TamsS60 - the S60 Blog

Nokia CFO publicly confirms that Nokia plans toi make Linux phones in the future. Pages like symbian-freak go bonkers. Cutting a long story short, it’s a perfect day in S60-land - I hope that you all now know why reading TamsS60 pays out.

Long-term readers will definitely recall that we covered this on the 13th of April - and, in fact, even have an insider’s account on what might happen to Nokia’s operating systems in the future.

In case you haven’t been with us back then - just give the article a click here:
http://tamss60.tamoggemon.com/2008/04/13/on-the-future-of-nokias-operating-systems/

P.S. Nokia has already stated that the comments were taken out of context and were targeted at web pads, not classic mobile phones. This probably had quite a few S60 developers up on the barricades…but that TrollTech acquisition definitely wasn’t done just for kicks either.

I personally trust my insider source: Nokia’s reaction is completely logical as they have to keep S60 developers loyal. Sega made a similar mistake by announcing the DreamCast months before it actually hit the road. This then led to most Saturn game projects being scrapped…

Our review of the Nokia N81 8GB special edition now comes to an end - in case anyone of you misses a part, the full list is below:
The Nokia N81 8GB Special Edition review - unboxing
The Nokia N81 8GB review - size
The Nokia N81 8GB review - physical
The Nokia N81 8GB review - screen
The Nokia N81 8GB review - camera
The Nokia N81 8GB review - random tidbits

So far so good. Some parts are great, some suck - but what’s the final verdict?

For me, the Nokia N81 8GB definitely is a great idea. Integrating a generous amount of memory into the device along with a great camera, GPS and WiFi is a great idea in theory - but Nokia’s N81 8GB unfortunately is not the perfect implementation of the concept.

The phone’s keyboard could be a lot better, and the 2MP fix-focus camera voids further discussion.

The N81 8GB would be a great phone for the 300-400€ price range - however, the current pricing is much too high even for the special edition with the included headphones.

If Nokia improves the camera and keyboard, the N81’s successor could be a true blockbuster. As it is now, it is a great idea with a botched execution….I would not purchase it…

What do you think?

Apparently, the folks at Nokia’s have not yet understood that their N-Gage systems are not dedicated gaming consoles like the Sony PSP or Nintendo DS. How else can the following policy be explained:

N-gage games are locked to an IMEI forever. People upgrading their phones can NOT move their games to the new device(unlike with a PSP/DS - you can use a purchased Game Pak oin any device, world-wide).

For me, this is a major foot bullet on Nokia’s side - think of the following scenarios:

• Phone stolen
• Device upgrade
• Device breakdown where repair is uneconomical

In each of the cases above, the user is punished by having to repurchase all N-Gage games he has ever owned - embarrassingly, significantly smaller companies(e.g. Resco; Paragon) manage to create much better systems that actually assist their customers.

Basically, it all comes back to the topic of investment security(I already covered this back in 2006). As long as user’s investment is not secure, power users will not buy stuff.

And this is the critical point: like most other Nokia products, N-Gage is not aimed at power users(as hard as this may sound). Instead, it is targeted at the soccer mom/gamer teen audience - and these folks usually do not care much about investment security. For them, instant gratification is what counts…and Nokia definitely has that one sorted!

P.S. All Snake SubSonic fans out there: this policy also applies to that game…