20 New Year’s Resolutions I have for Nokia
By Stefan Constantinescu on Saturday, December 30th, 2006 at 8:01 PM PST In Ideas and rants
- The Nokia (NYSE: NOK) PC Suite needs to become something we access via a browser, not an application we install. The current implantation is bloat and frankly thanks to technologies today like AJAX and the Symbian port of Apache called Raccoon we should never have to install that program … ever again.
- Hitachi began mass production of 2.9 inch screens with a resolution of 800×400. That is enough DPI to give an opthamologist an erection. There should be a Nokia phone out on the market by the end of 2007 that supports such a screen.
- S60 needs to become componentized in order to offer the best experience for users. One shouldn’t need an entire firmware upgrade just to upgrade the music player application, or the web browser. The core of S60 should remain the core and all other peripheral applications should be made into components; similar to what Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) does with Windows XP embedded. I use Opera for Mobile because I’ll never be able to use the web browser you have locked in to S60v3FP1.
- The PIM needs a retooling. Get all the design engineers a Treo 680 and make them use that as their exclusive device for a month. I’m not saying Palm (NSDQ: PALM) is better than Symbian, what I am saying is that certain aspects of their operating system are done so well it’s amazing that no one has yet to emulate it.
- 2.5 mm headphone jacks are useless, when was the last time you walked into a store and you saw them sell headphones with a 2.5 mm jack? If you’re going to sell a music phone then make sure it has a 3.5 mm jack. The 5300 was a disgrace. I want to meet the design team who decided to market a phone specifically tailored for music and not include a headphone jack.
- Pop port has got to go away. Mini USB is the future, and so far a lot of the devices you seem to be cranking out as of recent have said interface. Continue this trend.
- Relating to number 6: Mini USB should also take place of the charger. Why should we have to plug one cable in to charge and one cable in to sync? Look at the iPod if you want to know what I’m talking about.
- The hand writing recognition engine that the Nokia Internet Tablet uses needs to be taken out, thrown in the trash, soaked in gasoline, and lit on fire.
- A team needs to be created to begin porting VLC over to Symbian as well as for the Internet Tablet. Real Player is absolute nonsense and can’t handle nearly as many file formats as VLC can. Not to mention VLC will stream any file format. While you’re at it, start adding SMB support so I can access my files over my network!
- Begin a marketing blitz in America to show consumers the advantages of going unlocked.
- Sony Ericson phones use XEON based camera flash technology while you’re still using LED’s. It’s about time you switched, people can tell a difference in the quality.
- Call Canon or Nikon and license their CMOS sensors to put into your Camera Phones. You guys rock at making phones, time to admit that you can’t make the best optics engines and call in the pros.
- By the end of 2007 I expect you to have released a successor to the N93 that can record HD video.
- I expect you to release a lot more phones with a full blown QWERTY keyboard running your latest version of S60.
- The Nokia N95 is the first of many cell phones to come with a discrete graphics processor. Take advantage of this and create a slick 3D operating system that will wow people. The whole icons in a grid thing has been done since the 20th century. Time to move on.
- The concept videos you showed off at Nokia world are amazing, I’d invest heavily in research to begin making a phone that has no buttons and everything is done by touch. I doubt such a device will be released in 2007, but definitely in 2008.
- People in emerging markets might not have the proper infrastructure to charge their mobile phones as often as they would like. Announce a phone for emerging markets that can be recharged via solar cells in 2007.
- Announce an international warranty so people can feel comfortable importing a Nokia phone from Europe yet having it be serviceable in the United States.
- Every device you sell that contains S60 should be able to view and edit office documents and read PDF’s regardless of being an E or N series product.
- Create a phone so advanced that it can be put in a dock, and this dock would have several USB ports, audio out, and VGA or DVI out. The one laptop per child idea is foolish; there isn’t an infrastructure to support it. What if each of those children had a device the size of an N73 that they can bring to a local center, plug it in, and now use a full size monitor, keyboard, and mouse. Or apply the same scenario to emerging markets.
- Open a flagship store in the Dallas/Fort Worth area
Feel free to contribute guys! I’m interested in hearing what you want to see come out of Nokia!
