It was a discussion on location services that made me finally realize that things are different when you are talking about Multimedia Computer and not entry-level phones.
I always poo-poohed location apps since they really only shine on higher-end phone where you have more connectivity and information. Well, now that high-end is my life, my mind is starting to fill up with location apps.
So, yeah, this is a good thing for Nokia and makes my job easier.
Nokia and gate5 AG today announced that an agreement has been signed for Nokia to acquire gate5. gate5 is a leading supplier of mapping, routing and navigation software and services. By acquiring gate5, Nokia will offer consumers maps, routing, navigation and other location based applications on its mobile devices.
Chugging along to 3 BILLION users, when will it stop? Already almost everyone who can afford a phone has one. Soon everyone from seven to seventy will have one.
China Mobile Communications, the world’s largest mobile network operator, has been adding 4.29 million new subscribers per month on average so far this year. The company boasted 278.3 million users at the end of July, and if it continues to grow so fast, it could reach 300 million by the end of this year.
Tom, below, makes an interesting observation that is complemented by another observation by Mark Curtis.
Two points jump our to me: 1) Do we have any flippin’ clue, in the end, what folks are doing with their mobile phones? 2) The answer lies in building your product, releasing it into the wild, and doing some simple observation.
But, as we all know, we try to do all the guess work, contingency planning, and pitching before the product is released.
I think the optimum is somewhere between pre-design research, gut instinct, and trust that your users will quickly converge on the real use of your product.*
Mark Curtis on mobilising our meat based selves: "On Flirtomatic, a flirting community on mobile and web that I’m closely involved with, we see our biggest interaction (chat) levels at 4.30 in the afternoon and between 10 and 12 midnight – and equally on phones and web. These latter users are to some extent choosing a virtual night out."
We see similar behaviour with mobile puzzling. We expected commuting times to be the big hours for it – 7-9am and 5-7am, mirroring the times when crosswords and sudoku are embedded into everyday lives already. (We can track when people are actually wanting to puzzle because Puzzler uses a single download, pay-per-play model)
No way. Usage grows steadily throughout the day and peaks in the wee hours (2-3am). This is complementary to puzzling in the real world.
*Thinking back, I’ve always understood this (I’m a died-in-the-wool arch-skeptic) and have always tried to place products in strange places. I was looking for that ‘they did what with it?’ kinda response. It’s a minima-maxima thing that the science geek in me can ramble on but will spare you.
Gotta say that yesterday I realized how much some lines of thought were ingrained in me.
Today, some of my pet ideas, so well received by others, kinda fell flat in some discussions. Only later did I realize why.
You might remember that I have been quite focused on services for simple voice and SMS only phones. It was natural, seeing that the vast majority of phones were like that, especially in emerging markets.
But, as you can imagine, the folks who make the amazing ‘Multimedia Computers’, the amazing Nseries phones, the folks who work at Nokia Multimedia are not constrained in that way at all. D’oh!
Yes, I need to do a bit of a deep brain reset to realign my head once more with what one can do when one has a super-duper mobile thingamagig in your pocket, hands, desk, wherever.
While an independent service provider usually thinks of the largest market, as a product creator for Multimedia, you know that by definition, all your customers have a certain kind of device: yours.
Description: This is the ever popular Portable Rotary Phone, now in Red! Phone comes fully assembled and tested. All you have to do is open the phone, insert your SIM card, and turn the unit on! The unit will utilize your phone number and account minutes. Phone dials out like normal through the rotary. Incoming calls ring the original, loud, gong style metal bells. Please note: As with all cellular phones, there is no dial tone. While we thoroughly enjoying taking the Port-O-Rotary out on the town, please realize the sound quality will not be as good as your pocket phone. This phone is for entertainment purposes only!
Oy vey. It’s been a heck of a time these last few weeks. It feels like I am going through some Cosmic Constriction that’s just squeezing, twisting, and stretching me.
Ugh.
Of course, my writing has suffered greatly. And this Constriction just tightened a few notches, so I need to drop all my little side interests and focus ever more on my work.
Ah, work After labouring in a corner of the proverbial dark and dank basement for so long, I have been yanked into the light and plopped right into the middle of a very active, very fast, and very interesting group.
