S60 Open to new features

Dear Nokia, let's do something to this.

I am sorry, Tommi, but I didn't get the "why" part. Nokia is selling the phones, not the S60 platform. People buy new phones (ok, most of the people) not because they want to launch their old good apps on the new phones either.

Unless there is a set of useful and popular 3rd party S60 applications (like MS Word for Windows), there is a little sense to market S60 a lot. Nokia is anyway providing almost the same features in all the phones in the same price category (e.g. email access in both S60 and S40).

At the moment everything that S60 is about [to me as the end-user] is no more than a smartphone with a big screen and the ability to run a couple of extra apps if you really want it. Not that much differentiation, isn't it?

Biggest problem I get as a developer is with the Series 60 name itself. As soon as we say our software runs on "Series 60 phones", customers immediately assume that means any Nokia whose model number starts with a 6 - so we get people standing at show stands thrusting 6310i handsets at us, wondering why it doesn't work.

Unless there is a set of useful and popular 3rd party S60 applications [...], there is a little sense to market S60 a lot

AFAIK, there are lots of useful 3rd party S60 apps (yes, the selection for 3rd edition is a bit limited at the moment but that's changing quickly). There may not be a single killer app that stands out like Office does on a PC but that too could change.

In my opinion there is a point marketing S60 and making it desireable to end users. If they are aware of the S60 benefits I think they would not only be more keen to buy S60 phones but they may also be more willing to buy apps (because they know they can). That in turn makes developing for S60 more appealing which creates more apps (and who knows, maybe one or two killer apps too!).

Plus, who knows, increased consumer demand and more apps could make the S60 platform more interesting to other handset manufacturers.

Touché.

Yep, I forgot the "why" part.

So why should Nokia market S60? Well, so far the business reasons for Nokia to market S60 have been limited. Nokia makes money out of device sales, and the importance of 3rd party applications has remained secondary for most end-users. But somehow, I feel that the situation is slowly changing. Perhaps dramatically. My personal vision is that in the near future, more and more people will walk into that shop asking for S60 devices. Or Windows Mobile devices.

But then again, Webster dictionary defines vision as "something seen in a dream, trance, or ecstasy" or "an object of imagination".

Therefore, dear Nokia, don't take my hallucinations too seriously... ;)

I agree with many things here.
But, my point of view is people don't "know" S60 due to poor marketing+advertising.
Nokia doesn't show the use of S60 as an advantage in their advertising, so the average people won't notice that too.

Then, there's not enough marketing explaining what S60 is and specially what it can do...
For the average user S60 means nothing. What they look is for slim phones and easy menus...

If people don't even read their user manual, how can we want that they understand and benefit from S60?

When reading your post and the comments, 2 things came to mind:

>- creating the logo and tagline "open to new
> features" for S60

The logo is nice, but imo, the tagline does not mean much to a potential phone buyer entering a store. Instead, the tagline strikes the developer in me, it hints at S60's extensibility and the possibilities for building on top of this platform.

Second, I agree with Mike Edwards. Again, imagin being someone in a store buying a phone, confrontation with the Series 60 name might be a bit confusing. Windows Mobile is lucky to build on a name that's well known in the market place. Even if Nokia were to give Series 60 a real name, the new image would still have to be explained through marketing.

Well, Nokia has given Series 60 a real name: S60. It's worth considering is it a good name, since people don't always seem to realize that..

To address a few points made further up the conversation. Yes the S60 logo is present on the boxes - I've seen it on the N71, and N91 boxes. But it is small. The Bluetooth, Xpress Music braning etc etc (9 on the N71) get the same size logo (or similar anyway). Not too good for your overall brand IMHO.

Why should Nokia do it - because it will help sell S60 phones. S60 phones are generally more profitable for Nokia (see the N70), and they are the future. If Nokia wants to become the heart of people's digital lives they must become more than the phone - that's what S60 is about on an abstract level.

Nokia spend a tiny amount relatively on branding / marketing of the S60 idea. Compare that to Palm or Windows Mobile. In these areas the software brand is as important if not more so than the devices. The opposite is true for Nokia.

S60 should become as recognisable a brand as the iPod / Windows. We're talking something that will be powering 100's of millions of devices by the end of the decade.

That said I do think there are other issues such as the lack of devices from other licensees. The other major issue is people's mindsets - they expect their phone to be a phone. Breaking this perception will be difficult, and really it is going to take time. Part of it is ignorance - you only have to look at the coverage of S60 in both traditional and online media to see that most people don't see or understand the full potential. There's been a suprising number of wow - the E61 is amazing type posts in the blogosphere (yes narrow view I know, but it illustrates a point).

I don't think there is anyone solution but Nokia could defintely interact with online media more - relatively speaking I think it would be cheap to do so. Put someone in charge of this specifically. You can use this to generate buzz at a certain level among influencers and early adopters. There have already been some efforts in this area with the N70 and N90 which seemed to get a lot of attention. The N90 in particular is popular among a certain digital lifestyle set.

This is, of course, just one part of a much bigger puzzle (and I in this area, so am not unbiased). Main stream users will need to be reached in more traditional marketing. Why not have training for people in phoneshops. Perhaps something like day courses for sales people explaining the benefits of S60 and it's devices and why they should be sold.

