Look, let’s stop beating around the bush with this… It should be fairly obvious from the photo above who Nokia’s after with their flagship N97. It also can’t be denied that in North America, at least, Apple’s iPhone is everywhere.

My goal with this post is to highlight the key differences between the two and let you draw your own conclusions. Along the way, I’ll be pointing out what Nokia could have done (and can still do) better.

Character Input

The typical reaction I get to the N97 is something dismissive along the lines of: “So it’s like an iPhone”, at which point I flip up the screen to expose the full QWERTY keypad underneath, and all derision immediately stops.

The keypad is okay but not perfect — the space bar placement is a non-issue but putting the shift key next to the four-way D-pad makes it very awkward to select a block of text. You’re better off doing that with a free finger on the touch screen.

But there’s an additional way to input text which I find myself using more often than not, a full-screen virtual numberpad with old-school T9 built-in. It’s often a bit frustrating when I try to write something in Lolcat or enter my favourite curse, but one-handed texting is very useful when I’m on a crowded bus or train, or have bags in my other hand.

Homescreen

The second big revelation for anyone seeing an N97 for the first-time is the touch screen. But even then it’s not immediately apparent that pretty much every single element on the homescreen is a shortcut to something, and many of them are updating live by pulling in data from the Internet.

More on the homescreen widgets in a moment… I’ll finish my critique of the N97’s default display with the recommendation that entire folders — not just apps or bookmarks — should be an option for shortcuts from the homescreen as well.

Interface

It’s at this point that the wonders of the N97 begin to get lost on the new user. For starters, it’s not immediately apparent that the large diagonal menu will take you to into the handset’s filesystem. BlackBerries have a menu presented as a default screen, while Apple overwhelms you with screen upon screen of apps. I think Nokia would do well to eliminate an unlabelled physical button and put something that says “menu” right on the screen.

Back to the iPhone UI for a sec, the N97 has a nifty feature where you can organize individual apps into folders, like this. I really wish Nokia would include an option to sort these folders alphabetically. You can do it in the optional list view, but there’s too much wasted screen space to make me want to use that.

Widgets

Widgets on the N97 are akin to many apps are to the iPhone — lightweight single-purpose tools that are often little more than mobile-friendly skins for web sites. But some of the the Nokia widgets can run on the N97’s homescreen — like the bundled one for Facebook, while others — like Dabr’s excellent Twitter interface — cannot.

Dabr, could you kindly rectify this?

Ovi Store

It’s actually not the full-on disaster that I was expecting, but it’s certainly no iTunes App Store, either.

Gaming

In a similar vein, Nokia needs to get N-Gage working with the N97, and fast. The included games on the US version of the N97 are embarrassingly bad.

Price

Here’s something I’ll bet you didn’t know: The N97 is actually cheaper than the newest version of Apple’s iPhone.

“But the iPhone is only $199“, you say… Well for starters, that’s the 16GB version. To match the built-in 32GB of Nokia’s N97 you’ll have to pony up an additional hundred bucks.

Oh, and you’ll also have to sign on for a contract of up to three years, whereas the N97 is sold unlocked. I’ve ranted enough about the evils of contracts that I would be repeating myself at this point, so I’ll just point out that the actual, unsubsidized price of an iPhone 3GS 32GB is actually over $800, USD or CAD — and that’s if you can even buy one legally in the country where you live!

Meanwhile, the current price of the N97 from NokiaUSA.com is almost $100 less. No contract required. No iTunes required. And no unlocking or jailbreaking required should you ever want to sell it to someone on another carrier.

But like I said when I started this, I’m not here to tell you which is better — I’ll let you draw your own conclusions on that.

As soon as Apple’s WWDC keynote wrapped up yesterday I started thinking about what I would write here.

First I was going to write about the new iPhone 3G S, and how the hardware doesn’t measure up to Nokia’s forthcoming flagship N97. But nobody in North America is likely to even blink at this; they’re too busy drooling over the new iPhone apps like the one for Zipcar, that lets you unlock a vehicle and honk the horn from your phone.

Then I thought about documenting how truly evil Apple is becoming, selling an entire line of notebooks with non-removable batteries while advertising how “green” they are.