22. Better videos/images management application. The current Gallery application is not good enough, especially when handling huge amount of video/image files. It need optimization because it is too slow.
23. Built-in VoIP application.
24. Faster booting time for S60 phones.
25. WiFi support for PC Suite.
also use better technology to stop bricking the phone with failed nokia software updater.this unstable nsu is not ideal thing to upgrade.i am sure many people hesitate to use NSU ONLY DUE TO FEAR OF BRICKING THERE NEW PHONE.learn from sony ericsson-there updates dont kill phone even if update fails.
22)Also stop the product code thing.Many people cant update there phones to latest version due to this product code.Make uniform system with all unlocked phones able to get updates regardless of their product code.
23)Speed up operator’s customized firmware updates.make new software for locked phones available along with normal unlocked ones.
24)Stop nonsense known as lost language packs after firmware updates.
25)Make the built in im application workable with yahoo msn gmail.
26)Also MAKE PHONES WITH HIGHER RAM MEMORY.
Props to all your resolutions.
Ditto an online PC Suite. And please let me do a firmware update with my Mac notebook or Linux desktop, instead of hunting for a Windows machine.
Give us the hi-res screen love!
#5 through #7 - right on! Standardize and simplify, please.
Bring on the international warranty. And the DFW flagship store.
Oh, and to add to the list:
#26. Make the WiFi work with AirPort Extreme base stations.
man you guys want too much!!! all i want from nokia right now would be an improved firmwere flasher, ex. let the consumer download the actuall file and put it on the phone memory and let it install from there. at least that would be a little better, than depending on the internet for flashing!!!!
oh yah my second one would be put a actual nokia store in anaheim california!!
I second Eugene… it’s nearly the same words I shouted on Nokia’s forums when I bricked my e61 (and had to install windows to do that)… which brings back point about the mini-usb which is far more reliable than the pop port (isn’t “Pop” the sound on windows when you plug a usb device ?, ‘cus mine sometimes did “pop, pop, tadum, pop”)
On another hand, about point 20:
No the OLPC is not foolish, having an infrastructure (and having to install/maintain it) is what holds it from being diffused to the most of people…
The OLPC isn’t tied to anything, it nearly doesn’t even need an external source of energy… It’s completly independent, and can still communicate with it’s equivalents in the neighborhood with it’s mesh network.
It would be like getting a saddle-less bike… You can’t have all the full blown comfort without going to your local Use-A-Saddle store, and still, you can’t really go away with it.
Anyways…
13:30 hours to go before New Year here in southern france
So, Happy New Year!
Well, not a short list..do not expect it to happen anytime soon.
I read somewhere the new CEO saying that Nokia is now concentrating in fewer models, so that these work seamlessly already when brought to market.
I think this is sound thinking. We love the updates which brings as more features, but bug-fixes should be avoided. The average joe doesn’t understand that..and after all S60 is now ready for the mass market.
And I don’t want to read another review where one of the complaints is that the device is slow! I don’t think they are slow, but they must get snappier compared to the f. ex. S40 phones.
Happy New Year!
Nice post… HD like the Xacti would be great!
I’ve been telling everyone about that little marvel of technology!
720p in the palm of your hand, do you have any experience with it?
Awesome blog entry :o)
The thing that *really* annoys me with the nokia software updater, is having to remove the battery just to look at the product code. WTF?
Use a new “secret code” ( *#blahblahblah#) to let the user see the code with their phone turned ON!
I must say however, im totally brand loyal to Nokia - Ive owned a 3210, 7210, 6233, an E50 (which started getting a rather hot battery so I sent it back to be replaced by…) and my current 6500 Slide which I throughly love. In fact, I think my entire family has only ever used nokias (except my dad in his naievity got some samsung peice of crap, and my mum has to use a Blackberry as a work phone)
Nokia phones’ strengths are their user friendlyness and simple, easy to use whilst still feature rich design.
I would however like Nokia to only make phones with metal cases now. Its sexier, stronger and more secure.
12:
You can’t make a good camera without good lenses. Good lenses require a lot of glas and a lot of space -> you will never get a good mobile phone camera - even with the best sensor of the world.