There's a lot of buzz around Nokia's new touch-sensitive handset, but could the underlying operating system cause it problems? It has a sexy codename (Tube), a cinematic endorsement (Morgan Freeman in The Dark Knight) and, perhaps importantly, brand new touch software that could challenge the iPhone's mobile supremacy.
But the actual Series 60 operating system is no spring chicken. In fact, with its origins in Psion software of the late 1990s, S60 software is positively antediluvian compared with Apple's newborn iPhone operating system. There's no denying that recent S60 handsets, even those like the Nokia N96 that use the latest S60 'feature pack', look dull and perform slowly compared with the iPhone's whisper-smooth animation.
The 5800 XpressMusic should arrive within weeks and will be first device to use S60 Touch UI, the latest incarnation of the Symbian-based S60. First announced nearly a year ago, the S60 Touch UI will feature haptic (tactile) feedback, support for stylus or finger input, and gesture control - albeit without the iPhone's full multi-touch interface. The Tube itself will sport an impressive combination of 3G, HSDPA, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS technologies.
Can Series 60 keep with the pace?
Ian Fogg, research director at Jupiter Research, sums it up: "Nokia phones have had step-by-step improvements but no radical breakthroughs for several years. S60 is fairly simple graphically, and they'll be looking to change that."
The move towards Symbian as an open source mobile platform, which started in June, is a mixed blessing. On the one hand, Nokia's new Symbian Foundation can call on the skills of members that include Sony Ericsson, Motorola, Texas Instruments, NTT, LG and Samsung. As Alain Mutricy, Senior Vice President of Motorola, says: "The Foundation will be able to leverage [the] unique experience, which includes expertise in touch technology."
It also scraps licensing fees and lets its customers choose where to source third party applications and handsets, in contrast to Apple's iron grip on all aspects of the iPhone. But as Ian Fogg notes: "It's easier to deliver an excellent experience on a single handset, like Apple. By being open, Nokia's S60 is making life harder for itself. Also, any cost reductions from licensing will take years to come through, with no effect on the market in the near term."
Where that openness pays off, though, is in the sheer reach of S60. After years of being found only on high end handsets, S60 is now moving into the mass market. The 5800, for instance, is only a mid-range handset that should be available for nothing with a contract or for a pocket-money price to pay-as-you-go customers.
Clever after all?
Fogg believes this will be a key point, especially in widening the appeal of touch. "Younger users in their teens and twenties are the heaviest users of digital activities but mostly use pre-pay and PAYG phones. Bringing S60 into the mainstream is the stuff that transforms markets."
Far from being outwitted by Apple, Nokia may have been playing a clever game all along. Apple has created an enormous demand for high quality touch phones that it simply isn't in a position to satisfy. If Nokia can offer a competent and stylish alternative to the iPhone at a fraction of the price, it's going to sell as many as it can produce.
Time is ticking away, though, and if Nokia wants to get the Tube into stockings this Christmas, it had better speed up - at least just a touch.
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Your comments (3) Click to add a new comment
zunguri
September 16th
3. Let's see...do I want slow with the ability to run multiple apps at a time or slow with the ability to run one? I'm no fan of S60, but nor am I blind Apple Fanboy. Let's just wait for the device to come out and THEN slam Nokia for not being innovative enough.
Of course I'm writing this on the Nokia N810 which seems rather innovative to me...at least for the Nokia universe. I can't a tablet from Apple yet anyway.
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flea79
September 2nd
2. the name nokia speaks for itself, allways had nokias, brief stint with sony erricson but 2 in a row broke on me in as many months, so now firm nokia man.
As for the I-Phone, yeah its impressive and yeah the apps are good fun, and the way it works is brilliant, but the new 3g model feels flimsy and cheap. on the other hand my new nokia 6500s is solid and can probably take a few knocks.
Jod i agree the i-phone has had to much hype and exposure, its a phone for f*&"s sake, if it turns out to cure cancer or make world peace then perhaps i will let it have the title of worlds best ever thing but right now its the worlds most hyped/expensive lump of plastic.
As i write no doubt fat american boys and men are in the mall/arcade/country club or sleeping with there first cousins if you are in some places while proudly showing off how they can
1. make lighsaber noises
2. wonderin what the hell guiness is
3. tilting it up and down for the sake of it
actually while im writing this im going to go out on a limb and suggest that the i-phone is the cause of all global warming due to people using it excessively to do anything except make calls on it.
Steve polo neck jobs needs to write and app to solve global warming, (i dont even believe in global warming).
But seriously dont write the tube off before its had chance to sing.
p.s. most of this was a joke/moan brought on by yet another day stuck in an electrical retail shop pretending to care that mrs mad cat woman's 30 year old crt telly has broke and why are they all flat and not encased in a wood veneer, to which i replied dont worry it cant be long till your in a wooden box yourself love.
hope you enjoy my angry message
im getting banned tomorrow arent i ?
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jod
September 1st
1. You guys are kind of slow:
- the OS might be ancient but it is designed for mobile devices and not ported from the PC (with the high resources cost, bugs and viruses)
- the OS might appear slow but it runs a lot of tasks on the background (3rd party apps) which the iPhone cannot do. Now which is a real OS?
- the Xpress series is a range of cheap feature focused devices, it is not in any way Nokia's top-of the line range of devices (those would be the N-series, like the N95 and N96 which are kicking iPhone's *** at any time). If anything it will show what it means to have a cheap touch enabled phone.
- the iPhone is more expensive than the N-series phones even though it doesn't even have half the features (or the features exist but they suck)
- the S60 platform is truly open, developers can have background processes, full hardware use (e.g. GPS for turn by turn navigation), open application market, huge market share to sell the apps
Finally, it is the stupid press that sees everything in black in white, whereas a new phone can only be an iPhone killer or a failure. The phone is not even announced officially and you have no idea how Nokia will position the product. Nokia has no reason to kill the iPhone, it is enough to cash from all those users which are disappointed by the iPhony or chased away by its price.
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