14/01/2010 By Dirk 0

The End of an Era

This morning, I received my latest gadget: a 3rd generation IPod Touch!

The decision to get an iPod (with major support from my wife who has been using iPods for years) has been motivated by the realization that I have had over these past months: Nokia has reached the end as a software company!

I have been faithful to Nokia as a mobile device company for more than 9 years now – working for them some 7 of that. My current phone is still a Nokia. But it is increasingly clear that Nokia smartphones are no longer suited as application platforms. As a customer, my frustration with the lack and quality of applications but also the quality of Nokia’s product releases has been increasing and I was not willing anymore to take it any longer – so the iPod got into my hands!

I see several reasons for Nokia’s demise as a major smartphone platform vendor:

  • there is no platform anymore: sure, Nokia’s been pushing Symbian for many years now and it’s still driving the markets with its plethora of devices. But it is astounding to see how little platform coherence exist across these ‘platform devices’. Features on device X do not exist on device Y (and one hardly knows why not). Or features don’t work right, are buggy and unusuable. And the buggy state often remains for many firmware versions or throughout the lifetime of the product. And Nokia’s own software efforts are often the worst: as the platform provider, it manages to release a number of software products that have numerous exceptions when it comes to devices where it will run. While application developers out there write software that runs on most devices, Nokia’s own software products often don’t. And it’s hard to understand why. That obviously influences your willingness to change devices since you never know if a functionality that you got used to will still work on your new device. That’s all quite different with Apple’s product. Granted there are far less models of iPods/iPhones than Nokia devices – but the latter is not the customer’s fault but a dedicated Nokia strategy, one that customers pay dearly for.
  • there are no applications anymore: I know that this offends the many good Symbian programmers out there. And I certainly have some amazing software on my (still Nokia) phone that I’m using, some of them for years. But only my first day with the iPod has opened a world of applications that is just amazing! My Ovi Store profile for my phone shows me some 580+ applications while the AppStore lists just that many when I search for the word ‘travel’! I have finally applications for things I so wanted to have in the past. Flight checkers, traffic warnings, level meter and many more – and I still need to spend some more time searching for others. It is a HUGE difference and it is clear to me that Nokia has lost the battle for the application platform. Any organization that finally releases some kind of mobile service or app does it first for Apple’s products. The very few exceptions to this observation are just not enough anymore to attract me to Nokia’s platform as an application device.
  • core user experience: one of the most pleasant experiences with the iPod is getting it to work. Mail and Google calendar setup, video transfer, music library sync, and all the things that would need me at least two hours on my Nokia (and that’s only because I know very well what I need to do) took me less than 20 minutes on the new iPod. And stuff just works. The multimedia experience is not comparable to the plethora of apps being necessary on my Nokia to enjoy music, video and images. While I like the availability of applications, following Apple’s motto of ‘there is an app for anything’, I do believe that certain core functions need to work out of the box. And that’s just not the case anymore for Nokia. Mail, messaging, photo, music, video and all of these crucial core functions of today’s mobile devices are just a mess. And they often work only partially, are riddled with bugs and create a feeling to have bought a half-finished product (Nokia has almost a tradition to have pulled devices from stores due to high product returns). I got pretty much used to it and get around its quirks but it’s a joy to something different for once. And I can imagine that this counts for many other users.

I don’t know where Nokia is going these days. Its strategy is hard to understand – is it cheap devices, is it high-end (or both)? One platform, many? But one thing is clear to me: Nokia has lost the battle in the high-end sector. Its relations with operators still ensure sufficient sales numbers for the many (buggy) high-end devices. But it’s changing and the latest Tesco iPod deal with accelerate this.Now, let me enjoy my new toy.

P.S.: As said, my phone is still a Nokia. I’m not yet there to use touch devices as my main device. But if Apple had a non-touch, I would probably be tempted.