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Thursday, May 10, 2012

Nokia can't stop talking - even when there’s nothing to say

Mark Bridge writes:

I still have my Nokia 2110. When the world is taken over by cockroaches and the MRSA bug, my Nokia 2110 will still be in working order. The MRSA-infected cockroaches will probably use it to build their own cellular network.

I loved the Nokia Communicator. It was a real game-changer, a device that paved the way for today’s smartphones.

I went to the press conference at Mobile World Congress where I was wowed by the Nokia 808 PureView, a phone that’ll take 38-megapixel photos. Never mind clever lenses, this baby can almost zoom in to an atomic level.

I enjoy hearing from that Nokia. The Nokia of innovation.

But there’s another Nokia. Dull Nokia. Corporate Nokia. Gauche Nokia. The Nokia that sent me this week’s press release.

With a little help from Microsoft it’s now starting to catch up with Android and Apple devices. Or, to quote the headline, “Nokia Lumia drives further ecosystem momentum with new app partnerships announced at CTIA”.

Excuse me for a moment while I recover from being underwhelmed.

What are those “new partnerships and app updates across key consumer verticals”, you ask?

A PGA app, already out on iOS and Android. It’s coming to Nokia Lumia smartphones at the end of June.

ESPN. Already available on iOS and Android.

Angry Birds. Already available just about everywhere else, from theme parks to t-shirts. Now coming to Windows Phone.

Groupon. PayPal. AOL entertainment. All on their way.

Now, I know that Nokia’s Lumia smartphones have only been available for the last six months.

But there’s really no need to say this stuff. All it’s doing is emphasising its competitors’ lead. “You know all those cool apps that are already available elsewhere?  Well, we’re going to get them soon as well”.

And then yesterday I saw John Pope engaging Tomi Ahonen on Twitter. Tomi, in case you didn’t know, is an author and consultant who’s often critical of Nokia. John is Nokia’s Director of Communications. John took issue with Tomi’s description of Nokia CEO Stephen Elop as having “admitted” a number of issues.

Now, I’m no social media expert - but I’d say this is another of those times that “the better part of valour is discretion”, to quote Shakespeare.

I want to hear more from Nokia. But when Nokia doesn’t have anything much to say, it needs to keep quiet.

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Opinion Articles

4G doesn't come to Three

Mark Bridge writes:

Earlier today, Three.co.uk published a blog post headlined “4G comes to Three”. But it hasn’t.

I spent most of this morning here at Mobile World Congress muttering about the blog before returning to it this afternoon. And suddenly it’s changed.

The blog post remains. The headline is completely different. Now we’re told “Three to launch leading edge 3G service”.

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How far does it go, mate?

Geoff Varrall of RTT writes:

About 15,000 years ago some indigenous Northern Australians decided that they needed a more efficient way of talking to each other than just shouting a lot.

And blowing into a long cylindrical tube proved to be just what was needed and seriously useful fun – the dawn of the didgeridoo.

Trumpets and bagpipes were invented at about the same time. The ancient Greeks used the trumpet in battlefield communication to devastating effect.

The way you can tell that your didgeridoo is better than everyone else’s didgeridoo is to blow into it and see how far the sound goes.

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Last week at The Fonecast: 20th February 2012

Mark Bridge writes:

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. So said Sir Arthur C Clarke.

Last week’s magic was supplied by imaging company Scalado, which announced a new product called ‘Remove’. The clue’s in the name: it can automatically remove unwanted people from photos taken on a mobile phone. Expect to see it on a handset near you before too long.

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Last week at The Fonecast: 13th February 2012

Mark Bridge writes:

It’s not been a good week for Nokia staff, with 4000 of them likely to lose their jobs from factories in Finland, Hungary and Mexico. The company says it’s moving device assembly to Asia, where it’ll be closer to component manufacturers. The three scaled-down factories will remain open with a new focus on smartphone customisation.

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Could a new legal framework for FRAND principles end the mobile patent wars in 2013?

Mark Bridge writes:

I’m not the first person to point out that mobile phone patent battles are raging all around us. They’ve been going on for years.

However, the topic of FRAND patents - those designated as ‘industry standards’ and therefore required to be licensed on Fair, Reasonable And Non-Discriminatory terms - has become an increasingly newsworthy topic.

In the last couple of weeks we’ve reported on an EC investigation into Samsung’s licensing of mobile patents and a Motorola/Apple legal battle that involves FRAND licensing.

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