Products & Services

More comparison with Apple. Will it ever end?

By Charlie on 31 October 2008

ESPOO, Finland – OK, I’ve said over and over that we normally do not comment on or make comparisons with other companies. Mostly, it’s to be polite.

Regardless, others are doing the comparisons for us, so today I’ll share with your some articles I found that make a comparison between our products and a particular rising mobile phone manufacturer. Read on to see what was said.

Phone party tricks
Steve Litchfield, over at All About Symbian, a writer and website dedicated to everything Symbian, couldn’t take it any more and decided to show how his Symbian devices can do just as many cool tricks, if not more, than one of ‘those phones’. It’s as nice a comparison as anyone can do, and, to be fair, has one gripe against Nokia (which I have mentioned previously).

Did he miss anything? The long list of comments evens out some spots in the article, but you might have more to add.

Or is this kind of “I’m an iPhone. I’m a Nseries” comparison sort of irrelevant?

My phone can beat up your phone

Of course, my favorite comparison is between the Nokia 1100 and the iPhone (alas, in Spanish). It focuses on texting, battery life, and cost. Kinda tongue in cheek, of course. The iPhone really can’t hold a match to the 1100 (or should I say, flashlight?).

Ready, set, compete!

When the Nokia 5800 Xpress launched, we were a tad concerned that folks would seek to draw comparisons between the 5800 and the iPhone, since both are phones with a touch interface. Fortunately, folks realized that the differences between the products (price, target customers, feature set beyond the touch interface) clearly positioned the 5800 as a different phone altogether.

Nonetheless, the folks at allaboutiphone.net think those differences are exactly what the iPhone needed, giving Apple something to compete against (kinda like a return volley). It will be interesting to see if Apple modifies their next iPhone in response to what the 5800 brings. Furthermore, what worries me is that, while people accepted the 5800 was not a direct competitor of the iPhone, everyone seems to be waiting for Nokia’s next volley, hopefully from an Nseries phone.

That’s a huge expectation.

The marketing of politics

OK, so this is not an iPhone-Nseries comparison. Nonetheless, I thought this was kinda of funny, especially considering how anxious I am about the US election (I am American).

Nicholas Deleon, of CrunchGear, commented on the campaigning styles of both candidates. The funny thing is that he feels that the Obama campaign style is like Nokia’s marketing style, while the McCain campaign style is more like, you guessed it, Apple’s marketing style. Go read his analysis and decide for yourself.

Very funny. And we always like a bit of love from the Crunchies.

Image from shane o mac

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Matt Radford Says:
October 31st, 2008 at 1:45 pm

“…folks realized that the differences between the products (price, target customers, feature set beyond the touch interface) clearly positioned the 5800 as a different phone altogether.”

Maybe marketing and phone geeks think this, but I don’t think consumers (who don’t obsessively trawl gadget blogs) see it the same way. I think they see a large funky touchscreen device with music, video and the web built-in. One made by Apple, the other by Nokia, except it’s more affordable. There is every reason to believe that the 5800 will quite happily outsell the iPhone, and no reason to think that Apple will sit on their laurels.

David Malouf Says:
October 31st, 2008 at 2:27 pm

All comparisons I have seen that favor any other OS or device than the iPhones often if not always (I haven’t read them all) forget one thing.

While “features” are important and always will be, what marketly sets iPhone apart from any other smart or feature phone (Oh! its both!) is how you feel owning it and using it.

Interaction Design is not the same as usability. It has an aesthetic quality that mixes the ability to succeed in tasks, visual interface design, and how the user behaves in choreography with how the device enables that behavior (i.e. responds & presents).

While Symbian and Android and BB devices are doing everything they can to catch up to what iPhone has done interaction design, iPhone is just adding features at a much more rapid rate. Soon, your interaction design will still be searching and iPhone will have caught up on features.

I love Nokia for its openness compared to Apple, and they have amazing devices in the media space and in the lower end, but Smartphones? That’s not where Nokia is yet. Even BB is jumping Nokia in this space in terms of designing not just a device, but a connected eco-system that a user would WANT to be a part of.

This ultimately is the win for iPhone. They first built the eco-system (iPod/iTunes) and joined to that existing and rabid eco-system a communications device that improves on that original concept (”best iPod ever”) and extends it even further (AppStore). Moving to any other system means moving to a new eco-system, and unlike devices which are easy to switch, good eco-systems are pretty hard to change around.

Janne Says:
November 1st, 2008 at 9:15 am

When you talk about features, I’d like to say that I can just download almost any thinkable feature directly into my Apple iPhone from their App Store. Many of the features are free, and install in less than 30 seconds. Some of the features, or applications if you like, I end up deleting. However, It’s much cheaper than with Nokia – I put high hopes for my N80 almost two years ago. It seemed to have it all. WLAN, internet browser, IP phone… NONE of those features were usable, and I’m still paying for the handset.

msavela Says:
November 3rd, 2008 at 10:03 am

But isn’t it plain obvious that there is and will be comparison to Apple. If people want to wait and see some new Nokia product before they decide whether to get an iPhone, it’s fine, no? I’d be more worried about Apple’s focused and straightforward success in putting its products out there and knitting them seamlessly together with services. Nokia hasn’t yet succeeded in that big time. The end user rarely ponders the philosophical differences. Most companys are there to make money for the shareholders. And Apple delivers. Nokia does have some admirable softer values and so, but it’d be just odd if the comparison would suddenly end.

Renegade Fanboy Says:
November 3rd, 2008 at 11:35 pm

I think the comparison between Apple and Nokia is actually good news for Nokia. Mostly the only company anyone expects to match the innovation coming from Apple or Google. When the comparison ends – Nokia will be irrelevant.

So I’m hoping that will catch up, before it happens.