Holiday Gift Guide »

Nokia didn’t buy Jaiku because it was cheaper to clone them?

Categories: Applications, Nokia, Symbian
By: , IntoMobile
Monday, October 29th, 2007 at 4:59 PM

livenext4_medium.jpg

This image is on the NokNok blog and the caption reads:

This is a sneaky pic of the next gen S60 software. It doesn’t show much, but we can assure you the interface is a real leap forward with some slick animation and cool features. Nice.

What does this look like to you? Here, let me help your creative juices flow:

screenshot0070.jpg

This is Jaiku for S60. Jaiku, for those of you who might now know, is what happens when people who realized that every time you used Twitter god killed an angel decide to take matters into their own hands and create a web service that is actually useful. The second and third avatar in this screenshot are of Jonathan Greene, he did a kick ass video review of the application. Many of us were sad to see Google buy this Finland based company and people wanted to know why Nokia didn’t want to partake in the presence/microblogging revolution. Ever stop and think that the founder, Jyri Engeström, is a former Nokia employee? Maybe he didn’t want to go back?

Now that you’re up to speed, is it just me or do these two screenshots show the exact same thing? I never blogged my thoughts on the Jaiku/Google situation, but people have heard me say in private that Jaiku was not a difficult service to replicate. Google purchased Jaiku for the talent, not the user base.

About The Author

Stefan Constantinescu

Stefan Constantinescu (@WhatTheBit on Twitter) has loved technology since as far back as he can remember. It started with computers, but in the past few years his passion has turned to mobile devices. As a mobile phone enthusiast who lives and breathes devices that connect to the internet, he knows he is not alone with this radical fascination of all things wireless. He is strongly opinionated and enjoys a good debate so leave comments in his posts and he’ll get back to you! Stefan began blogging as a hobby in the fall of 2006 and joined IntoMobile in the summer of 2007. Later he got a job at Nokia in March 2008, but as of June 2009 he has rejoined the IntoMobile team. He is currently based out of Helsinki, Finland.

  • Roland Tanglao

    hmmm sounds like Nokia is pulling an Apple, apple has done this many times i.e. reverse engineered a 3rd party app and incorprated it info Mac OS

  • Roland Tanglao

    er i meant “incorporated it into Mac OS X”

  • Karri

    Guys – Nokia launced a product called “Presence Server” already back in 2002 (use google to find the press release). It was about incorporating presence into the phone’s address book. The world wasn’t ready back then (believe me, it wasn’t). It also included some other neat functions – but the main feature was shared presence.

    Therefore, Nokia’s not copying Jaiku – Using the same arguments we could say Jaiku copied the idea from Nokia. And maybe they did, who knows – but if that helps to speed up the market, copy more:)

  • Brian

    Karri have so right :razz: and yes i belive Jaku clon Nokia. Stefan you shud change to headline..)

    This is so good Karri >Nokia’s not copying Jaiku – Using the same arguments we could say Jaiku copied the idea from Nokia. And maybe they did, who knows – but if that helps to speed up the market, copy more:)

  • Stefan Constantinescu

    presence is a very old concept, i’m talking about the jaiku/twitter features of microblogging.

  • Stefan Constantinescu

    press release for the nokia presence server back in 2002 like you mentioned: http://press.nokia.com/PR/200211/880012_5.html

  • Karri

    Ok, got your point re: microblogging.

    I have been wondering how the hell it has taken such a long time from the manufacturers to introduce embedded presence? There have been tons of apps doing it (IM for example) but not by NokiaMotorolaEricsson. I could not care less about microblogging but presence would be cool – and most of all useful. Ok – I do care about microblogging, but I’d LOVE a presence solution with seamless integration to 1) addressbook (view) and 2) Device Profile (to change the profile).

  • Roland Tanglao

    i want what karri wants :) !