Nokia's Stephen Elop said talk of a Samsung bid was 'baseless'. Photograph: Markku Ulander/AFP/Getty Images

Nokia‘s chief executive Stephen Elop dismissed as “baseless” rumours that the electronics giant Samsung is bidding for the company in London on Thursday.

Speaking at the Open Mobile Summit, Elop said that “all the rumours are baseless” and reiterated Nokia’s intention to create a third smartphone ecosystem to compete with Apple’s iPhone and Google’s dominant Android mobile operating system.

He said that Nokia designers are working on designs for new phones which will use Microsoft’s Windows Phone operating system, which he has previously said will come out later this year using the so-called “Mango” version. That is due some time in the autumn.

Earlier this week rumours began to circulate that Samsung would bid for the Finnish mobile company, which still makes more mobile handsets than any other, but which has seen its stock pummelled after it warned at the end of May that it might make not make any profit on its mobile business this quarter.

Previous buyout rumours had suggest Microsoft would bid for Nokia, but the company previously denied those too.

Elop insisted that Nokia continues to have a huge following in many emerging markets such as Asia.

It also emerged on Thursday that Nokia’s chief technology officer, Rich Green, is taking a leave of absence from the company. Officially it is for personal reasons, though other reports brought conflicting explanations. The Wall Street Journal suggested it was for medical reasons, but the Economic Times said Green had disagreed with Elop, who took over as chief executive in September 2010, over the scrapping of the MeeGo platform.

But Richard Windsor, a marketing analyst from the brokers Nomura who saw Elop speak, told the Guardian that he thought the company faced at least four more quarters of significant problems.

“In smartphones, any company that loses market share has gone on to have significant problems,” Windsor said. He thinks that Nokia will face dwindling market share which will bring its margins and profits under enormous pressure, particularly as Chinese handset makers produce cheaper versions of Android phones selling for less than $200.

“Nokia is strongest in markets where it hasn’t yet been challenged by sub-$200 handsets,” he added. Nokia’s smartphones, of which it sold 24m in the first quarter, had an average selling price (ASP) of €147 (£130). By contrast most smartphones have an ASP of about $300, while Apple’s iPhone has an ASP of $660.

“The high end is gone for Nokia – it can’t get it back,” said Wilson. “And it won’t be able to get the price of its Windows Phone devices down low enough to make a profit. The hardware requirements of Windows Phone are quite hefty [Microsoft specifies a 1GHz processor, faster than any other platform] and so they’ll never be able to get the price low enough.”

Via: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/jun/09/nokia-dismisses-samsung-bid-rumours

Research firm GfK surveyed 8,603 adults in nine countries – Brazil, China, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, South Korea, the UK and US – and reported that 62% of contributors thought making payments through wireless handsets was an “appealing” prospect.

Figures peaked at 75% among 16-24 year olds, also hitting 74% for innovators and early adopters, and 72% regarding smartphone owners.

South Korea constituted the only market already offering established services to shoppers, and attitudes varied substantially elsewhere.

For example, 82% of China’s panel, and 73% of Brazilians, proved enthusiastic about completing transactions in such a way, but totals slipped to roughly 50% across the US and Europe.

One reason behind this trend was that customers in more mature regions already trust existing chip-and-pin processes, while habits are still evolving in fast-growth economies.

In terms of assessing which firms they would trust, consider and prefer to offer payment services, 48% of the sample chose players from the financial sector, particularly high-street banks.

Mobile and telecoms companies, however, lodged just 10%, with network carriers generating the largest levels of approval here.

The smartphone audience, younger participants and early adopters displayed a greater willingness to countenance mobile telecoms specialists and operating systems providers fulfilling such a role.

“Creating a mobile payment service that consumers are comfortable adopting means leveraging the trust placed in financial brands, but it is also vital to have a presence in the mobile sector,” said Ryan Garner, director, GfK Technology.

“By tapping into all of these strengths, a mobile payments solution would quickly gain momentum with consumers.”

PayPal, Nokia are Apple were the brands securing the best numbers for favourability, with the first member of this group carrying the strongest preference.

More specifically, PayPal delivered 30% for familiarity, 21% when discussing its expertise, and 17% concerning the confidence it commanded among interviewees.

Nokia received a trust rating of 38% in China, measured against 14% globally, and benefitting from a solid record of meeting subscriber needs in the world’s most populous nation.

People possessing an iPhone awarded Apple a 38% trust score, climbing from 11% over the entire survey community.

“Those that own iPhones are already used to using their iTunes account to pay for apps and media content, so the step to paying for physical products with their iTunes account is less of a stretch,” said the study.

“These three brand examples show that, whilst financial brands have built up high levels of trust, mobile-based brands such as Nokia and Apple, and relatively new financial brands like PayPal, have the potential to quickly disrupt this seemingly comfortable position.”

Via: http://www.warc.com/LatestNews/News/Consumers_keen_on_mcommerce.news?ID=28277

Image via CrunchBase

Posted By ] Stefan

Nokia has just issued a press release announcing what many have been anticipating since Stephen Elop got on stage and said Windows Phone would become the primary smartphone operating system for the Finnish handset maker going forward. About 7,000 people are going to be leaving Nokia’s payroll in an effort to save 1 billion Euros in costs. Accenture is going to hire 3,000 of those 7,000 people to work on Symbian. Nokia said that they’re planning a “strategic collaboration with Accenture”, but make no mistake about it, it’s simply a nice way of saying “we want to get rid of Symbian once and for all”. The other 4,000 people … well, those poor souls better start polishing up their C.V. since they’ll get the boot at some point in the latter half in 2012. That’s right, if you’re one of the 7,000 people affected by today’s announcement then you’ll have your job until the end of 2011, and probably until the end of the first half of 2012 as well. The majority of the job cuts are going to occur in Finland (Symbian folks), Denmark (Series 40 folks), and the UK (overpriced marketing folks).

Expect all the talented people within Nokia to take a resignation package, if they hadn’t already last year, and to move on to bigger and better things. As for the dead weight in the middle, they’ll have a bit of harder time, but unemployment laws are so friendly in Northern Europe that it isn’t like these folks are going to go hungry. What we want to know is what Accenture is going to do with those 3,000 Symbian engineers after Nokia stops supporting their “legacy” operating system? In roughly 18 months time the last Symbian smartphone should leave one of Nokia’s many factories, so is Accenture planning to make those folks pick up some Android development books to chew on over the weekend?

Anyway, it’s nice to see the big ship starting to turn. We just hope this act isn’t 4 years too late.

Update: On the Finnish version of Nokia Conversations it’s been confirmed that 1,400 of the announced job cuts are going to happen in Finland.

Update: According to Reuters Nokia is going to close their office in White Plains, New York, as well the Research and Development Site in Copenhagen, Denmark. And according to the UK Press Association Nokia is going to close their office in Southwood; of the job cuts reported today 700 of them are in the UK.

