swestar

The Register wrote an article about the conflicts between Google and the cosmetic UI efforts by OEMs to differentiate the products. I mean we clearly are noticing that with the latest version 2.2 Froyo, Android is becoming a more unified value proposition leaving Moto's Blur and HTC's Sense UI a more "skinned up" version rather than bringing any real value to the end consumer. There's a lag in firmware updates (that is if a promised firmware update really exists and being tested) I can only assume that OEMs make most of their money buy selling devices - the love and support for updates is perhaps not in their best interest. Some of them would love it if you switch android device every 4 months instead of supporting regular firmware updates. Google's is working on a unified UI plan as we speak, wich I hope gives me the end user a choice:

--> Buying an HTC phone I get HTC's Sense UI and the plain vanilla one, I can switch freely and update OTA when a new vanilla version arrives or wait months for the "tailored Sense UI update" (problem: HTC Sense UI is deeply integrated in the system) There should be some UI framework for OEM's instructing them: tailor the UI whatever however you like, remember the delicate balance when future firmwares arrives - it might get a bit messy if you deeply integrate your implementations in the system --> it might lead to unhappy buyers waiting for an update or left in the cold with an outdated device.


A tip for you as a buyer
Observe how current OEMs like Samsung, Motorola, HTC, SonyEricsson, Dell, Acer and others are performing in this field. Do they release frequent updates, how deeply integrated are these cosmetic UIs, have they publicly announced a new firmware update, do you have the choice to replace the UI without messing around with the device. Stay away from OEM's that fits this profile: "Hey if you wan't an up to date firmware, buy a new device instead" I can name a few without blinking, they just want to spit out new devices, be ahead of the pack - remember whether you are a buyer or a hardware manufacturer: trying to be a technology leader comes with a price. A tip for you as a buyer I'd go for a device that comes really close to Nexus One in hardware specs like the HTC Desire. The Nexus One is a device that gets frequent updates ahead of the rest and you're pretty much sitting in the front row of Google's firmware support - no OEMs lovely looking icons and implementations standing in your way of having an up-to-date device.

I read Skyler Visconti's article N900... the hype buster and he starts with the following sentences:

"The tradition of the Internet Tablets (ITs) 770, N800, N810, & N810WME is aimed at ultra portable computing. The latest edition, the N900 adds just one more wireless technology."

Skyler calls the N900 an ultra portable computing device, Nokia calls it Internet tablet, Intel calls it Mobile Internet Device (MID) and so on.

Well if they're not your all typical cellphone then to whom are these gadgets targeted for?

Apparently Symbian and Maemo doesn't target the same user groups, according to a Nokia rep on twitter, he answered the question with the following answer:

"Maemo and Symbian will cater to different audiences. Maemo goes after the lead users & web natives."

Who are they, why are they important and is it just a fancy word marketers use to seperate user groups?

http://www.johannaformochdesign.se/bilder/tavlor/tavlor_indian.gif

The world of web natives: Are you a one of us?
The webnatives has somewhat different user habits than your regular phone user. It’s important for these people to daily operate on the web where visits to popular webservices are part of their regular routines. They are somewhat heavy Internet users, likes to be on the cutting edge and be willing to try anything and everything out on their own. No, these types of people leading the social Web doesn’t need to be master programmers or multimedia experts. Hardly. But they at least try — and more importantly, understand — the features and how they might suit their purpose.

So we've been discussing the buzz around the N900 and we took the whole a spin from a marketings point of view.
What does potential developers think about the N900 and it's potential impact on the community? Especially the ones coming from an old N800 Maemo device with skills as a part time apps developer for the Iphone OS.

Linux Hackernut
I've had a chat with a fella with somewhat interesting programming background and loves to call himself the Linuxhackernut and loves to take on new challenges. Many linux "gurus" in the community are buzzing about N900, this guy in particular has been working and monitoring closely the Maemo 5 SDK. Due to respect for his wishes - I'm afraid the conversations are somewhat off the record so to speak, the person wants to remain unknown because he wants to keep his profile private, more dedicated and credible to the communities he's involved in and at the Maemo.org community -  so I'll just cite some of the comments with permission to the author here:

on the net about the Nokia N900 and it's unofficial release. We have a preview of a device and a completely new platform by a guy who isn't an official representative at Nokia and belongs somwhere in the middle of being in the blogsphere at the same time well connected with the cellphone manufacturers. The funny part about all of this is there's still no official reaction at Nokia Headquarters (they're beeing silent till the official release at Nokia World beginning of September)

What's even more interesting is observing the twitts where I hear claims of how one man, a reviewer / blogger that runs his own site, an analyst with years of experience in the cellphone industry beats Nokia to it and spills out the beans before the official announcement. The twitts goes on and on with things like:

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Think these 1744 people working hard on these devices are happy when someone spoil their work before the show?

Nokia has a long tradition of supporting the blogcommunity and I can give you handful of viral marketing campaigns targeted at bloggers, dating back to 2003 all the way from N-series, Ngage to the recently released N97. They also have a long and somwehat "unlucky" tradition of failing to keep some leaks a secret a bit longer than planned.

Now you're thinking, so what if this guy leaks or spills the beans first?

If you digg deeper - maybe this is part of Nokia's transformation in to an internet company? Learning from the big american PR wheels at Apple and Google. Now Google does this all the time, releasing new beta services to the public blogging community - think about Google Wave and Google Chrome OS, they're far from finished services but still they leverage from the support of the community saying this is what we're working on and we want you to be a part of it.

The marketing impact of this buzz is hard to measure but there are ways to it of course, with very simple questions following marketing practises (though it's harder to digg up the numbers behind the answers)