gerbick | # 141 | 2010-07-29, 09:15 | Report

If I knew exactly, I think Nokia would be knocking on my door with a check, a title and an airplane ticket back to Espoo. But since that's not the case, I'll gladly continue a dialog because... well, you make me think.

In my own personal opinion, there's three fronts to accomplish what they need to do.

First front: Advertise features that do not seem like "me too" features. Comes With Music? Sounds like a "me too" of iTunes or DoubleTwist. Get Skype to name-drop your level of interaction more than just occasionally - and pay them as incentive to deploy on your product more features first... it's worked for Intel and their group conferencing in the past. And do better on the advertising front...

Second front: Work with the North American carriers. The ones with network problems (currently AT&T and Verizon), bring up wi-fi usage, talk subsidies, get your phones in the faces of people that don't know much better. Also, educate the resellers, get a channel open to where they can communicate and can get answers in a timely manner. Forget talking about "open" with people that don't understand what it means. Talk about expanded opportunities but say it... much cooler than "expanded opportunities"...

Third front: Attack the enterprise level. MS Exchange and cloud app - Google Calendar among others - are PRICELESS to have ready to roll out of the box. So is document (MS Office) perusal and editing. Video and great cameras are great, but when the ergonomics of an OS makes you click four times after you've taken a picture to get it up to a TwitPic, YFrog or Facebook, you're no longer a "mainstream" OS. UI/UX needs to be simplified for things that should be simple to do. And that extends into the enterprise too - worse users I've ever had to support were executives. Make connecting to their Outlook and cloud apps easier and separate from a browser. Leave the browser ability too... for us that don't want to use an oversimplified app.

That's a start in my book. I'd love to see them take some other vectors that are definitely there for them to work on - LIKE CUSTOMER SUPPORT (take the hint Nokia).

Aligned to what? I don't think Nokia wishes to fail.

Community never arises in the terms of what will be successful. I remember when Macromedia was caught fully unaware of how the Flash community would grow alongside it. They really didn't expect it to happen at all like that.

But it happened. And Adobe is now cultivating those communities and expanding their research, influence and whatnot due to those communities. Same can be said for Android. Maemo? This and a couple of other pockets exist, but they're in a microcosm that's equal parts effective community and out of touch with corporate going-ons. And that MeeGo forum... that's the absolute wrong way to do a forum around a product. They might as well make that a private forum, if you sign up, so be it. But otherwise, it's too specific and odd to consider that useful.

All... my opinion. Would love to see what you guys bring up as the "fight back" point should be/start.

ysss | # 142 | 2010-07-29, 09:40 | Report

@gerbick: lol my apologies, i thought you said the fightback should start here at the community. Thus my question 'how' and 'we're not aligned' comment.

Going to the (erroneously derived, but still interesting) question though... I think the simplest way is for Nokia to bootstrap into the ongoing trending snowballs...

1. Good developer ecosystem + appstore. There's loads of gold rushing here. They can pickup loads of partners and evangelists from this pool. Oh and developers too.

2. Put one foot into Android: I think it'd be interesting if Nokia maintains a single Android flagship-killer model. They can do a running start into Android ecosystem, get into the limelight against Droid and all the other 'iphone killers' to steal mindshare and get their names out there.
If MeeGo takes off, then they can build a bridge to Android with this and sieve the users to MeeGo.
If MeeGo flops, then this is their life jacket.

3. Cut the number of models. Be more stringent in the design phase and output less... Sure, the # of selections should still be christmas tree-shaped (more models on the bottom end), but it shouldn't be a forest down there. Get a brazilian wax.

Heh.

gerbick | # 143 | 2010-07-29, 10:00 | Report

Actually, I was arguing against the "fight back" starting in this community.

The rest of your points... we honestly agree there.

naabi | # 144 | 2010-07-29, 10:10 | Report

No, just no.

johnel | # 145 | 2010-07-29, 10:10 | Report

One of the factors that led me to buy the n900 was it was the closest to the "linux experience" than other devices.

If in a couple of years or so Nokia (or any other manufacturer) can produce something similar then I will be interested.

I like Android but it is not as flexible as maemo. Python is available for android but it cannot access any apis.

Actually when I think about it one of my requirements for a device is that it runs Python.

I think Nokia have lost a lot of momentum by switching to MeeGo. If they continued with maemo they would be in a better position to compete - all the groundwork has already been layed.

badboyuk | # 146 | 2010-07-29, 13:40 | Report

ive not decided yet.......awaiting release of the meego handset.......if that turns out to be poor........then im just going to give into htc or apple

bsving | # 147 | 2010-07-29, 14:11 | Report

I agree. It seems like the whole Maemo development from the start and up to MeeGo is a series of random decisions with no strategic goal, starting from scratch each time. Unless Nokia plans to produce Intel based HW, I see absolutely no reason to go for MeeGo. But if that is so, why develop MeeGo on the N900? I mean, the obvious solution would be to develop Symbian^4 on ARM and MeeGo on Intel.

If Nokia will produce a tablet-phone running MeeGo on Intel HW, it probably will be ridiculously good, but until something really cool comes, it is bye bye Nokia for me. The N8 does seem really good, with a killer of a camera and all, but this Symbian^3 instead of Symbian^4 scares me away, and it looks a bit strange. Has Nokia officially said anything at all about upgrading the N8?

bsving | # 148 | 2010-07-29, 14:32 | Report

I wouldn't count on it. Android will be more and more fragmented, and the "default" Android will be more and more unusable and dated, lacking all the goodies that makes the OS nice. Android is the new "old" Symbian and eventually stand alone general UIs will emerge that are incompatible with each other. Android will become very good from some vendors, but awkward from others just like everything else.

ikirk | # 149 | 2010-07-29, 14:34 | Report

If they have a device as good as the N900 - quite probably!
If they have a device like first release of the N97 - no...

Main thing for me would actually be the OS situation - cause their lack of commitment/development on Maemo has left me wary of buying anything with a new Nokia-backed OS. Meego will have to be well looked after by them before I buy into it.

Rugoz | # 150 | 2010-07-29, 14:45 | Report

Well yes because:

1) No android phones with good camera.

2) Overall like maemo/meego more then android.

3) Nokia knows how to design phones. I mean just look at htc desire (desire, lol), its thin ok, but there is no design language here.
On the another hand the N8 with its retro-look is just cool, not everybodys taste but plenty of character.