Via: http://www.intomobile.com/2011/04/27/nokia-confirms-7000-job-cuts-3000-them-find-new-home-accenture/

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 | By Ronan Shields

Nokia’s hunt for fresh blood in the boardroom is a tacit admission of defeat by the likes of Apple in the smartphone market, but will it require a more wholesale change to be taken seriously by the marketing indsutry?

Nokia is courting a potential successor to current CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo having posted a 31% decline in operating profit, citing tough competition in the smartphone market (nma.co.uk 20 July 2010).

This contrasts greatly with the fortunes of Apple – the new dominant force in the smartphone market – which posted record earnings for the quarter on the back of strong demand for iPhones (even after ’antenna-gate’) and the launch of the iPad (nma.co.uk 21 July 2010).

These headlines will undoubtedly stick in the mind of brands when pondering where to invest on mobile and they’re unlikely to back what appears to be a sinking ship.

So, for the near-future at least, it appears as if Apple, with its iPhone and iAd network, is the place to be in the mindset of many advertisers.

While I’d argue that such a view is shortsighted, it’s unlikely that media agencies will be able to dissuade clients hell-bent on launching a shiny new iPhone app and booking campaigns on iAd.

What’s clear is that perception of the mobile market needs to be altered among the marketing industry and it requires renewed vigour to disrupt the momentum of Apple.

A bold move would be for Nokia to emulate the likes of Samsung and launch an Android handset in a bid to regain its lead in the smartphone market, but this is unlikely given its investment in the Symbian and Meego operating systems.

BlackBerry is highlighting its popularity with the notoriously hard-to-reach teen market when convincing brands to invest in its app store Blackberry App World (nma 22 July 2010).

With more handset manufacturers using the Android platform, Google is also in the ascendancy on mobile, its $750mn investment in AdMob showing just how seriously it’s taking the platform.

However, unless there’s some serious movement from traditional handset manufacturers, such as Nokia and Sony Ericsson, they could lose out to their US-based rivals when it comes to mobile marketing spend.

via Nokia’s CEO search shows need for a sector shake-up | Opinion | New Media Age.

As of today, I will no longer be updating Symbian-Guru.com, and will be purchasing an Android-powered smartphone – my new Nexus One should arrive tomorrow. I’ve been a Nokia fanboy since 1999, and a Symbian fanboy since I got my Nokia 6620 in summer of 2004. Since then, I’ve personally owned 10+ different Symbian-powered smartphones, and have reviewed nearly every Symbian-powered smartphone that’s been released in the past 3 years or so. I’ve tried to use all of Nokia’s various products and services to the best of my ability, and I just can’t do it anymore.

I can’t continue to support a manufacturer who puts out such craptastic ‘flagships’ as the N97, and who expects me to use services that even most of Nokia’s own employees don’t use. I also can’t continue to support a mobile operating system platform that continually buries itself into oblivion by focusing on ‘openness’ while keeping a blind eye towards the obvious improvements that other open platforms have had for several iterations.

When I received my HTC Eris, I was 100% convinced that using Android would ruin Symbian for me. Ironically, the Eris showed me the ugly side of Android – the side that reveals itself on crappy processors paired with piss-poor amounts of RAM. In fact, it was the Nokia N97 – the company’s last real “flagship” Symbian device – that has completely and utterly killed Symbian for me. The Nokia N97, when announced, was supposed to be the epitome of Nokia’s high-end smartphone offerings. Nokia is the largest cellphone manufacturer in the world, with the largest worldwide marketshare on the planet. The Nseries was originally conceived to be the company’s top-notch smartphones – the best of the best, if you will. The N9x devices have always been the best of the Nseries, as well – the cream of the crop of the best of the best, and yet the N97 is quite possibly one of the most embarrassing devices ever to come out of the Finnish monster.

You may be saying, ‘well, sure, but the N8 is set to come out any month now, shouldn’t you give it a fighting chance?’ Yes, of course I *should*, but I won’t. When the Nokia N8 was first announced, I was dead convinced I would purchase one out of my own pocket. I started putting money aside, ready to even pre-order the N8 as soon as I could. However, the more I use the Nokia N97 as my primary device, the less I’ve been convinced that the N8 is going to be better. Time and time again, Nokia’s high-end smartphones have arrived with pathetic processors, stingy amounts of RAM, and small batteries – why should I put up another $500 of my own money ‘just to see’?

(image credit: The Nokia Blog)

If you recall, when the Nokia N97 was announced, we all drooled over it endlessly. We marveled at its features, its monstrous internal storage, sliding hinge assembly, 1500mAh battery, and more. We waited a disturbing 6 months for it to actually be available…only to actually get it. The launch firmware on the Nokia N97 was so bad, I sincerely hope that whoever gave it the A-OK to be released has been fired from Nokia. It took them another 6 months just to release a firmware that wasn’t rubbish, and now, the ‘flagship’ languishes behind other devices, frustrating owners like myself more and more each day.

Despite getting one that was manufactured much later than the initial batch, my Nokia N97 had the famed camera slider issue, where the ‘protective’ lens cover was actually damaging the lens it was designed to protect, flooding photos with the dual-LED flash and making them useless. The GPS, once strong, now loses signal every 10-15 seconds, making the free voice-guided turn-by-turn navigation offered by Ovi Maps a complete waste (not to mention the POI database in my area is abysmal). Don’t bother filling that 32GB of internal storage with music – it’ll bog the phone down so much you won’t be able to use it for a thing.

The pissant processor in the N97 is another aspect that completely kills the device. The phone is hardly able to keep up with the operating system’s multitasking capabilities, frequently running out of RAM and slowing to a crawl. Worse, the C: storage – where you install 3rd party applications and where the majority of Nokia’s own products install themselves – is so small it’s ridiculous. After installing Nokia Messaging for Email (which should have been pre-installed in such a flagship device), Ovi Maps’ latest update, and Ovi Contacts, I’m left with less than 10MB free. To add insult to injury, this 10MB tends to disappear on its own – I’m down to 2MB after being at 10MB a week or two ago. The only way to recover it is to hard-reset the phone, which I’ve done several times, and then painstakingly re-installing all your stuff. It still takes me close to an hour, and I would consider myself a pro.

After this experience with the Nokia N97, there’s simply no way I trust them to not screw up with the N8 – not enough for me to fork over $500 of my own money, at least. Sure, the N8 looks good on paper and in the first reviews – but then again, so did the N97, as I recall.

Symbian Foundation is also a factor in my decision to dump it all and go Android. Like Android, Symbian Foundation prides itself on being open and free – loudly and oftentimes obnoxiously boasting about how its source code is free for all – despite no one really caring about this, at least in my circle. The platform still languishes behind Android in simple features – being able to replace various pieces of the OS at the users’ whim, native threaded SMS/MMS, integrated IM, and a usable app marketplace, among others.

