S60 Open to new features

This is the final post in the MRKTNGman blog. I'm moving to a new position inside Nokia. S60 is going to be part of my job but I will focus to Internet and location based services and have a more holistic approach Nokia portfolio including Series 40 as well.

Before I close down this blog, I want to write couple of words about techy highlights and disappointments. I have been about 4 years in S60 marketing and it has been a good spot to follow the market and smartphone development.

Successes/Highlights:

- S60 browser. I'm very proud of the full web browser S60 has and everybody should know about this great thing!

- WiFi. Spreading to wider range of devices. Works well on Nokia S60 devices. I see space for development in Wifi/VoIP I also recognize extremely interesting disruption opportunities when SIP implementation gets mature and global WiFi roaming is in place in simple way for consumers. People deserve a world without artificial borders even when they use a mobile device.

- GPS, maps and navigation. The first implementations are out and it's already clear that this is going to change the way we use devices. Wait and see A-GPS in real life. No more waiting to get first fix when opening the app.

- Amount of available 3rd party native applications. Open platform has really shown it's value in here.

- Transition to 3rd Edition. We have more robust platform than earlier. Better compatibility, secure platform. I must say transition looked painful in the early days but it seems that things are going quite well now.

- Easier SW development. Open C was good step and soon we see how web run-time attracts new energetic web developers to mobile. 

- Technology around SW enhancing user experience. Memory, Displays, Cameras, Processing, etc. has developed very rapidly and made possible good usability.

- Smartphones are truly pushing into mass market. Cheaper models (by the way, do you know that in Nokia we never say cheaper, it's affordable, so funny) of S60 are coming to market. Once again: CHEAPER S60 phones:-)

Disappointments:

- S60 consumer marketing and feature brand is still not having consistent approach. We have over 100 million S60 users but less than 100 million people know about S60. Simple solution with no extra cost is add S60 to phone UI to visible place. Funny point here is that Real and Quickoffice brands are more visible than S60. It seems that for externals it is sometimes easier to get through ideas and requirement than for us own people.

- VoIP is a disappointment but also a big promise in mobile. Currently technology is just not mature enough for mass market IMHO. Fist use experience still needs work and has to be finetuned to make this a mass market service. Battery life is a real issue and has to be solved. Presence service is essential as well as user search. The first one of these is now coming to SIP.

- General slowness of S60 platform development. This is an open platform, innovation is out there! Utilization has been somewhat slow when I compare to proprietary platform. However I think this issue is going to better direction now.

- Telecommunication focus. S60 is the best ever telecommunication platform. It supports more operator requirements than any other software in the world! The truth is that these requirements can be very different for different customers. Differentiation in telecoms is understood so that it is enough to be just different. Elsewhere differentiation means building of sustainable position by executing differently. Having Vodafone red theme instead of Orange orange theme is not differentiation.

- Lack of prioritization and sometimes vision. Maybe the earlier bullet explains this. Less features, but better designed features, excellent quality and good usability. The longest feature list doesn't make a software the best.

- Trusting and implementing so called open standards, especially I'm referring to OMA. This has strong link to general slowness. Open standards are needed for air interface. In the other areas we have seen them to cause only failures. SMS was not standardized in OMA.

It has been great fun. Thank you all about discussion and comments. It has been so nice to meet bloggers in the S60 events. If you want to contact me in the future just send email to firstname.k.lastname at nokia dot com.

Have a wonderful summer 2007!

-Jouni

S60 truphone client is getting better. There are several improvements including presence tag which is absolutely essential in new VoIP services. I'd love to try this and write more about this fascinating VoIP solution but Truphone account doesn't work for me anymore. I just have this message under "My account":  "there was a problem creating your account. Please contact customer service" message appears on ". Truphone customer service hasn't been interested to reply to my question in one month, so it has been kind of hard to try this. Anyway for those of you interested about free calls on mobile, having S60 with WiFi and being lucky to have valid Truphone account this it might be worth of trying.

The worst thing in a corporate blogging is that you can't tell the most delicious stories and then easily outcome is somewhat boring. Like last week I had meeting with.... <censored>:-) But I don't need to write it, there are people who get it. Read this article.

Telecoms is special kind of industry and succeeding there needs special set of skills. Disruption will definitely come some day and different skills are needed. How to nurture those skills inside the company in the transition phase? It's so interesting to see is any of the current telco players capable of playing it right finally. It's so hard to cannibalize own business and this applies for both vendors and operators. Then we have a newcomer in the industry and lot's of agile start ups and youngster internet companies. Is Apple capable of shaking telcostagnation? Only time will tell. Already now I can say that it has changed mindset in Nokia and iPhone is not even out yet. I hope iPhone is even better than in the advertisements. It just means that consumers will get better products from all the rest. Heja competition!

Thank you for everyone who participated in Chicago. Evening with S60 in Chicago Nokia Flagship Store was a real success. Yahootinis were strong and I really enjoyed the atmosphere. Next week we'll do this in Helsinki . Don't miss it!