Ideas & Opinions

It’s not a phone, it’s a tool!

By James on 13 May 2008

USA – At least that’s how Matthew Miller from ZDNet sees his mobile. Matt scribed an excellent post recently in response to some of the articles on Nokia Conversations and quite rightly points out the good bits and the bad bits for consumers in the US.

Looking at how the phone has evolved from something that simply makes
calls, Miller hopes US consumers will see mobile devices for what they
really are, and stop thinking of them as phones

“Most U.S. mobile phone owners just want the cheapest (or free) phone
they can get that lets them make calls. I hope that this changes a bit
and that people start looking at their phone as more of tool to stay in
touch with text messaging, email, and phone calls. I could never go
back to a standard phone now that I know how much my phone can actually
do for me.”

And he’s right. Mobile devices are evolving faster than any of us could really imagine. Not just from a technology perspective – that’s been on an evolution curve since the first mobile device existed – but from a social perspective. How we interact with devices is constantly changing, what we do with them is in a permanent state of development and the opportunities ahead are even more ponderous. Features that today are the preserve of intensely high end users will tomorrow be the functionality of everyone. And that’s an interesting perspective.

Oh, and Matthew, you’ll find the videos on the Conversations channel on Share on Ovi.

Share and Enjoy:

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Tags | Matthew Miller, mobile, phone, tool, ZDNet

Post a comment

Matthew Miller (aka palmsolo) Says:
May 13th, 2008 at 9:49 pm

Thanks for the link James. I only mentioned text messaging, email, and phone calls since that seems what the majority of people use their device for, but I personally also use my mobile devices for web browsing, digital photography and video, ebook reading, note taking, listening to music and podcasts, portable gaming, internet searches, GPS navigation, and so much more. I can easily leave a computer behind, but my mobile device never leaves my side.

BTW, I posted my story prior to your posting of the videos on Share on Ovi so I’ll go update my post with a lineout since you now have them up.

Ricky Cadden Says:
May 15th, 2008 at 12:07 am

Great stuff, and I think alot of it, too, has to do with the pricing in the U.S. When the ‘extras’ were introduced, they were only offered as bucket add-ons (150 SMS, or 5MB of internet, etc) that came with overage rates, as well. Add to that most carriers activate the pay-per-use features automatically, and consumers buying these more fully-featured devices without a package quickly got a bad taste in their mouth for anything other than voice calls.

Obviously SMS/MMS is making headway, and data usage is increasing, as well, thanks to unlimited plans being more prevalent, and devices offering better browsing experiences (not to mention Opera). It’s still going to be a slow road, but I think we’re seeing it moving ahead, nonetheless.

Amy Gahran Says:
May 15th, 2008 at 7:04 am

Hi James & Matt

Matt, I was glad to see that you raised in your ZDnet story the significant service problems that Nokia N-Series users in the US currently face. Since the link James included above doesn’t actually work, here’s where people can find your article:

http://urltea.com/37j1

There, you wrote: “Nokia‚Äôs support for these high end devices will have to get much better before I can recommend people go out and spend US$500+ for a device optimized for U.S. 3G bands. Every other Nokia N95 has received a firmware upgrade, except for the N95-3 North American version that actually came out before some other devices. This apparent lack of support for loyal N95-3 buyers has left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth and this kind of treatment should not occur in the future if Nokia wants to reach U.S. customers.”

I agree completely with that — and I sincerely hope Nokia takes quick action on the US service front, since I do believe they have the best pro-quality tool currently available for mobile reporting or blogging.

I was also glad to see that Nokia’s Charlie Schick responded sympathetically to you — as he has done for me in the recent past.

However, I couldn’t help but notice that Charlie still reports no progress on the US service front. As he commented on your article:

“Sigh. We’ve been hearing a lot about service in the USA. And in
the past few weeks I have been discussing with the USA Service
folks about this. I am trying to get them to tell us what they have
been up to, what they think of these comments, and if there is
anything they might do to help this. I think it’s important for our
mid to upper category devices.”

It’s great that Charlie is trying to discuss this problem within Nokia. Unfortunately, for those of us on the outside, in the US, we aren’t seeing any indication that anything more than talk is happening or is likely to happen.

Could the Nokia Conversations blog please offer a clear update on this situation? Your current and would-be US customers really want to be kept in the loop — both so we can make our own informed product choices, and so that maybe we can help you succeed.

Thanks,

- Amy Gahran

Antoine of MMM Says:
May 16th, 2008 at 7:28 am

Wait, my phone can do more than just place calls… I better let Nokia know that my N75’s job of playing modem, server, and secertary are just not good enough

Yes, this needs to be highlighted more here. And for once, there is a company that agrees and enables this (need to get that N95 so that I can push it even more, hehehe)

alberino Says:
June 24th, 2008 at 5:10 am

My N95 does all kinds of things… when it’s working. I think Nokia may be starting to get the point that those of us that will shell out the price of a laptop for a high end smartphone have little patience for poor service! I just got my N95 back from Nokia without my issue being resolved, and I don’t have the time/patience/energy to start shipping my phoen back and forth to Palco every other week.