What’s worse is that developers of popular online services are completely ignoring Symbian, putting it further and further behind the other platforms. To date, there is still not an official client for Dropbox, Pandora, Last.FM (don’t get me wrong, Mobbler is one of the reasons I’ve stuck with Symbian, but it’s still not official), Foursquare, Twitter, and a host of others. Yes, there are solutions to this on Symbian, but nearly every other platform has an *official* client from these popular services – showing that the developers see those platforms as something their users would actually be using.

To be truthful, I’m also exhausted with trying to be a Nokia/Symbian fan in the U.S. There is absolutely zero marketing effort from either company in this market, and it’s not for lack of opportunities. For the past 2 years, the season finale of American Idol has been held at Nokia Live theatre in Los Angeles, California. I watched both finales, and did not *once* see a Nokia logo anywhere on the screen through the shows. In fact, the only mention of Nokia, at all, was when they said the name of the venue. No banners hanging anywhere, no ad space during commercials for the latest Nokia device from the U.S. carriers, nothing. It’s pathetic. While European carriers stumble over themselves to carry the latest Nokia devices, American carriers tend to pick up the lame-duck and low-end versions of Nokia’s phones. This is improving, but at a snail’s pace. Both Symbian and Nokia are dying brands in the U.S., if not already dead, and I’m sick and tired of banging the gong alone.

Most of my friends and family now carry Android-powered devices. My dad traded in his Nokia 6126 for a Motorola Backflip, and my mom, who previously used my N95-3 and 5800 XpressMusic, did as well. My little brother just picked up an HTC Hero, and my wife, who has carried the N81 8GB, N96, and E71, is now eyeing the HTC EVO 4G. As mentioned earlier, I’ve already sold off my N97 and ordered a Nexus One from Google.

The Nexus One has the fastest mobile processor available today, a whopping 512MB of RAM, and is consistently being updated to the latest version of the Android operating system. Its hardware also conforms to the requirements put in place for Android v3.0, surprisingly.

And so, after 3 years and 8 months, Symbian-Guru.com is officially done. Thanks to Nokia’s consistently piss-poor hardware choices and Symbian’s lack of ability to even remotely compete in terms of features, abilities, and overall experience, I’ve lost my passion for both.  As mentioned, the site will remain, but it will not be updated any longer. To all of you whom I’ve met – both online and offline – it’s been easily the best 3 years and 8 months of my life. I’ll still be online in the usual places, and will still be actively blogging about mobile/tech/Internet at my personal site, http://www.RickyCadden.com. Of course I’ll still keep my eye on Nokia. If they can put out 2 flagship devices in a row that don’t completely suck, I may even give them another chance. I won’t hold my breath.

To Nokia, you guys are losing. Hard. Wake the hell up. Doing the same thing repeatedly while expecting different results is the definition of insanity.  I’ve been a huge Nokia fan since my 2nd cellphone, and I just can’t do it any longer. You guys aren’t competing like you once were, and everyone but you seems to see that. You used to build the world’s best smartphones, the world’s best cameras, the world’s best GPS units – you’ve lost pretty much all of that, and with nothing to show for it. You unveiled your Ovi vision over 2 years ago – I was there. Today, it’s still a complete mess. I have to log in every single time I visit the site – regardless of how many times I check the ‘remember me’ box. I spent 6 months (and about 3 hours at Nokia World 2009) trying to find someone to help me with Ovi Contacts on the web – no one knew who to point me to. You spent millions of dollars purchasing your Ovi pieces – Ovi Files, Ovi Share, and a host of other little companies – are you proud of what you ‘built’ with them? Most of your own employees (that I’ve talked to) don’t even use them, so why should I?

To Symbian, if you’d stop shouting about being open, you’d see that you’re losing too. Consumers are leaving and developers are staying away. Frankly, I think Symbian is better off than Nokia at this point. I’ll give you a hint: the first step is to consolidate. Your top three manufacturer partners (Nokia, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson) all have their own app stores – that’s three times the work for your developers to get their apps to consumers. Second, you guys need to find someone else to build your platform’s flagship devices – Nokia is actively and consistently blowing it for you. Nokia’s lost a few folks to HTC – see if you can get them to build you a platform flagship. The best operating system in the world can still be crippled by crappy hardware.

This was not an easy decision to make. To be honest, I’ve wanted to write this post for the past several months – I’ve had numerous conversations with Dotsisx about this, and we both kept saying ‘let’s give them some time, surely Nokia/Symbian is going to improve.’ Guess what – they didn’t, and it’s just….sad. Like watching your favorite sports team lose game after game after game. Eventually, even the most die-hard sports fans have to find a new team.

I do want to say, however, that Nokia is not without the talent to do some awesome things – nearly every single Nokian that I’ve met personally – save for a few – are the friendliest, nicest folks; eager to listen to (and better understand) feedback on any product at any time. Some of this feedback is immediately reinvested in future products, which is awesome. As I’ve attended Nokia World three times, every time has been awesome and reassuring to see the Nokians who are actually doing things and who get just as frustrated as I have with various things. Unfortunately, this awesome talent seems to be wasted somehow. I sincerely hope that the upper brass at Nokia starts listening to the folks who are putting in extra time and effort – these folks know what’s going on, and like I did originally, simply want to see Nokia succeed.

When I told Dotsisx that I had finally made the decision and started writing the post, she confessed that she was at the same point that I was, and put together her part. We’ll both be leaving the site, but she has her own reasons:

Well, what can I say after this articulate tirade from Ricky? How much can I add when The Symbian Guru himself gives up on Symbian, just like when a few days ago, a company called SymbianGuru (without the dash) started releasing software for Android. It should be a sign, nah, it should be a freaking glowing DANGER light if someone cares to notice.

Although my experience has been different from Ricky’s in some areas (I have a Nokia N97 Mini and don’t suffer the internal memory issues he has, I also live in Lebanon where Nokia is huge and does a lot of campaigns and marketing), Ricky sums up a lot of my frustrations with Nokia and Symbian right now. Much like him, I have been a fan and a power user from the moment I bought my Nokia 3250 XpressMusic 4 years ago. Since then, I’ve owned and trialed more Symbian/Nokia devices than I care to remember, but for posterity’s sake here’s the list: C5, E52, E55, E61i, E66, E71, E72, E75, E90, N81 8GB, N82, N85, N86 8MP, N93i, N95, N95 8GB, N96, N97, N97 Mini, X6, 5530 XM, 5730 XM, 5800 XM, 6210 Navigator, 6700 Slide, 6710 Navigator, 6720 Classic, and Sony Ericsson Satio. Woosh! I’ve evangelized Symbian and smartphones when people didn’t know what those weird words meant, I’ve shown friends around me how to use every single feature in their phone and I’ve convinced many colleagues in the Pharmacy and Medical field that they don’t need a PDA or a Windows Mobile to access relevant medical information, they can do it right from their Nokia with several applications especially MobiReader and its collection of medical eBooks.

