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Another Open Letter to Nokia

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I received a thoughtful email from Michael Davis, in response to tnkgrl and I posting our Open Letter(s) to Nokia.  Michael makes some great points, and encourages Nokia to take bigger risks!  Thanks for writing, Michael!

Dear Nokia,

With the recent launch of the N97, supporters of the Nokia brand finally had something to cheer about. There was a distinct sense of disappointment with the much touted N96, with a lot of people trying very hard to like it, simply due to brand loyalty. The N85 stepped up and filled a gap and was better received, however everyone was still looking around at the competition and thinking “I wish Nokia would make something like that…”

There is no doubt that the iphone was revolutionary, but only from a design perspective. It is limited by it’s functionality and crippled by the novelty of certain parts of it’s hardware , i.e. the camera, and some software apps.

Nokia can do better than this, but the one thing Nokia needs to do is take a risk. I will say that again. Take a risk. Nokia will never achieve the ripple of global awe that was felt by Apple, unless it takes a risk. Apple did. They took a risk that the device they conceived and built was so revolutionary that it was either going to be a massive success or the pocket version of a doorstop. (It is still bordering on a pocket version of a doorstop due to it’s size and weight.) I have to be honest also and say that Nokia is not going to have that great global effect if you keep using executives like Anssi Vanjoki to introduce new models. He is about as exciting to listen to as an industrial vacuum cleaner. If Nokia is going to be different then you need to remove the coat hangers from the jackets of the executives before they get on stage.

Risk. Nokia has creative designers and engineers, but they have to be able to take a risk and create something new. Obviously this costs money. And if they get it wrong it will cost Nokia a lot of money, but, if you do not take a risk, you end up churning out boring, hum drum phone sets like the E63, the 2330 classic, the 3610 fold ect. All functional units, but they have no soul. They have nothing special about them that is going to make Nokia stand out. They are the grey boring sameness of a large corporation churning out “safe” and expendable low cost rubbish to a general public who are too bored to care.With respect to the E71 and the E63. You are not RIM, stop trying copy the form factor.

The way forward:

Design – Be bold, take a risk. Be clever. Some may work, some will fail. But at least you won’t be boring.
Technology – Things are happening fast. Be the first. People love to say that their phone does something that no one else’s does. Even if it’s simply a novelty.

Hardware – Resistive multitouch screens are the way forward. We do not want to use a stylus. People are lazy. Internet connectivity, in 4 different flavours. Wifi, 2G, 3G, 4G whatever, people want to connect to the internet right now, without waiting.

Thin is in. However you develop for the future, make it thin. Big chunky deep devices are not cool. In any country. How about trying to tie in a Nokia phone with a fixed hardware device in your home or office that allows you to control devices remotely, or at the very least receive information updates via your phone of the remote device. (i.e. security systems, home computer, if you left the gas stove on, if you left the lights on, is the cat still alive.. etc)

UPDATE: I edited out this paragraph some how. Sorry, Michael : )

Nokia seems to be adopting this sliding qwerty keyboard idea, seen so many times before, however it adds depth to the units. My suggestion was for them to investigate engineering some type of very thin qwerty keyboard that could slide out from the device, either spring loaded or manually, that would be thin as well as strong. You know, like credit card thin. This would enable the keyboard idea to continue, still give enough structure to allow you to hold the device by the keyboard but also reduce the weight and the depth of the phone itself.

Software – The phone should run an OS that is open source and allows developers to develop applications for it. This adds value to the product. Apple is struggling here. If I can open and edit word doc, edit my blog, get to facebook and post video’s to YouTube, then I’m happy. That OS, can be Symbian (good), Linux (better) but not MS (dead).

A note about NokiaVine – It’s useless. What is the point? It’s seems fun, but why waste all that money to develop it when really it has no purpose whatsoever? Perhaps I’m missing the concept here, but is it really that cool to have my morning run through the park documented with little tags that shows what I was listening to? I am not going to stop in the middle of a 5 mile run to take a photo. I don’t care that my friends are listening to Rammstein or Black Eyed Peas whilst waiting for the train. There are some aspects of the geo tagging that are good, but why not just integrate that with Google Earth? Google Earth is a much better application. Just let facebook take care of the social networking and then integrate Nokia with facebook.

Services – Share on OVI is good, but I think you are going to have a hard time trying to convince the masses that it’s the only solution. Be flexible. Allow other service to integrate with Nokia. N-Gage, is great and needs more work. If I’m sitting for hours in an airport there are 3 things that keep me amused.

Using the internet for correspondence, email, web ect.
Media, listening to music, watching video
Playing games.

A quick note about Nokia Maps. Nokia maps is great if you live in a major city. I don’t. I currently live in Bermuda. I challenge anyone from Nokia to use Nokia Maps (any version) to tell me the name of any one single road or even then name of the capitol city of Bermuda using Nokia Maps! Bermuda is rendered as a jagged outline in the middle of the Atlantic. Where did you get your data from? Absolutely pathetic. If you are going to attempt to provide maps of the surface of the world on a mobile device then at the very least use a reliable source of data. At least Google Earth names a few roads. Your current Nokia maps looks like Bermuda was drawn by a 3 year old with a blunt crayon.

Power –We need more power. What about integrating some sort of solar panel in the back cover of the phone to trickle charge the battery? Might be good in developing nations. Alternative battery; How about some type of alternative fuel cell that only needs water to recharge the battery? Not good in developing nations, but maybe useful in other parts of the world.

Ok Nokia, so go to it! Risk! Take a risk, do something different. Yes, it may be bad and Nokia fans all over the world will have something to laugh at, but at the same time it may be what everyone is waiting for; something bold, something new, something that blows us away with the concept, the design and the functionality of the device. Then you gain not only the continued support of the existing Nokia fans, but millions of new ones too.

Michael Davis

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