November 30, 2007

Another ex Nokia N95 user jumps on the iPhone bandwagon

Looks like Ed Parsons has joined the growing number of ex-N95 users and hopped on the iPhone bandwagon - no real surprise really as Ed comes from the Google camp is likely pressured internally to drink the Apple cool aid! Too bad although Ed does have some good points... indeed the second iteration of the N95 is much superior to the original (too bad I still have the original N95 -- and I'm one the biggest advocates of the N95.. go figure!). Ed's reason.. usability and you can't blame him.. Nokia smartphones indeed have the ability to run much more software and the applications available for the S60 ecosystem are plentiful to say the least. Here in North America no carriers (that I know of) are boasting the N95 whereas AT&T is pushing the iPhone.. no doubt some politics as it's THE smartphone of choice for the company to promote.. add to the fact that the AT&T CEO is not big on Nokia and feels the devices are full of flaws and he's also majorly ticked off that us here in North America get the latest Nokia devices months after they come to Europe. I'll still never be able to figure out Nokia's plans for North America and once again it seems that they are letting the iPhone steal more marketshare from them just wait til next year when Android enabled devices come to market.. will there be any Nokia and Symbian OS faithful left in North America?

6 comments:

Andrew Turner said...

Not sure why the "Google Camp" would stress the iPhone over the N95? Google didn't develop the Maps app on the iPhone - Apple did. It just utilizes the Google Maps API.

In fact, Google has Symbian apps, whereas on the iPhone it just has some iPhone specific stylings, none of which deal with Geo*.

I would imagine his switch is a more personal one. I have an N95, and my wife has an iPhone, and I definitely envy her. It's odd though, to see your wife turn into as much of a "check my emails & feeds" on her mobile as I am.

gletham Communications said...

so there you have it... usability is the killer! iPhone came out with a device that's simple to use and it works.. maybe Nokia can do the same one day! N95 will be the device (or was the device) for teh techno geek, the iPhone will be the smartphone for the smart consumer I guess

Andrew Turner said...

So many analogies to draw here between the more "powerful" GIS tools, and the more "usable" Neogeo tools. :)

Dave Smith said...

I looked at the iPhone... but given its lack of GPS, gave it a pass, as a geo guy. Sure, lots of cutesey features, flash and "ease of use" - but to a technocrat like me, "ease of use" is best left to something I'd give my grandma over power and capability.

That left it down to the remaining platforms, which forces a choice between Windows Mobile, Symbian, et cetera... I have a lot of Windows Mobile software, such as ArcPad, so I ended up going the Windows Mobile route.

In fact, if you check Esmertec's site, they are participating in the Android effort (gPhone, anyone?) - and Esmertec's JVM came bundled on my new HTC TyTn II, along with WiFi, GPS, 3MP camera, Bluetooth, Quad-band phone, 3G data, so I reckon what I got is about as close as one can come to 'state of the art'.

I already have ArcPad, gMaps, Google Maps Mobile, Live Search/Virtual Earth and a bunch of other goodies loaded up on it. The integrated GPS didn't work with gMaps, but everything else is working great, including use of the integrated GPS and camera in ArcPad.

gletham Communications said...

Dave, you sound like a power user... nice to see someone using smartphones for field workforce apps etc... seems like I'm hearing loads about HTC - they got tons of hype at CTIA - perhaps they will be the device maker of choice supporting Android...

on a side note

hey Andrew, I just realized.. I have some photos from Where2.0 a couple of years back.. is this you?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gisuser/166542504/in/set-72157594161140551/

cheers

Andrew Turner said...

nice pic - indeed it is. Of course, here are some much better pics of the Nokia tablets for mapping - especially displaying OpenStreetMap

http://flickr.com/search/?w=51648834%40N00&q=n800&m=tags