Unfortunately, times have changed. The E71 is and will always be the absolute best phone I ever used and one that symbolizes the epitome of mobile technology for me. Since its release though, it has been a steady decline, and although I currently own and use a Nokia N97 Mini daily, I’m annoyed by many aspects of it, not the least of which is how Nokia’s own applications lag painfully on this rehash of a flagship that was supposed to fix some of the original N97’s shortcomings. Take Nokia Messaging for Email, IM or Social Networks. The UI is ugly, the features have been evolving at a snail’s pace, and I’m pretty convinced the team tests those apps on different hardware with 1GHz processors because no one in their right mind would release apps like that, not beta, not alpha, not even pre-alpha. I swear I could get a VISA, buy an airplane ticket, travel to Texas and talk to Ricky in person before Nokia Messaging for IM loads and opens a conversation with him on my N97 Mini. Another pet peeve I have is with the nonavailability of official Dropbox, IMDB, Facebook, Paypal, Ebay, Read It Later, … applications on Symbian. But honestly, how can you blame outside developers when Nokia themselves can’t seem to pull through a decent application?

This is nothing though compared to the absolute lack of any medical application on Symbian^1. There’s none. None whatsoever. Not decent, not half bad, not totally bad. NONE. Absolutely Zero. Zilch. Niente. How silly is that, when the Apple App Store has a complete category dedicated to Medical software?! On my E71, I used to use Skyscape apps as well as MobiReader for my 200$ bought medical ebooks. Now I no longer have those: Skyscape never ported their apps from S60 3rd to Symbian^1, and MobiReader went into oblivion. The one reason I fell in love with Symbian/Nokia in the first place is now the reason I hate it passionately. Ironic, isn’t it? Some pundits will argue that there’s a bookmark for that. I’m sorry, when I need my info instantly and my mobile connection is slow and costs a ton, there’s no bookmark for that, “there’s an app for that”. As it goes, I have been carrying an iPod Touch daily and am bedazzled by the amount of amazing quality and quantity of freeware medical software for it, let alone paid applications. The fact that huge companies like Epocrates, Lexi-Comp, Medscape, Vidal chose to ignore the Symbian platform speaks a ton about how bad things are for the ecosystem.

What good does it do me, as a user, if you have 40 or 50 or 60 % marketshare when you fail to gain any developer traction? There’s Qt, widgets, Python, an SDK, Java, d’oh. But where are the medical applications? Where are thespecialty apps that I once wrote about on S60 3rd but were never ported to Symbian^1? Where are the games that make me pop my eyes in awe? The N8 will get Angry Birds. Big whoop. It took me all of 2 days to finish all levels of Angry Birds on my iPod Touch and you know what? When I was done, I moved on to the next game. Could I say the same about the N8?

When I think back to 3 or 4 years ago, when the iPhone and Android were first launched, I remember how they were a joke for many Symbian users. But look at them now! Look how much has evolved and grown in those two, software and feature-wise as well as ecosystem-wise. Four years ago, I had a long list of arguments to use when friends told me they’re getting an iPhone. But year after year, that list grew smaller. Now I just stand there and nod, knowing that there’s nothing I can argue with. The mobile space has seen a mind-blowing acceleration, hugely thanks to the iPhone, and meanwhile, Symbian and Nokia have stayed the same. I have now come to expect that whatever feature is still missing from Android/iOS will probably be added soon in a future firmware update. I wish I could have the same faith and certainty about Symbian.

I’m pretty sure these words will surprise if not astonish many of you who know how much of a Symbian faithful I am. Right now, I honestly don’t know where I stand exactly in regards to Symbian. The fact that I’m doubting my position is reason enough for me to stop writing here. I can’t evangelize a platform when I’m no longer 100% convinced myself: that would be hypocrisy and I’m not a hypocrite. (This is *precisely* my position, too – Ricky)

As I repeated many times, I love my iPod Touch but I’ll probably never buy an iPhone. There’s just so many hoops I have to go through to make it work like I want it to, thanks to Apple’s closed walled garden approach, and that’s not something I’m willing to go through with my main phone. I don’t like the touchscreen-only form factor and I’m not wow’ed by the eye candy of the OS either, but I can definitely see the appeal of iOS thanks to that ever-growing App Store. So for now, I am locked to Symbian for a couple more years mainly thanks to the lack of any decent mobile data service in Lebanon and Symbian giving me full control over data consumption, but my heart is no longer in it. I am currently actively seeking and drooling over any Android device, and I know that despite the data consumption issue, if I get an Android with a slide-out qwerty, it’ll be the end of Symbian and Nokia for me.

On a personal level, now, it’s time to move on. Those who have followed me on Twitter know that I have been actively seeking a location to open my own pharmacy. I finally found it. I’m moving from being an employee to becoming my own boss with my own little business. I’ve also gone back to writing. I used to be an amateur English/French writer/poet before I started blogging and I miss it a lot. I’ve recently taken back my (virtual) pen and will see if I decide to start self-publishing some of my work. I guess God closes a door and opens a window. Those are two amazingly big windows!

But this isn’t a farewell. You know me, you know I’ll always be passionate about mobile and tech. It’s not as much as I’m quitting Symbian, it’s more like I’m quitting being a Symbian advocate, and exclusively a Symbian fan. If you need your Dotsisx fix, I’ll still be around on Twitter as @khouryrt, on FoneArena where I’ve been contributing galleries, reviews and opinions for the past year and a half and where I’ll continue writing whatever floats my boat, be it Symbian, iOS or Android, on NokiaLB which tackles Nokia news (not just Symbian, ie let’s cross our fingers for Meego) with a slight twist on Lebanon and the MiddleEast, as well as my personal DotsisxBlog. I hope to see you there.

I just went back and re-read the title of this post “Symbian-Guru Is Over”. It saddens me that we have come to this, but Ricky and I have been discussing it for a long time, yet we never got past the “we should close it” talking stage, always digging in and finding a reason to keep the passion flowing. It’s staggering that we now finally decided to sit down and write our final post. It had to be done and although it was hard at first, I’ve now come to terms with the decision. I was a Symbian-Guru reader and fan long before I became a writer here, 2 and a half years ago. I love the community, I love how strongly opinionated you, our readers, are, how many times you’ve set my facts straight or argued with my point of view. I love the people I got to meet through Symbian-Guru, be it passionate Symbian fans, other bloggers, or Nokia employees, I cherish the moments and opportunities that have risen since I joined the site and the tons of things I learned that can’t be put on paper and that are related to Symbian but that stretch well beyond Symbian. It’s time to close this chapter and hand the torch to all the new and passionate bloggers out there who still love Symbian and Nokia dearly.

