Nokia World webcast impressions

I just finished watching a live online presentation from Nokia World in Stuttgart, Germany, and it is half past 4 in the morning right now. As tempting as it is to fall asleep, I feel the need to say a few things about what I had witnessed. Despite my initial feelings of the event, I was at least glad to have a great time chatting with my fellow gadget brother from the West coast of the US as the "excitement" unfolded.

Honestly, I left the online event feeling validated in my preconceived notion of Nokia's lack of potential in keeping my interest as a customer. I found a link to the live webcast from an Italian blogsite and arrived in the midst of a lengthy introduction from the President and CEO, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo. By no means did he garner any kind of intrigue or captivation from me as an audience member, for it seemed like he was only biding his time with useless rhetoric. As Mr. Kallasvuo continued to speak, the only things that entered my mind were a constant need to fight nodding, the words "blah, blah, blah," and the man's slight resemblance to Arnold Schwarzenegger (which somehow spawned a plethora of action film flashbacks). There was no excitement in the air and the audience silence possibly resulted more from boredom than anticipation. I could have been doing something else (like sleeping), but I fought the urge to log off my Mac and really wanted to believe that something worth waiting for was yet to come. After he was finally finished, Anssi Vanjoki, Nokia's Executive Vice President of Markets, took to the stage.

He was no better than his predecessor as he attempted to appease the crowd with empty jokes that lacked any real sense of humor. What registered to me as being off-base was how he firmly pointed his index finger in response to music piracy and said, "Don't do that!" Wow! There's nothing like a slight dose of an authoritative father figure to have an illegal media downloader shaking in his boots! Yes, the action was certainly in jest, but nonetheless utterly corny and unnecessary. When he announced the N97 Mini with such excitement, one would think Mr. Vanjoki had been the one to actually create the device from scratch from his own inventive mind. It was as if he expected the audience to somehow react with a sort of fanfare that could only be matched by an Apple Keynote with Steve Jobs. I could not help but laugh aloud when his N97 Mini unveiling was met with a brief silence from what seemed to be applause hesitation. Spy shots of this device had already been circulating online articles and blogs, so it was definitely nothing new...NEXT!! I distinctly remember him making the statement of how Nokia was going on the attack and taking the offensive position. I chuckled.

If anything, Nokia could be making a sad attempt at spreading itself across too many platforms in the mobile industry and the writing may be on the wall. It's one thing to complete a few duties in an average manner, but something else to focus on one or two things and be the master. The company may have its hands in too many cookie jars in regards to software services and hardware solutions. Either way, I only know that the newly unveiled devices of the X6, X3, Booklet 3G, and N900 don't do much to impress me. The XSeries models seem like a wannabe iPhone/iPod Touch paired with a music service that cannot compete with iTunes and the Booklet seems a waste amidst computer manufacturers saturating the netbook market. However, the N900 is another story all in its own right.

When it was announced that a Maemo OS qwerty slider could possibly take the place of the lackluster N97, there seemed to be much promise. Unfortunately, all of that went out the window with a few words from the same man who announced the N97 Mini. According to Anssi Vanjoki's statement, Nokia was undergoing a major overhaul to its OS for upcoming devices that was occurring in five gradual steps. The N900 with Maemo was the fourth step in this process. I don't know about anybody else's reaction, but my online chat friend immediately had the same as my own: utter shock. While it may be exciting to know of an upcoming OS platform, he basically said that the N900 was just another rebound device before the next big thing. While this is true of ANY device that is created due to inevitable upgrading, it is not normal for a company to polarize its customer base in such a manner. Immediately, there could be those who want the N900 while others have justification to wait for the next OS transition of Symbian or Maemo or whatever else Nokia has up its sleeve. I seriously wonder if he had meant to mention this fifth step during his presentation. Even if the N900 has a chance, there is still the issue of Maemo compatibility with the extensive S60 3rd party app library. Things could be relatively painless if Maemo becomes more popular amongst end users.

Anyway, I am still not entirely convinced that Nokia can fully come back from the travesty that was the N97. Since then it has turned me off to S60 5th edition OS and rendered S60 3rd edition obsolete in my mind. As time continues on, we shall see if there can be successful avoidance of the troubles that eventually hit Palm. In the meantime, I will be moving on with my HTC Touch Pro 2.

TRENT
Sent from my HTC Touch Pro 2
TRENT SENSE blogger/netcast host
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