Windows mobile is recognizable as OS for smartphones and people know about it... Microsoft is not trying to promote single features.

S60 is platform like Windows Mobile but Nokia are trying to be competitor not only to smartphones but other devices as well.

Due to it and creation of Multimedia Devices division, Nokia rebuild naming and classification of products. Numbers was simple and people understand it.

Now, we have Eseries which are simple to understand for end users - they know that in any case it will be business phone. Feature set for numbers of Eseries models is not so clear and unpredictable. For instance, E50 have to be simpler that E60 and E70 much more complicated than previous models. Numbers arent working in subbrands like Eseries, Nseries and it contradict with Nokia strategy in last ten years.

Another example. NSeries devices is multimedia computers today, not smartphone. My colleagues react on this statement from Nokia as ordinarry PR and said that will continue named such devices as smartphones or S60 devices. End users not see differences between smartphones in this way as well.

And most interesting it is mess in numbers in Nseries. When someone want to get photo device he have to think which number will be devoted to photo capabilities, - N73, N80, N90, N91, N93 or other? No way to indicate strong point of products in names. This devices all in one, but you could find out WiFi only in several of them, that means that each device have strong points and dedicated to some special features.

N91 - music
N80 - internet, and combine all other features from multimedia devices of S60 etc

But how could I imagine from number which feature are strong?

Ok, Nokia carу about it and make subcategories like Xpressmusic, Xpressshare etc. You could see on the box a lot of logos.

But if Nokia N91 and Nokia N80 and Nokia 3250 all have Xpressmusic on the box, what the difference between them? Ordinary user could think that N80 as Nseries have to be more complicated than Nokia 3250 and will have better sound, what’s untrue.

It is messing things, making them unclear. Compare naming with other vendors.

Motorola ROKR - people understand that it is music phone, after this name company gives letter with number, E2
Most people understand that E2 is better in terms of features than E1 and price will be higher. Logically E6 will be better than E2. Naming is natural and understandable.

For SE we could see the same for numbers in model names but also dedicated letter for series. Good example letter W. When you see Wxxx you understand that it is music phone and you not questioning much about it, you are interested in extra features, standard kit etc... This interest to detail is good and salesman could told a lot of things about phone (he not concentrate on main feature a lot, it is important point). Phenomena in that case that Walkman brand have good music capabilities by default and people discuss other features. In my opinion it is good sample of marketing of subbrand.

For Nokia Nseries we couldn’t catch the idea of naming from the air and it is pity. The same for subcategories, you have to be too much involved in this business to see and understand differences in features and they realization. When people couldn’t get idea they could denied to buy product, people don’t like puzzles in everyday life.

P.S. I hope that you could start some changes about promotion of S60 as the whole platform and each subbrand what Nokia have. It is very important. Efforts which was made before this date too weak in my opinion.

Good example of what I described higher, just find out it reading todays post on my forum

http://forum2.mobile-review.com/showthread.php?t=48669

I've always been in love with S60 since my 7650. But now my love is disappearing.
You are currently talking about the most of people, referring to the largest part of the world market, but I think that you are forgetting who is following Symbian and S60 from the very beginning.
For these people (and I'm one of them) S60 is now less attractive then ever: the new OS (9.1) has introduced features that are strongly limiting the phone true potential: at the moment I can't see any big difference between S60 and S40.
I've always been hating that others tell you what you have to do with your things: Nokia is imposing to the users to use the phone in the way it wants them to be used.
If I want to write a program to do anything I want, I can't because I need permissions. If I want to use a true file manager, I can't because I need permissions. If I want to change the font or the operator logo, I can't. If I want... and I could go on for a long time.
And all of these for what? Security? But, hey, we are talking about phones: I think you don't have industrial secrets on your phones or you use them to project the next shuttle.
The truth is that Nokia wants to be the leader in Symbian developing (or better, wants to be Symbian) and wants to have decisional power on which software can be developed or not.
This is cencorship!
And to do so has decided to limit user possibilities!
This is deeply unfair!
And I think that if the situation will go on in the same way, I'll soon leave S60 for Windows Mobile.
And probably I won't be alone...

You can actually still write applications quite freely for your S60/Symbian device. Most of the APIs are still freely accessible. Those APIs that are protected can be accessed via application signing. For your own usage (testing/development), you can use a Symbian Developer Certificate. If you want your application to be “officially” signed, you can use the Symbiansigned program. There is even a freeware signing option. Please visit www.symbiansigned.com for more information.

These new security features are design to protect users, their data and their privacy.

what i really dislike is that nokia doesnt follow on it's s60 promise: the apps do not work on all the phones. simple. if you have a samsung, you dont know what will work on it s60 wise or not. lifeblog is a s60 product and it does not work on all s60 phones, as an example. other apps are s60 and they do not work on all s60 devices. when nokia start to deliver on this promise that s60 apps work on all s60 phones, we will start to see real value in s60. it's the cross device compatibility that s60 has to offer developers and handset manufacturers at the same. until that happens, i as a user remain frustrated.