This week I left my Web strategy consulting support all talk no walk role at our Nokia Ventures Organization (eh, they’d evolved enough that they needed me no more) and joined another team at Nokia Multimedia (the goons who make the Nseries ‘multimedia computer’) as a Product Manager for Multimedia Experiences.
Of course, the company is huge and I’m not the only one involved in making cool stuff here (credit where credit is due). Also, there are a ton of things in progress, so in the short term, I am just helping things come to final fruition. Nonetheless, the role places me in a great position to pull together the products in various Multimedia experience areas, such as games, music, TV, video and photos, computers, and Web. I look forward to that challenge.
This role is a definite switch from my passive cogitation to actually having to create products. Heh, let’s see if I gots what it takes. In any case, I’ll be here for some time to come.*
Oh, one last thing. My fearless leader is way cool with me writing and talking about stuff. I will be able to continue writing and speaking about as much interesting stuff as I can, unfiltered and uncut.
Pause for station identification With that in mind, let me state the standard disclaimer: everything I write here on this site is an expression of my own opinions, NOT of my employer, Nokia. If these were the opinions of Nokia, the site would be called ‘Nokia something’ and, for sure, the writing and design would be much more professional. Likewise, I am an intensely trained professional writer (heh), so don’t expect to find any confidential secret corporate mumbo-jumbo being revealed here. Everything I write here is public info or readily found via any decent search engine or easily deduced by someone who has an understanding of the industry.
On the flip side, this is my personal site. Please don’t flood me with ideas that you think Nokia might be interested in. Better to leave a comment or trackback relevant to one of my posts (emphasis: relevant). Or go visit one of the Nokia blogs.
So there.
See ya later.
*Of course, I can be persuaded. If anyone has a big book advance, or an unwanted multi-million-Euro winning lottery ticket, or a CxO-level position to offer me (biotech, mobile, or Web are good places to start), feel free to email me.
A dear old friend had to be laid to rest. It was hard for us, but our selfishness would have only caused her more pain.
She was much loved, and gave back even more. She endured our countless
adventures and tought us much along the way. From dying stray to old
grand queen of the household, she had a good life.
I’ve been doing a bit of reading into audio streaming lately and someone mentioned a term that I had to look up just to make sure – Sideloading, or transferring files from server to server or from server or PC to mobile device or memory card (as opposed to uploading or downloading – device-server actions). Two other definitions here and here.
The funny thing is that this has been one of the main ways that I listen to podcasts on my phone. So I’m a sideloader.
Some folks think downloads, some think direct connection from mobile device network. I think they are all interlinked and all the options should be there. We should make it easy for users to choose which method suits their style and budget. Such a versatile and integrated way of transferring large files is really only part of that fusion of PC-mobile-Web I keep harping about.
So, if you are building services that use large files, such as video or audio, think of all the ways someone wants to get that stuff on their device and make them all available. Of course, your biz model needs to be amenable to such things, too.
And practical surveys are showing that people do not always want to download stuff over the air (sometimes slow and expensive!). See blurb below.
Just recently, San Francisco-based Telephia released a report comparing OTA track downloading and side-loading among British consumers. The company found that 27 percent of 3G users downloaded content to their phones, and the average user grabbed 4.1 files per month. In terms of the preferred method of music delivery, though, some other findings emerged. In the survey, 44 percent of 3G subscribers preferred side-loading ripped content from their computers, while 49 percent of non-3G subscribers preferred the same. Comparatively, 14 percent of 3G users surveyed preferred downloading tracks directly from a carrier or non-carrier service, while 16 percent of non-3G subscribers preferred the same.
*And something tells me that most folks download phone apps to their PC and then ‘sideload’ them into their phones. I think that’s mostly because it’s easier to find apps via a PC browser. Ja?
A new short film, by award-winning actor and film-maker Gary Oldman, shot on the new Nokia N93 multimedia computer has made its premier recently. The movie named Donut, is being screened on the Nokia Nseries Studio, a groundbreaking online mobile movie community where future directors can upload and showcase their own mobile videos.
*The article mentions Gary’s work in Dracula and Potter. But he was also Oswald in Stone’s JFK and rocked as Zorg in Besson’s Fifth Element. And can you imagine the tame role he had in the latest Batman? Ah, I digress.
