Nokia’s Smart2Go is nothing but a paper launch according to Jonathan Greene
By Stefan Constantinescu on Friday, February 9th, 2007 at 7:50 PM PST In Ideas and rants
And he is right:
This is a bit of a rant…
Nokia (NYSE: NOK) got a ton of press from their announcement yesterday regarding the Smart2Go service – a free mapping application (to be called Nokia Maps) on Series60, Windows Mobile and possibly even other devices … N800 perhaps?
I immediately went to check it out and found that the site required a code to even get past the home page to see what might be available to install. This was fixed some time later in the day and the site now appropriately redirects you … however, there is NO WAY to install this. There are plenty of links to download and share with friends… even a link to get the manual.
Now I am legitimately interested in this product and would love to have quality maps on my mobile. I already own a pocket bluetooth GPS and found myself thinking how much better my experience would be if I upgraded to a more advanced gps with better reception in order to take fuller advantage of this. Yet there does not seem to be any way yet to even try it.
I’m sure people were excited to be announcing things, but the importance of matching that up to the product’s reality is rather critical. You don’t get too many chances to make a first impression. Speaking of impressions, I sent some feedback through the site stating it was impossible to download.
There is one last bit here before I’ve fully beaten this one down and that’s the PC-only (don’t even get me started here) MapLoader app, which from the screenshot I saw looks nice enough, though without actually being able to install the application on your mobile to begin with it’s of no use.
Someone needs to get things in order here ASAP. If you are not ready, don’t launch the site – just go with a press release and a screen shot. Capture interested parties with an email / rss update and let the site go live when the product can be used. This is bad marketing and execution all around. The other thing I really can’t figure out is why I seem to be the only person wondering what’s up with this? The rest of the Nokia blogger base happily reported the news with their joyous posts.
Source: atmaspheric | endeavors
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That was brilliant. Personally I didn’t check this out because I don’t own any GPS devices. I’m glad you did however. Way to go!
What do you have to say about this Tommi? First the 3GSM site, now this?
Viipottaja has just proved I can’t read. The application will be available on the 10th of February just like the press release said.
Thanks for correcting me!
Err.. I am not sure what he is ranting about: Nokia press release said “Nokia plans to start offering the smart2go application for free, on Saturday, February 10th,” So, let’s wait till tomorrow before we start bashing, shall we?
Thanks Viipottaja!
Perhaps the site should not be fully open then… there’s no mention of release timing on the site. Don’t let people browse the full site when there’s nothing they can offer in fulfillment. A coming soon splash-page would be more appropriate until the downloads are ready.
Not sure what timezone they are operating on, but the site status is still the same.
Jonathan is rt, the site hasnt changed, no downloads though links to invite friends & manuals galore….. is NOKIA doing this on purpose with the smart2go site, their email problem, flash sites, etc…. it seems NOKIA is focusing on the phones & nothing else which might have been a good thing if the N93i had FP1 & if Fp1 was upgradable to FP2 or atleast released a few months after FP1, i can understand their marketing but how many ppl buy mid entry devices & do all tht, still the techies with the high end, so listen to the blogs & do something just abt perfect….
Tired of waiting, want a free app for you Nokia phone that *includes* turn-by-turn navigation? Check out http://www.amazegps.com/
It’s available now, but…
o Uses internet connection to download map data — very
expensive
o You can use the MapLoader utility to download maps, *but*
you can only download direct ot a phone memory card, via
a USB cable, not to your PC for bluetooth to your phone.
o Bluetooth seems reserved for GPS device connection.
I’d rather have the option to pre-download maps onto my PC, and then to have an option to fetch them from my PC using bluetooth when required. Direct internet download costs are still far too high to consider using this app except in a real emergency.
Shame because it looks quite good otherwise.
Alan
Yup. You’re right. “You don’t get too many chances to make a first impression.”
This is the first impression I got of your blog and now I’m thinking I won’t bother anymore. If you can’t even read the stuff properly, how are people supposed to be interested in what you have to say.
You’re right “First time reader”
I screwed up. My readers corrected me and boy am I glad they did.
Sorry to see you go, however I do have to say hello to all the readers I have gained over the past 3 months.
Thank’s for reading! If I ever screw up again then please tell me. I love learning from my mistakes. It is the only way I won’t repeat them.