We both also want to thank the various contributors to the site over the years – Wampyre, who has stuck with us the longest, but also PseudoFinn, Ollywompus, SchawlaF, and yes, even Gorilla. We couldn’t have done it without ya’ll.

URL Link:

http://www.symbian-guru.com/welcome/2010/07/symbian-guru-com-is-over.html

]]> http://christianlouca.com/2010/07/06/a-must-read-wake-up-nokia-symbian-guru-com-is-over/feed/ 1 christianlouca Nokia-N8-memory-full Symbian Guru and Dotsisx http://christianlouca.com/2010/06/28/nokia-looks-to-increase-applications/ http://christianlouca.com/2010/06/28/nokia-looks-to-increase-applications/#comments Mon, 28 Jun 2010 09:44:44 +0000 Christian Louca http://christianlouca.com/?p=712 ]]> By BLOOMBERG NEWS, Published: June 27, 2010

HELSINKI — A Nokia advertisement in the Paris Métro shows a mobile phone packed with applications including the French yellow pages — “Pagesjaunes” — “Le Monde.fr” and “Scalado Photo Twister.”

The marketing effort by Nokia, of Finland, to take on Apple in France, the biggest iPhone market outside the United States, is among the Finnish company’s steps to reclaim lost momentum by putting applications at the center of its smartphone campaign.

The world’s biggest maker of mobile phones also placed ads with applications in free newspapers on the London Underground and is embedding software trainers in its local sales units to attract more developers to its Ovi Store.

“Apps are going to be more central to Nokia’s conversation,” said Purnima Kochikar, who heads the Forum Nokia developer-support unit for the company, which is based in Espoo, Finland. “It’s no longer about selling devices.”

Twelve years after it began working with outside developers, Nokia is struggling to claw back ground lost to Apple, whose application-rich devices are flying off store shelves. Nokia’s catch-up effort is an acknowledgment that it has failed to capitalize on its 41 percent share of the smartphone market to become the platform of choice for software writers.

Apple appears to be extending its gains. After selling 600,000 handsets in pre-orders for the iPhone 4, it was expected to sell a record 1.5 million units on the day of the phone’s debut.

IPhone’s first-quarter share of the smartphone market rose to 15.4 percent from 10.5 percent a year ago, while devices that run Google’s Android software soared to 9.6 percent from 1.6 percent, according to the research firm Gartner. Symbian, Nokia’s main operating platform, slid 4.5 percentage points to 44.3 percent.

“Forum Nokia is improving some areas of what they’re doing, but the biggest issues Nokia faces have been elsewhere, in the devices or the software or the discovery mechanism for the apps,” said Martin Garner, a London-based analyst at CCS Insight. “There is much more profile-raising being done. It’s a good idea,” he said. “Unfortunately, Apple has paved the way.”

Mr. Kochikar, a former manager at Verizon Communications and an entrepreneur who joined Nokia in 2003, says the company’s performance in applications should not be measured by the number of items in its Ovi Store, which Nokia has declined to disclose.

Apple has said that 225,000 applications have been developed for the iPhone, while Google’s Android Market, which is also winning favor from developers, has about 80,000, according to AndroLib.com.

“I think the market has been brainwashed to think it’s about counting apps,” Mr. Kochikar said. “If you look at all these apps, they’re not in a store.”

Nokia’s current high-end smartphones have fallen short of the expectations raised by the iPhone, leading the company to cut its outlook for sales and profit margin. Nokia shares have fallen to their lowest level since October 1998, about €6.8, or $8.40. They have tumbled 24 percent this year, giving the company a market value of €25 billion, about a tenth of Apple’s $246 billion and slightly less than that of Research In Motion, the Canadian maker of BlackBerry phones.

Much is hinging on the Nokia release in the third quarter of its N8 smartphone, the first device running the company’s Symbian 3 operating system, which has been improved for touchscreen phones.

“If Nokia continues down its existing path, betting on Symbian, it will always be one or more steps behind Apple and Google as well as a low priority for applications developers,” Adnaan Ahmad, a London-based analyst for Berenberg Bank, wrote in a report dated June 24.

He says Nokia should switch to the Android operating system.

Nokia has said that future models of its N series of high-performance devices will be based on MeeGo, an operating system it is developing with Intel. The company said last year that it would use the new software on its most powerful mobile devices while continuing to develop Symbian.

Mr. Kochikar’s team is charged with introducing developers, who have long complained about the difficulty of Nokia’s smartphone platforms, to the better tools, including Qt, a cross-platform development environment that could be a “secret weapon” for Nokia, according to Mr. Garner. “To develop apps of the same functionality on the iPhone and Nokia, you’d be looking at three, four times as much effort on Nokia,” says Andy Nugent, a director of Manchester-based Ravensoft, a software development company. “We really like the push toward Qt. It’s easier. You get better-looking results.”

URL Link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/28/technology/28nokia.html

What many people overlook here is the iTunes model.  Asides for the obvious differences in platform development and handset capabilities, even if Nokia get up to speed they do not have iTunes (it is not just about the developer).  So as a user of this demographic, the choice of a phone that comes with iTunes is much more powerful than one without.  Therefore, this compliments apps as the model roles on into the app store and people already understand the payment process.  They already have all their music and movies synced with the account.  They do not have to start buying a load of music again to load on to a new device from the Ovi store, which is by far sub-standard to iTunes.  When the app hysteria settles and the focus shifts elsewhere, this will leave Ovi store with a very uncertain future, and a hefty investment bill from trying to play catch up.  This too also stands for other platforms including Google’s Android, although their demographic to-date is mainly made up of geeky males that just love gadgetry (not a bad move).

Posted By ] Diana ben-Aaron June 13, 2010, 6:26 PM EDT

June 14 (Bloomberg) — As Nokia Oyj prepares to introduce its latest flagship smartphone, developer Jan Ole Suhr says he knows why the brains behind addictive applications are shunning the Finnish company.

“It’s difficult for small developers to invest in the smartphone segment of Nokia when nobody knows its future,” said Suhr, creator of Twitter application “Gravity,” which was showcased by Nokia when it opened its Ovi applications store last year. “The new shiny things aren’t available and there’s only the old-fashioned stuff, where it takes a lot of work to make the software look good.”

Nokia’s 41 percent share of the smartphone market, the fastest-growing piece of the mobile-phone industry, has failed to make it the platform of choice for software writers. It is instead at the bottom of the pile, behind Apple Inc.’s iPhone and devices based on Google Inc.’s Android.

Developers of games, music, videos, media and other apps want to see if the N8, Nokia’s first device running the Symbian 3 system for touchscreen phones, delivers on promises of improved look and feel, an easier interface and operability across devices — in short, if it’s more like an iPhone. For many, the device scheduled to be released in the third quarter has been too slow in the making and may still disappoint.