I also considered writing about how Apple’s big innovation this summer is taking a cue from Acer, Asus and the like — not by releasing a cheap netbook (as many had hoped) but by slashing the price on their current iPhone and making it a commodity item, almost a disposable one like the lower end of their iPod line.

And then it struck me: I really don’t care.

Considering the behaviour of both Apple, Inc. and their unquestioning masses:

1. Greeting the announcement of voice dialing on their beloved iPhone with thunderous applause like it hasn’t been a feature on other handsets for the past five years;
2. Knowingly committing to a multi-year contract on a crap carrier for a locked handset;
3. Being so smug as to summarily dismiss the Ovi Store less than a month after its launch, and the Palm Pre after only a few days on the market…

… I realize that I can’t win — or more truthfully, I no longer have an interest in attempting to penetrate the overwhelming ignorance that is Apple’s reality distortion field.

So if you’re looking for advice on Apple products you should probably look elsewhere. I just can’t be bothered anymore.

Last night I handed over my 2007-vintage BlackBook to my sister in law, whose IBM ThinkPad has been compromised — most probably by her kids clicking on banner ads.

Though this is the last version of Apple’s consumer portable to have FireWire (and target disk mode) built-in, it has become too cumbersome for me to cart around and has been replaced by a diminutive Asus Eee PC running Linux.

What I’ll miss:

• That it was generally a stable product, probably because I kept OS X Tiger on it and never went near Leoptard.
• (oddly enough) iSync – though not unique to this particular machine, I did store all my PIM data here. I’ve since moved on to a “cloud-based” PIM 2.0 app, but through all my trials of Nokia smartphones iSync never let me down.
  

And not so much:

• The heft – in this day and age, this thing was just too big to carry around comfortably. That fugly briefcase I had didn’t help much either.
• The glossy screen – it looked great in the store and terrible everywhere else.
• The fan – it seemed to kick in at full blast for no apparent reason and was annoyingly loud when it did.
• Paying an extra $200 CAD to get it in black. That was dumb.
  

If you can’t wait to see the new gear that Apple will be revealing at the MacWorld Keynote Tuesday morning, I can at least show you two products they probably won’t be announcing…

iPhone Mini

First up is the iPhone Mini, which I found on Apliu Street in Kowloon’s Sham Shui Po district. At about $100 CAD this little number doesn’t have 3G or WiFi, but it does sport an FM radio, apparently powered by Windows Media Player…?

iPod Shuffle with screen

And in the famous Temple Street Night Market I spotted these new iPod Shuffles, with screens! Code-named “MP3″, a 2GB model will only set you back about $15 CAD and comes in 5 colours and 2 screen orientations, apparently…

All kidding aside, that iPhone knock-off beats Apple’s official product with one killer feature — it’s 100% unlocked. While it’s technically true that Apple’s iPhone 3G is sold unlocked here, to actually buy one you need to meet the following criteria:

1. You must provide proof of Hong Kong citizenship;
2. You must be willing to sign up for a two-year contract with 3, the only carrier that sells it.

With such restrictions, I can’t really fault the local pirates for giving consumers an alternative, albeit an illegal one. And of course, you get what you pay for…

In a previous post I proclaimed Salling Software’s Media Sync the best way to get music to your Nokia from a Mac. Turns out that verdict may have been a bit premature…

Corrupted Library?

Even though sending music to my E71 via Media Sync is but a one or two-click affair, there is an extra step required before I can actually play any of it from my handset. It looks to me like the Eseries Music Player has to load the transferred tracks into either RAM or a scratch file of some kind. And that “repairing corrupted library” message isn’t exactly encouraging, despite Media Sync going only one way — i.e. Mac to Nokia.

Thankfully for Mac users, there’s another way to get Music onto a Nokia device:

Nokia Multimedia Transfer Main Interface

Say hello to Nokia’s Multimedia Transfer utility for Macs! Like Salling’s Media Sync, this app is accessed through a drop-down window on your Mac’s title bar.

Playlists on iTunes

And unlike Media Sync Nokia’s utility puts a dedicated folder for your device in the iTunes sidebar — this can be a bit confusing at first as you can only drag playlists (and not individual tracks) into your device folder, as I discovered through trial and error.

