stunning photos with its camera (if I want really good ones, I use my Olympus Pen. This is a phone. I know its limitations). I use the video function instead of a minicam - results are as good as can be expected. I have the cables to connect to the TV, and it looks fine.

I've downloaded BBC TV shows (Top Gear, Doctor Who and some Art Documentaries) to watch, and the screen has proved excellent.

I listen to music on it, syncd with my PC Music library via Windows Media Player onto its 16gb card, I pair the phone to a bluetooth interface I've added to my car stereo, which allows hands free calling too.

I use Ovi Maps as my SatNav- hasn't failed me so far.

I use Socially to keep track of my Facebook and TWitter feeds.

I use Fring to video conference via wifi. I used to make video calls through my mobile provider, but that was around 50p a minute. Fring is free! I can use Skype,but for voice only.

I use Opera Mobile to surf the net. I don't mind the built in browser, but it's habit of presenting a cover-flow style set of screen thumbnails instead of simply going back to the previous page when you hit "back" is a bit irritating.

My calendar syncs with multiple Google calendars (I have Googasuync)

I use the built in Podcast app to keep up to date with various podcasts from the BBC.

I use Quick Office, and e-mail documents back onto my PC. I have Pdf+ to view,well, PDF files! I also use Active Notes, but not so much. The phone allows me to create, view and edit MS Office files, and the slide out keyboard means that the whole screen is available for viewing documents.

I have a handful of apps but don't use them much. Bit of a gimmick, apps, I think! Ones I like include the England Cricket Board app (great for scores during the Ashes) and BBC iPlayer. Wikitude is fun (you use the camera to scan the landscape around you, and the app adds Wikipedia tags to the photo. Fun, but you feel a complete prune using it.

I've been trying Nokia Situations (downloaded from the Nokia Beta Labs site). I can program the phone to behave in certain ways when certain conditions apply. For example, I've set the phone to go silent at 3:15 on Thursdays when I know I'm going into a meeting. It sets to a customised profile when it connects to my iPlay in the car.

I don't mind the clunkiness of the software. An iPhone it aint, but I've found the iPhone to be something of a triumph of style over content. The Nokia Mini does what it does.

I don't like the fact that Google Docs won't work on the Mini - that's a real pain. Mobile Office allowed me to download documents from Docs, but wouldn't work properly. I wish either the native browser or Opera would allow editing docs!

I also wish I could connect to a wifi printer.

I wish that the Mini handled e-mails better.It won't view HTML emails immediately - the HTML version of a message comes through as a download. However, I like the way I can "message" someone through a variety of media. Nokia E-mail does, but it doesn;t integrate with the contacts book.

Other than that, there is very little that would make me want to squander �500 on a new phone just yet! I wish Nokia would do more to support it, and I wish that QuickOffice would produce a version of their Connect software so that I can access and edit Google Docs. I regret the Nokia/MS tie-up means that improvements to S60v5 and to the apps already out there will dry up. I'd still recommend the phone to anyone.