“Symbian needs a more competitive platform to attract users, early adopters who are the sort of people who download lots of apps,” said Gartner Inc. analyst Nick Jones. “We may have to wait until Symbian 4 to get a really compelling Symbian device, so that the ecosystem may not start to achieve its full potential until 2011.”

‘No Visibility’

The world’s largest mobile-phone maker’s failure to lure apps developers, whose products help sell iPhones and Android devices, adds to the perception that its devices are behind the times. With Apple last week unveiling iPhone 4, with a video- chat feature, and Android devices chalking up sales, the Espoo, Finland-based Nokia risks not being able to recoup lost ground.

Nokia may post lower-than-expected second-quarter profit because of a weak product range and falling prices, Macquarie Group Ltd. analysts said last week. There’s “no visibility on the N8, continued heavy competition in handsets and softening demand,” Phil Cusick and colleagues wrote in a June 9 report.

Chief Executive Officer Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo said in April he expects sales of handsets and associated services to be between 6.7 billion euros and 7.2 billion euros in the second quarter. He cut the company’s full-year margin forecast, citing the slow development of the N8.

Apple Effect

Nokia shares have plummeted 51 percent since Apple opened its App Store on July 11, 2008. Its market value has shrunk to 29 billion euros from 203 billion euros in 1999, when it was Europe’s most-valuable company.

Nokia, which doesn’t disclose its catalog size, says it has 1.7 million downloads a day of apps including QuickOffice, Skype Internet calling service, Shazam music identifier, Spotify music, Snake games and Lonely Planet travel guides. The company’s secrecy about the number of apps is “probably because it’s still rather small,” said Gartner’s Jones.

Its offerings lag behind Apple’s App Store, which has more than 225,000 apps. Android has more than 70,000, according to Androlib.com, which tracks the platform’s apps.

More than 5 billion programs have been downloaded from its store, Apple says. IPhone users spend more on apps than people with Android devices, who in turn spend more than users of Nokia handsets, developers say. That drives software efforts.

‘Six of Six’

Nokia opened the Ovi Store to offer developers a channel to the 68 million people a year who buy its smartphones. Developers spoiled by iPhone tools say they found Nokia’s software and storefront clunky. Many are turning to Android and Research In Motion’s BlackBerry.

“The Ovi Store doesn’t have any traction in the U.S.,” said Ken Willner, CEO of Zumobi Inc. in Seattle “They’re probably number six of six,” behind Apple, Google, Palm Inc., RIM and Microsoft Corp.

Willner’s company, whose applications present media content such as MSNBC and Parenting magazine on iPhones, chose Android- run devices as its second platform, bypassing Nokia.

“Large numbers of developers see Nokia as less relevant for distributing apps,” said Martin Garner, a London-based analyst at CCS Insight. “They prefer to work with software that has obvious growth momentum in the market.”

Shrinking Share

The market share of Symbian, Nokia’s main smartphone operating system, fell to 44.3 percent in the first quarter from 48.8 percent a year ago, according to Gartner. Although mostly on Nokia phones, Symbian is also used by Samsung Electronics Co. and Sony Ericsson. iPhone’s share rose to 15.4 percent from 10.5 percent, while Android soared to 9.6 percent from 1.6 percent.

Nokia says its new line of smartphones with Symbian 3 and Symbian 4 improves the user interface and carries a new version of tools for developers, making cross-device development easier.

“You’ll see a big improvement in terms of the store experience with the introduction of the N8, as well as with subsequent devices,” said George Linardos, the Nokia vice president who runs the Ovi Store. He cautioned that there won’t be any “immaculate moment” when the store is perfect. “I look at this as the first innings of a very, very long game.”

Switching to Android

Many developers don’t want to wait, and say they can’t take the risk of developing for a yet-to-be-perfected platform. Even long-time Nokia software authors are looking elsewhere.

Take Alan Masarek, chief executive officer of Quickoffice Inc. in Plano, Texas. Nokia helped his 150-person company become one of the biggest independent mobile apps developers with its stripped-down word processor and spreadsheet running on more than 240 million mobile devices worldwide.

About 1 1/2 years ago Masarek, whose software is preloaded on all Nokia Symbian devices, began working on Android phones.

“That in hindsight has proven to be a good move,” he said. “The numbers on Android are very ascendant right now. We’re on all these devices that just started shipping in meaningful volumes the last two quarters.”

Android-based smartphones threaten to top the iPhone in 2013 in market share, according to Framingham, Massachusetts- based IDC. Shipments of Android devices may reach 68 million that year, making it the second-most popular operating system after Symbian, according to IDC.

For Quickoffice, Apple and Android now each account for about 30 percent of shipments against 40 percent on Symbian.

‘No Comparison’

Some developers are shunning Symbian entirely so far.

“Development on Symbian has historically been difficult and Google and Apple leapfrogged Nokia in terms of developer friendliness in the past two years,” said Phil Libin, chief executive officer of Mountain View, Calif.-based Evernote Corp. “There’s no comparison.”

His 30-person company’s main product is a note-taking application that runs on desktop computers, iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, Palm’s WebOS and Microsoft’s Windows Mobile — all except Nokia’s Symbian.

Apple has a system in place that makes selling and buying apps easy and painless, said Joseph Darling, a long-time Nokia user in Sydney, Australia, who opted to develop his ParkWatch parking monitor application for Apple.

“They have a payment system that was already popular for music and video,” he said. “That takes you from browsing to buying in a couple of clicks. They’ve brought that entire community over into apps. It’s hard for others to duplicate.”

Gravity’s Suhr, who lives in Berlin, is one of the few developers to have worked on mastering the Nokia system, supporting himself by writing apps for it since 2002.

His application, which lets users read and write Twitter messages on phones, was touted by Nokia at the launch of its N97 smartphone last year. Suhr says Gravity is “almost the only application that makes a Nokia device look like an iPhone.”

“It should have been very easy to create Gravity-like applications to cover other functions,” he says. “And then I bet the whole reception of the platform and the phone would have been very different.”

–Editors: Vidya Root, Heather Harris

URl Link: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-06-13/nokia-loses-battle-for-apps-as-iphone-android-snare-developers.html

Nokia and Yahoo — two market leaders struggling to keep up in the U.S. mobile market — joined forces Monday, announcing that Nokia would use its purchase of mapping giant NAVTEQ to power Yahoo’s map and navigation services globally, while Yahoo gets the right to run Mail and Chat for Nokia’s smartphones.

Unlike its competitors, Google and Microsoft, Yahoo no longer powers its own search and has no mobile-phone operating system. Yahoo remains the top webmail service in the U.S., however, and continues to create innovation in search experiences. Yahoo’s media properties for Sports and Finance also remain leaders on the net and are used as the defaults in Apple’s iPhone system.