Playlists on my E71

The good thing about this is that those same playlists get sent to your Nokia for easier navigation of whatever music you’ve transferred over, as you can see in the screen grab above.

DRM Alerts

In place of Media Sync’s vague and alarming “corrupted library” message, Nokia’s app is a bit more clear about what didn’t make it over to your handset and why. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: DRM sucks.

Nokia Music Player Manual Refresh

Sadly, you still have to manually refresh your music library — at least with the Eseries Music Player — before you can enjoy any tunes on your Nokia.

I won’t pretend for a second that this solution (or Media Sync for that matter) is anywhere near as elegant as using an Apple iPod or iPhone to take your music with you, but to paraphrase a famous saying about cameras, the best music player in the world is always the one that’s in your pocket…

Image courtesy of Gizmodo.com

Earlier this week Apple announced it had sold a staggering 6.9 million iPhones in Q3 2008, beating RIM’s 6.1 million BlackBerry sales and crowning Apple as one of the top three mobile vendors worldwide. And thanks to the company’s “Think Different” bookkeeping, their $4.6 billion profit for the quarter isn’t just gross handset sales, but a mere portion of a typical AT&T 24-month contract.

With every other handset manufacturer rushing to market with a touchscreen mobile of their own you cannot deny that Apple has hit an out-of-the-park home run with the iPhone 3G.

So why am I not using one?

Even though I’m a Mac user of thirteen years I’ve also eight years of smartphone experience under my belt, going back to the infamous VisorPhone, in fact. And for me there are still four major ways in which Apple’s monster handheld comes up short:

1. The Keypad – With a growing number of iPhones around me I’ve had lots of opportunities to play with the virtual keypad. It’s definitely quicker and more intuitive than using T9 — particularly with one hand — but still can’t match the speed of a physical QWERTY. And I know a thing or two about physical QWERTY keypads.

2. The Contracts – I remain fundamentally opposed to carrier contracts for GSM-based devices. And while Apple has certainly revolutionized the mobile handset interface, its dealings with telcos worldwide have been anything but. I’ll let this excellent IntoMobile editorial explain.

3. The Camera – How can you possibly argue that a 2 megapixel fixed-focus camera with no flash or video is better than a 5 (or even 8!) megapixel auto-focus camera with both?

4. The Killer App – I’ve been combing through the iTunes App Store since it became available in Canada and I’ve yet to see that one program that makes the iPhone a must-have device. With all the smart developers out there embracing the platform I’ve a strong feeling that it’s on the way, but from what I’ve seen the iPhone’s killer app is still iTunes, as it has been since day one.

If anyone out there has a killer app for the iPhone, by all means let me know!

I figured this would happen sooner or later…

Somewhat absent-mindedly I accepted a prompt for an auto-install of iTunes 8.0.1 last week, which immediately turned my decade-old collection of digital music into an unstable mess. And I put the blame for it solely on iPhone!

The problems began when I tried to stream music to my stereo via AirTunes, and got this surprising error message:

Um, no it won't...

I say “surprising” because streaming was working exactly as advertised!

Shortly thereafter iTunes started crashing — an inexcusable thing for the one critical piece of software that users need to interface with their music collections, and to connect to other Apple devices.

If you can’t see the problem here I’ll happily spell it out for you: iTunes is going so far beyond its original mission as a music app that its nomenclature no longer makes sense. And I’d venture to guess that for the vast majority of users it has become bloatware.

I’ll never say never, but I currently have zero interest in an iPhone or Apple TV. I could foresee playing with an iPod touch at some point, but when that day comes I’d much rather sync my PIM data to it using iSync, the sync utility made for this express purpose, than endure the marathon syncing sessions that some iPhone users have reported with iTunes.

Granted, iTunes has strong foothold as a media delivery system on both Mac and Windows computers, but such a monolithic feature set doesn’t really jibe with the rest of Apple’s desktop software. Consider that Final Cut Studio splits up editing, graphics and DVD authoring into separate apps; likewise, iWork has Pages, Numbers and Keynote. Would it be so hard to spin off video, PIM and iPhone/touch software into leaner, dedicated apps that are easier and more intuitive for the user?

