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Nokia N8 starts shipping

by Scott Bicheno on 30 September 2010, 09:20

Tags: Nokia (NYSE:NOK)

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Crunch time

Nokia has announced that its latest high-end smartphone - the N8 - has started shipping. This is possibly a few days earlier than expected and certainly sooner than some feared when Nokia said it was delaying shipments for a few weeks.

The reason anyone even gave a damn whether the N8 was delayed a bit, or not, is Nokia's relatively weak position in the smartphone market. Still the world leader on handset sales by volume, Nokia has yet to produce a high-end smartphone that captures the imagination in the same way as Apple's iPhone or Android equivalents such as the HTC Desire have.

This is a big problem for Nokia, as that's the direction the mobile phone market is headed in, and if it doesn't persuade the market that it has at least a viable smartphone alternative, it risks being left behind.

The big problem is the operating system. Symbian is still the biggest smartphone OS by volume, but this is as much a product of inertia as anything else. In terms of popularity, both with consumers and developers, it has already been supplanted by iOS and Android, with the likes of Windows Phone 7 and webOS about to make their move too. But Nokia insists that the latest version of Symbian measures up, even though it's focusing on MeeGo for its future high-end smartphones.

"With the N8, and the new Symbian software, we are bringing a familiar, faster and more intuitive user experience to the world's most popular smartphone platform. The Nokia N8 has received the highest amount of consumer pre-orders in Nokia history and we are thrilled to start shipments of the N8, the first of Nokia's new Symbian smartphone range," said Jo Harlow, SVP of smartphones at Nokia.

Incidentally, Techwatch has noticed that Phone4U will start selling the BlackBerry Torch tomorrow. While RIM is perceived as doing better than Nokia in the smartphone market, it faces similar problems with an OS that's viewed by many as inferior to the big two. Its latest tablet features a new OS that will apparently become the phone OS in time too, so you could say RIM is at a similar juncture to Nokia.

 

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Posted by 3dcandy - Thu 30 Sep 2010 12:12
I've said it before, and shall do again. I've not been really excited by a Nokia phone since the 3330!
As alluded to in the article, that's Nokia's problem…..and I know plenty who feel exactly the same…
Posted by Fraz - Thu 30 Sep 2010 12:48
Nokia need a new marketing department. Clearly saying “give Symbian another chance” just isn't going to cut the mustard.

The Symbian brand has a bad rep, even though it's a perfectly good product. Why don't they take 99% of the code base, move it to a new project called MobOS (or whatever), and then make some trivial GUI changes that make it look like it's a new product, even though it isn't. Make better dev tools (I think they've already done this with a Qt interface recently anyway), and job done. What's the point in keeping a brand name that has no positive benefit anymore?!

Then, sell all the benefits, such as: “Compatible with old Symbian apps!” Wowsers, how did they manage that?! What a nice bunch of dudes.
Posted by aidanjt - Thu 30 Sep 2010 14:57
Fraz
Nokia need a new marketing department. Clearly saying “give Symbian another chance” just isn't going to cut the mustard.

The Symbian brand has a bad rep, even though it's a perfectly good product. Why don't they take 99% of the code base, move it to a new project called MobOS (or whatever), and then make some trivial GUI changes that make it look like it's a new product, even though it isn't. Make better dev tools (I think they've already done this with a Qt interface recently anyway), and job done. What's the point in keeping a brand name that has no positive benefit anymore?!

Then, sell all the benefits, such as: “Compatible with old Symbian apps!” Wowsers, how did they manage that?! What a nice bunch of dudes.
Yeah, but then you just have yet another Apple marketing department with slogans like “ALL NEW SymbOS, IT DIVERTS EXTINCTION-SIZED ASTEROIDS! AGAIN.”

Although I'm still super-duper confused as to why Nokia is juggling so many operating systems. They only need one, and if they weren't jumping back and forth between so many they'd cut their R&D costs, would have a much more mature and better polished OS, have apps operable across devices, and have a lot less customers and developers standing there thinking.. “wtf?!” They need to be more consistent, know where they're going, be clearer about their platform, and basically let people know these things.
Posted by joshwa - Fri 01 Oct 2010 09:32
I think Qt lets you develop apps, and they will then work on all their OS(s), although there's “only” three at the moment, or rather going forward with new phones, there should only be three left:

Symbian S40 “dumbphones” with smartphone features, touch support, email, web etc
Symbian ^3 (replaces S60 v3 and v5-touch) and
Meego (developed with Intel, and replaces / cans Maemo 5 that was only features on the n900) and is designed for high end “business” phones and tablets etc

And on the subject of the N8 - as soon as I can buy it sim free I will :D