The Finland-based phonemaker Nokia retains its global lead as the top mobile-device maker, including smartphone and the more familiar feature phones.

But Nokia’s smartphones have never resonated with U.S. customers, and that’s a bad sign for the company, because these days the leading phones almost always debut in the United States. And when it comes to smartphone innovation, the tech press is focused on the competition between Google’s Android OS and Apple’s iPhone.

Both companies are too big to ignore, but sadly, even with the partnership, it seems like both are still falling behind. If it’s any consolation, at least they will have company.

Read More http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/05/nokia-and-yahoo-team-up-on-mobile-but-few-care/#ixzz0p2uFMF3t

It has taken just five months for mobile advertising to go from a trickle of coverage in the mainstream media to a feeding frenzy. Since Google announced its plan to buy mobile ad network AdMob for US$750 million AdMob for US$750 millionin November, national papers and newswires (in the US particularly) have clambered over each other to report the latest rumor, speculation and hearsay, followed by innumerable me-too pieces in trade journals and blogs.

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This is manna from heaven for the wider mobile business – mobile publishers, mobile agencies, as well as the mobile advertising networks, which have all been fighting for years to get a fairer share of marketing and advertising budgets. The more coverage mobile advertising gets in the business pages more recognition it deserves with the business press and, thus, brands and creative agencies. This is all thanks to Google, Apple, the FTC and a soap-opera-like story line that’s got the media hooked.

“Anything that brings more money into the mobile ad ecosystem is a good thing,” said Ilicco Elia, head of consumer mobile, Reuters, when asked his opinion on Apple’s iAds, “I look forward to seeing the case studies from and statistics on the effectiveness of these campaigns. This should grab the interest of brands and get them thinking more about mobile advertising… It’s all a good thing.”

Before we delve into why this is good news, let’s get some things into perspective. In true soap-opera style we have four cliffhangers. We’ll give you the facts you draw your own conclusions.

The Cliffhangers:

1) Should the FTC stop Google buying AdMob?
2) Should advertisers pay US$1 million to advertise on Apple’s iAds?
3) Are Google and Apple at war?
4) Will the FTC investigate Apple?

1) Should the FTC stop Google buying AdMob?
The facts:
• We know from Google that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has been investigating its acquisition of AdMob. Everything else reported has been unattributed rumor and speculation.
• Mobile advertising is a nascent business – estimates for global mobile advertising expenditure in 2009 ranged from US$1.4 billion to $7.5 billion (see the Mobile Stats Compendium for details) – but it is expected to grow fast (maybe even faster now it’s mainstream news).
• This market is served partly by mobile ad networks. There are dozens of them, serving different geographies and different types of publishers and advertisers.
• No one really knows the market share of any ad network, because they do not reveal revenues (… but all the FTC has to do is ask, surely? So it’s surprising that it’s not been put to bed yet).
• AdMob claims to serve ads to 18,000 mobile Websites and applications. This might sound a large number (and is widely misunderstood) but AdMob is a mass-market, blind network (many networks are not, please see Mobile Ad Network Guide for definitions and profiles). This means: a) publishers could be tiny, b) deals will not be exclusive to AdMob c) ads are mostly cost-per-click (CPC), so advertisers don’t pay anything unless the user interacts.
Get it in perspective: AdMob has only a small fraction of global mobile sites. No one knows how many mobile sites there are exactly, but this will give you an indication: there are 15,000 official sites on NTT Docomo’s i-mode service Japan – that’s one operator portal in one country …albeit the biggest portal, probably (See this Mobile Guide to Japan for details).
Why it matters: the FTC needs to put this to bed. So much press coverage of a) AdMob and b) talk of market dominance will not help advertisers or publishers to make an informed decision about what mobile ad network is best for their business. Meanwhile Google and AdMob are caught in limbo.
What the mainstream press is saying:
• Google’s AdMob purchase said to be opposed by U.S. FTC staff (Bloomberg)
• FTC decision in Google’s AdMob deal imminent (San Francisco Chronicle)
• What people are telling the FTC about Google-AdMob (Round up by Google blog)

2) Should advertisers pay US$1 million to advertise on Apple’s iAds?
The facts:
• Despite the media hype, iAd but doesn’t exist yet (only announced). These are adverts that appear in applications downloaded to Apple mobile devices from the vendor’s App Store. The revenue from the ads will be shared 60:40 between the app owner and Apple (some ad networks take more than this, by the way). The backbone to iAds is provided byQuattro Wireless, a mobile ad network that became part of Apple in January 2010, two months after Google bought AdMob.
• Many ad networks offer in-application services already (AdMob is probably best known for it), but Apple’s ads will be jazzier, and appear to be closely tied to the upcoming Apple operating system.
• The US$1 million price tag has not been announced officially, it was reported in The Wall Street Journal following an Apple sales pitch to potential advertisers.
• The WSJ also reported that Apple is planning to charge $0.01 each time an advert is seen – that’s cost per thousand impressions (CPM) of US$10 – and $2 each time a user interacts (i.e. CPC). Comparing this to price ranges for networks profiled in the Mobile Ad Network Guide, $10 CPM is middling; but CPC usually ranges from pennies to US$0.50 at highest. But this is the first time mobiThinking has heard of any network charging for both CPM and CPC at the same time.
The question for advertisers is: how big is the audience for my ads?
The facts:
• App Store applications only work on Apple devices. What we know:
a) Apple sold 25.1 million phones globally in 2009. This sounds impressive, but is only about 2 percent of handsets or 14 percent of smartphones.
b) We are told there are now 200,000 apps on the Apple App Store. This sounds impressive until you learn that the fifth most popular App was installed by 51.5 percent of App Store users, while number 1,000 was installed by just 1.75 percent (according to AppsFire in November).
• What we don’t know:
a) How many iPhone owners use applications from the App Store regularly?
b) How many people view applications from the App Store on a daily basis?
The question for advertisers is: will my ad appear in the most popular apps most relevant my brand.
Get it in perspective: it costs US$330,000 to advertise for three days on NTT Docomo’s i-menu – that’s the front page of the busiest mobile portal in Japan – this page is seen by 15 million visitors per day. (See this interview with D2 Communications’ president Akihisa Fujita
The question for advertisers is (assuming the US$1 million price tag on iAds is true): what can Apple’s in-app advertising offer that’s three times as good as the prime real estate on NTT DoCoMo’s portal?
Why it matters: the joker here is the Apple factor.
• The big question is how many column inches will the first iAd advertisers receive, in all those media reports on Apple, when iAds actually launch.
• Meanwhile Apple’s price tag makes all other mobile ad players look extremely cost effective.
• See comments from leading mobile ad networks YOC and Jumptap below.