I mean, this is supposed to be Apple’s core strength, ain’t it?

I’m sure Apple will send a fix for the latest iTunes/iVideos/AppStore/iPhoneSync down the pipes soon enough. But me? I’m downgrading to an earlier version without so much bloat, and hoping that Apple will soon remember that sometimes less equals more…

Tagged: Apple, Desktop, iPhone, iTunes ]]> http://acurrie.wordpress.com/2008/10/07/iphone-itunes-stupid/feed/ 9 AC Air Tunes Error http://acurrie.wordpress.com/2008/08/22/nokia-vs-apple-battleground-india/ http://acurrie.wordpress.com/2008/08/22/nokia-vs-apple-battleground-india/#comments Fri, 22 Aug 2008 14:32:39 +0000 Andrew Currie http://acurrie.wordpress.com/?p=538 ]]>

Ready, fight!

Nokia surprised its many fans around the world this week with the announcement that its N96 smartphone, the highly-anticipated successor to the flagship N95, would be available in India a month before its scheduled release in other markets. Of particular significance is that this announcement was made only three days before the release of Apple’s iPhone in that country.

Nobody’s denying that Nokia is trying to steal Apple’s thunder here, not even Nokia itself — they’ve got a 60% domestic market share to protect and see India as second only to China for future sales opportunities.

Both the N96 and the iPhone are likely to be considered luxury items in this part of the world — indeed, for about the price of three iPhones you could buy a brand-new car. In its favour Nokia was recently voted the country’s most trusted brand, while Apple has once again managed to get folks lining up to purchase their mobile device.

This battle for Indian smartphone supremacy won’t actually get started until Nokia gets some of their product on store shelves, but it will definitely be one to watch… Stay tuned!

A typical Japanese handset

Kudos to the dedicated reporters at AppleInsider for their recent fluff piece, proudly proclaiming that the new iPhone 3G rocks the Japanese smartphone market.

Here’s the synopsis of this fine bit of reportage:

Mobile providers in Japan are crediting the launch of Apple’s iPhone 3G with dramatically shifting large numbers of subscribers between providers.

Such a bold statement would have you believe that Japanese handset makers are simultaneously committing seppuku at the arrival of the JeebusPhone on their native soil. There’s just one little problem here: While not technically incorrect, AppleInsider’s premise is far more truthiness than truth.

Following the first external link leads to a story about KDDI losing subscribers to rival carrier SoftBank because of the iPhone. The page also states that SoftBank currently boasts more than double the subscribers of the mighty DoCoMo — a bit hard to believe, given that DoCoMo reached the impressive milestone of 50 million subscribers back in 2005. In fact, the company experienced a 41% growth in profits for Q1 2008, and continues to lead the world in revenue from mobile data.

AppleInsider then proceeds to list Japan-specific handset features like “QC Codes” (actually QR) and the “impractical” 1seg broadcast video service. Impractical or not, 1seg is actually quite popular in Japan, and 20 million handsets supporting the free service have been sold there.

And finally, there’s this little chesnut:

“Just the interface itself is enough reason for me to buy the iPhone,” said Andrew Shuttleworth in a Macworld story exploring the iPhone’s potential in the Japanese market.

Good for you, Andrew Shuttleworth! I guess the fact that, (1) you shill for MacWorld and (2) you speak and read English, just like the owner of the only iPhone I actually saw in the wild when I was in Japan last month, doesn’t give you any kind of bias on such matters?

While I can’t fault AppleInsider for telling zombie Mac fanboys exactly what they want to hear, I can tell you from firsthand experience that rumours of the iPhone supplanting the most advanced mobile phone market in the world have been greatly exaggerated…

(image courtesy of Gizmodo.com)

Come July 11th my trusty E61i and I will be en route to Bermuda for the weekend — and it’s probably a good thing: That’s the day Apple starts carpet-bombing 70 markets worldwide with their new iPhone 3G.

