The United Kingdom general manager from Nokia, Mark Loughran, is confident that their N97 will “prove superior” to the iPhone 3GS due to it’s better camera, lower tariffs and it’s “radical change in styling from the N96”.
Nokia is dubbing its new high-end mobile a “mini computer” with added QWERTY keyboard and larger screen, I agree, it’s one great piece of tech, no doubt about that.
But when Mark Loughran goes on saying “The new iPhone is an evolution rather than a revolution and for people trying to decide whether to get a Nokia N97 or an iPhone, it comes down to a decision on performance and value for money”. – well, Mark, you might be right. But what Apple does, and they do it good, is to make it fun, easy and enjoyable to use advanced features on your mobile device.
Nokia has been the leading maker of mobile phones for so long, but up until the iPhone, how many Nokia customers did in fact use mobile e-mail? How many used their mobile to surf the web (not just those crappy WAP pages, but the real Internet!). How many snapped pictures with their phone and uploaded instantly to Flickr, Facebook etc.? My point is, while the Nokias were, and still are, amazingly high tech devices and great performance to the price, their software isn’t exactly “welcoming”, compared to the iPhone. I know IT supporters, developers etc., who still uses a mid-range Nokia or Sony Ericsson only for phone calls and maybe one or two text messages a week, I bet they would love an iPhone (or maybe even a Palm Pre?) for their bedtime e-mailing and surfing. It’ll sure make the wifes happier if you go to bed with them at the same time, and then do your evening geek stuff, rather than coming in 30 minutes later when she’s asleep. Or so I think (hope!).
Now, don’t get me wrong, I have no beef with Nokia as such, other than their operating system (mostly Symbian S60). I’m the kind of guy who used to switch mobile phone all the time. Comments like “you have a new phone again???” at every other family dinner or “you switch mobiles more often than I change my underpants!” (yuck, by the way) were common to me.
Then came iPhone.
Since I imported the iPhone EDGE (1st generation) from the United States back in October 2007, I haven’t had another primary phone than an iPhone. Obviously I have the iPhone 3G now and I’m looking to upgrade to iPhone 3GS as soon as possible. As secondary phones, and just to satisfy my gadget needs, I’ve been around phones such as HTC Touch HD, Sony Ericsson C905, Nokia 5800 XpressMusic and Sony Ericsson W715 (read my review).
The only one slightly close to replacing my iPhone back then, was the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic. But after using it for a month or so, I got tired of it. The touchscreen sucked (not the same kind of sensitive touchscreen as the iPhone), the Symbian S60 system was obviously not designed for touchscreen use in mind – often you had to “double tap” items because you could also get another menu up (kinda like a “right click”), and if you have to input text the phone doesn’t seem to think by itself that you want the keyboard up, you have to click the text-area, keyboard opens, then you write, click “OK” to exit keyboard-mode and the text you wrote will be inserted into the text area, and so on. Lots of things that’s simply annoying in daily use. Which the iPhone does great – and simple!
Back to Mark Loughran.
Loughran added: “The new iPhone seems to have the same design and colour, upgrading from a sub-standard two-megapixel camera to a still low 3.2-megapixel camera, and is probably a disappointment for many people given the high tariff and lifetime ownership costs.”
I would probably agree, the specs on the iPhone are not great compared to N97. And the lifetime ownership costs, whoa, I’m not even going to get into that. You could probably buy one and a half – or maybe even two – Nokia N97’s without contract, for the lifetime ownership price of an iPhone 3GS. But then again, the iPhone 3GS is an iPhone, including all it’s simplicity and great integration with the Mac and MobileMe. It just works and I wouldn’t trade it for something that might be better on paper but a hassle to use.
You may now call me “Apple fanboi”, if it makes you feel better.
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I think it’s going to be tough to beat the iPhone. I don’t have the iPhone but I do have the Ipod Touch which is very similar, except for the phone capabilities, which you can get around using Skype and any wi-fi connection. I reckon that the ease with which you can connect to the Internet, and the quality of surfing is way more important than the capability of taking a photo.
Thanks for your input, Sire 🙂
I agree, it’s going to be tough to beat the iPhone. I’ve actually stopped counting how many “iPhone killers” the media has written about over the past few years – but the fact remains, the iPhone is not dead yet – it’s probably even stronger than ever…
I think you are right, and one of the reasons I think is that they are constantly adapting and have got such a huge following. It’s so much harder to convince a convert than it is to sell to someone just getting into the market.
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