Street credibility report: Samsung S5230

The Samsung S5230

I was rather unimpressed by the LG KP500 “Cookie”. So I didn`t have any high hopes when I got the Samsung S5230. I thought it would be just another inexpensive touchscreen phone. Boy I was wrong, very wrong. The S5230 turned out to be one of the very best and most definitely most surprising phones I have used recently.

Street credibility report: Nokia 5800

The Nokia 5800. A shiny device.

The 5800 ExpressMusic is not the first Nokia phone with a touchscreen. This honor belongs to the not very well received 7710. However, being a vivid Symbian OS user since the glory days of the 3650, I was of course very curious to find out how the latest incarnation of the OS would look and feel like.

Street credibility report: iPhone 2G

Not long ago, I wrote that I don`t like phones with touchscreens very much. Well, this is still true to some degree. But after removing the dust of my iPhone (which it had collected in the last 11 months since I last used it) and updating it to the newest firmware version and using it as my primary phone for the last 3 weeks, I have considerably changed my mind. In fact, I have even ditched my E71 in favour of the iPhone. Now let me explain why.

Street credibility report: Nokia 3120 classic

In German, there is the term “graue Maus” (“grey mouse”), which is often referred to girls and means about the same thing as “the girl next door” in English. The term graue Maus was the first thought that came up to my mind when I received the Nokia 3120 classic. The 3120 classic is the typical graue Maus, literally, because the device is actually grey or dark grey. But as they say: “True beauty lies beneath”. And after using the 3120 classic now for quite a while, this is once again very true.

The new Nokia 6303 classic and 6700 classic: GPS for the masses

I seldom comment on daily news. There are countless blogs out there that do a very good job at this. But when a news is of so great importance, I can`t resist to add my 2c.

The latest announcement of Nokia is such news. Nokia has recently revealed three new phones, each one very interesting looking, but one particularely stands out: the Nokia 6303 classic. Although it is the 6700 that is positioned as a replacement for the very popular and extremely successful Nokia 6300, I wouldn`t be much surprised if the 6303 unfolds as the real successor.

The Nseries dilemma

To me, the Nseries was always some kind of Avantgarde. Some of the best phones I have ever owned were Nseries models. My N70 served almost a year as my primary phone, the longest time I have ever used a phone. Other Nseries phones I only used briefly for several reasons proved to be no less impressive and I consider the N90, the N80 and of course the N95 as true landmarks that were way ahead of their time and paved the road for other phones.

Although I used my N82 for almost 6 months, I was far less impressed. In my opinion, it is a very good phone, nearly perfect in certain aspects, but my general Interest in the Nseries is slowly fading. Why is this so?

Nokia and touchscreens or getting the focus right

I don`t like phones with touchscreens. The reason is simple: for me, a touchscreen doesn`t provide any advantage in terms of usability. I am way faster typing on my E71 than on my iphone. I don`t need to smear my fingers over the screen to enlage or browse my photos. A decent d-pad to scroll left or right and the volume keys to zoom in/out provide me with a fast, intuitive and reliable form of interacting with my phone. The same goes for browsing the web, scrolling through mails or any other activity.

But this is my personal taste. It all comes down to personal taste. I know some people who think different. For them, a touchscreen is a far better option. They like touchscreens.

I must think about this when I read that Nokia is “now coming with a vengeance” regarding phones with touchscreens. This all sounds so familiar…

Looking back several years, Nokia was missing the clamshell trend. Then there were sliders. Missed and later partly recovered. And after that, everything had to be as thin as possible because of the Razr. Missed and later partly recovered. Now touchscreens. Because of the iphone… My point is that there is nothing wrong with innovation and new ideas. Absolutely not. For some time, consumers like a certain form-factor or feature best. But the question is: what happens afterwards? Are there only clamshells or sliders or ultra-thin phones existing today? No. There is a healthy mix of all of them. Nokia missed these trends in the first place, but quickly slightly adjusted its strategy. It did hurt Nokia in the short term, but it suffered much less damage than Motorola with its tight focus on the Razr or Sony Ericsson and its focus on the walkman brand.

Of course, when a company gets it right, it can be a big big opportunity. In my opinion, the slider-trend really got started with the D500 and D600, at least in Germany. The D500 and D600 in general paved the road for Samsung big way. They also jumped quite successful on the everything-has-to-be-as-thin-as-possible trend with the ultra-series and now they are about to do the same with touchscreens. Kudos to Samsung for that. Others weren`t so lucky. Think Motorola.

Trends come and go. This doesn`t mean that a company should ignore them. Nokia should quite aggressively attack whenever there is a chance. So should do every company who will survive on the market. But they should not shift focus too much and therefore loose interest in other key-areas. Nokia is already fighting a war on multiple fronts. The transition to become a mobile computer company with a much greater emphasize on services is just one of them. Of course, Nokia is still the leading handset-manufacturer on this planet. But even Nokia`s resources are somewhat limited, even more in a time of recession.

Sony Ericsson is also facing problems on several fronts. But this another story.

So, at the moment, phones with touchscreens are considered the holy grail. They are about to stay, no question about that. But they won`t make all other phones disappear. This should not be forgotten. The trend will fade and give way to another trend. In the end, we all will have more choices. This is a good thing. Interesting times, nevertheless.