The hype is particularly acute here in North America — yes, I’m even guilty of contributing to it myself — and it’s mostly due to the sad state of the mobile marketplace here. First off, we’ve got the two competing and totally incompatible networks of GSM and CDMA. And those pesky carriers, rather than enlighten us about the merits of either one, spend their time and money wooing us into multi-year contracts with zero-dollar handsets.

At least part of the reason that the iPhone is looked upon as such a revolutionary device has got to do with the fact that Apple itself has put a lot of effort into explaining how it works; in comparison the in-store activation of your typical mobile phone account is so byzantine that the hardware itself is almost an afterthought.

In such a hostile environment, can we really blame the average consumer for squealing with delight when they learn that they can make a voice call on their iPhone by clicking on a phone number in its web browser?

It must be especially painful for Nokia, having steadily finessed its S60 platform over the past decade and having a healthy lead in smartphone market share worldwide, yet being all but invisible on this side of the pond.

Well Nokia, you’re in luck, because this S60 Ambassador has got some suggestions to grow your business in the US & A (and therefore Canada as well — we can’t think for ourselves, apparently…)

I. Simplify Hardware

This Eseries/Nseries thing isn’t working. I can understand wanting to cater to the enterprise market, but I’ve yet to see any evidence of a large-scale deployment of Eseries devices anywhere in the world — am I wrong on this? I suspect that RIM has this market pretty much sewn up, so I’d look elsewhere for prospective customers. More on that later…

As an Eseries user I still want to play N-Gage games. And I’m sure there are Nseries users who want a QWERTY keypad, or at least a full-on office suite without having to pay extra for it. If you want to differentiate from your feature phones that’s fine, but can you at least combine E and Nseries into something like the NEOseries, or EON or even ONE? Whatever the name, a single line of flagship devices would do better than splitting up your best work into two streams, if you’re asking me. And you should be.

II. Recognize the Killer App in Software and Services

MOSH, N-Gage, Nokia Music Store, Ovi… And this mystery Nokia Account that I signed up for without having any idea what it’s for — you’re certainly getting an ‘A’ for effort in embracing crowdsourcing and social media. But Nokia, you’re clearly all over the map, and you’re in danger of missing a huge opportunity to eat Apple’s lunch.

Ever since my days with a Danger hiptop I’ve been seeking what I call PIM 2.0, a consumer-friendly version of Microsoft Exchange that works with SyncML. Apple thinks they’ve got it with MobileMe but they’re way off the mark — it costs far too much and supports but a single email address under their own domain.

This is your chance, Nokia, to offer up something better. But here’s the deal:

1. It has to be free.
2. It has to support multiple POP mail accounts from other domains — bonus points if you can include popular webmail clients like GMail, Hotmail, etc.
3. It must also include a Nokia-branded email account — something like “MyNokia.com” would do nicely. This way lots of people get to see your brand name in their inbox. Clever, eh?
4. It has to launch soon, so it can steal some of the iPhone’s thunder — putting it out there with your new E66 and E71 would be particularly appropriate, assuming your July drop dates are on track.
5. It has to work on all S60 handsets!

III. Go Upmarket

I’m talking image, not price. I’m sure you’re aware that your fans on this side of the Atlantic are mostly using grey market unlocked phones. As one of these enlightened individuals I’m clearly biased; nonetheless I think you need to recognize us as your core audience, and adjust your marketing accordingly.

Pinching and flicking away on your iPhone will surely impress your friends, but once you travel off the continent you’ll pay dearly in roaming charges for that full-sized web experience. We savvy international travellers know better, so try to reach more of us. Do up some new ads that show S60 handsets as world class devices, usable anywhere on the planet. Go ahead and boast about your lion’s share of the global market — honestly, some people over here don’t even know!

Let the iPhone be the handset “for the rest of them”… Nokias are for rock stars, fashion models, activists, diplomats, secret agents. Remind us of that. Give Nokia a presence in business class lounges at airports — you could, for example, loan out some of your Internet Tablets to jet-setters on layover.

I’ll keep on spreading the good word, Nokia, but heed my advice — the iPhone is coming and it’s going to be huge. You need to take steps now to get a foothold on North America, and maintain your lead elsewhere… Don’t say I didn’t warn you!