3) Are Google and Apple at war?
It has been widely reported that Google and Apple are at war. Let’s assume ‘war’ is a tabloid term for ‘competition’, because this really isn’t a matter of life and death. Although you shouldn’t expect either side to stamp it out this warmongering as it means lots of fantastic free publicity.
The facts:
• Apple and AdMob have both bought mobile ad networks… but so did Microsoft, AOL and Nokia previously.
• We’re told that Apple planned to buy AdMob before Google stepped in. So what? There are half a dozen independent mobile ad networks in the US, alone. Quattro was part of Apple within two months (and according to rumors cost substantially less).
• Apple and Google both make smartphones… but RIM and Nokia sell more. In 2009 Nokia smartphones outsold Apple’s almost 3:1 and all smartphones with Google’s Android operating system almost 12:1. Note: that’s just smartphones, in total handsets, Nokia outsold Apple 17:1 and outsold Android 64:1. (see Mobile Stats Compendium for details)
• Google and Apple’s mobile strategies are different. Google has mobile search, mobile Web sites, search advertising and banner advertising, all targeted at all handset users (replicating its online businesses). Apple has mobile applications and music download store only available for Apple handsets, and now will sell advertising within them. (Note: like all ad networks Quattro focused primarily on advertising on mobile Web sites, but it is unclear how this sits with Apple’s app-centric business.)
• Apple’s purchase of Quattro and now (reported) plans to charge $1 million for iAds just make Google’s defense against the FTC even stronger.
Why it matters: But this phony war (the real story is that they might compete a bit in some bits of their businesses – big deal) distorts the facts, it inflates the importance of Google and Apple and AdMob and Quattro and the big picture has been lost.
The warmongering media:
The war between Apple and Google has just begun (New York Times)
Google is now Apple’s greatest enemy: here’s why (Mashable)
Is Eric Schmidt just too nice to beat Apple? (San Francisco Chronicle/Business insider)

4) Will the FTC investigate Apple?
The facts:
• The latest plot twist emerged this week as rumors surfaced that the FTC might investigate Apple. This is (and will no doubt remain) unverified by the FTC or Apple.
• Apple’s mobile business is presently only focused on its own handsets, which has a much smaller market share than hype would suggest (see stats above). It is not interested in the innumerable mobile sites visited by iPhone users, because unlike Google, Microsoft, Nokia, Yahoo etc it has no mobile Web presence. It is only interested in the applications users download from its App Store, for which it takes a 30 percent cut of revenues (which will be supplemented if it can take 40 percent of any advertising therein). Note: Western portals and app stores take a much larger percentage of revenues than in Japan – the NTT Docomo i-mode portal charges publishers 10 percent (see the Japan Mobile Guide for more details).
• Recent changes to Apple’s rules (already tighter than most application stores) have been interpreted by the commentators in the media as Apple trying to exert greater control over this niche market of applications – and the ads therein – for Apple handsets, allegedly to the detriment of other handsets, other ad networks and developers. And thus, it is claimed, it is now drawing the eye of scrutiny from the regulators.
• Ironically, Apple has been a victim of its own hype. With the help of the media (nationals included), Apple has encouraged lots of companies to focus development and marketing efforts on applications for its handsets (often neglecting all users of other phones). Accruing 200,000 applications for one mobile platform is a remarkable achievement (even if most are flops, see above) and it is going to get you noticed, especially if you play tough.
• The FTC story originated in the New York Post which alleges that the Department of Justice and FTC are negotiating over which watchdog will launch an inquiry into Apple’s new policy that requires software developers to only use Apple’s programming tools to write applications for Apple platforms, rather than programming tools that make applications more easily portable to competing platforms e.g. Nokia, Research In Motion, Microsoft and Google.
• Apple is also at loggerheads with Adobe over its plan to ban the Flash programming language from Apple products – this recently led to a public diatribe from the Apple CEO.
• Reuters reports that developers have raised competition concerns over iAds. Apple’s new agreement with developers prohibits data about app usage to be transmitted to outside analytics companies. Rival ad networks, such as AdMob, rely on these statistics to determine how successful an online ad is in reaching its targeted audience. So, the article argues, the new rules could create an unequal playing field for ad networks competing against Apple’s.
Why it matters: On the one hand talk of regulatory scrutiny makes Apple’s App business look all the more important. On the other hand the mainstream media may start to explore the merits of investing mobile development and marketing funds in one single platform, rather than focusing on a more all-encompassing mobile strategy.

The beauty of the mobile ad soap opera

Whatever our quibbles with how the story is reported, the big picture is that mobile advertising is now mainstream and as long as the soap opera keeps the media hooked, it should stay that way. Without the expensive-sounding acquisitions (it’s amazing to think that Google only announced its planned purchase of AdMob in November), then Apple’s posturing on mobile advertising, the threat of FTC intervention in Google and now possibly in Apple, it’s difficult to see the business press taking any notice of mobile advertising – the figures alone aren’t big enough to get them excited…yet (expect the forecasts be rewritten this year).

This is the perfect case of: all publicity is good publicity. The more the mainstream press covers mobile advertising, the more brands and their creative agencies will take notice.

Christian Louca, Managing Director UK, YOC:

‘Apple certainly is setting the bar high for its new mobile advertising business – US$1million is a massive increase on what advertising executives are currently spending on mobile. I can see what Steve Jobs’ thinking is – Apple is an aspirational brand and their pricing is reflective of the exclusivity of the experience. In some ways I admire their attitude and their confidence that they don’t need to mess around with smaller budgets because of the strength of the Apple name and the kudos that the iPhone has in the market, but clearly that’s not how the majority of players in this space can or should work. It’s certainly not how we run things at YOC, where $1million could get an advertiser significantly more reach and value for money across our extensive network!

I also wonder how many brands will be willing to pay such a heavy premium to target iPhone users. While Apple has sold an impressive amount of iPhones globally, in terms of overall mobile users the platform still accounts for a very small fraction of the market, making it an extremely expensive and limited way to target consumers – especially when you consider that it has recently been reported that Android has overtaken the iPhone in terms of data usage for the first time in North America. This is a trend that I predict will continue on Android and other open platforms, representing a far more wide-reaching opportunity to target mobile users with cross-platform campaigns. The in-app advertising format touted by Apple also discounts a vast array of other highly effective mobile advertising formats such as search, which is a clear traffic driver across the YOC network, presenting brands with great opportunities to target consumers in a tailored and relevant way.

There is no denying that the iPhone is an exciting platform and that Apple has helped to show the industry what can be achieved in terms of rich and immersive user experiences. But when looking at the bigger picture, Apple represents only a small segment of the global mobile ecosystem.’

“What makes mobile advertising “hot” is not necessarily the platform, handset, or OS. Those may contribute to the initial “sexiness” factor. However, long-term advertisers are looking for ROI and publishers are looking for a higher yield of their mobile inventory. Many elements contribute to advertiser ROI, including relevance of advertising and creative. Our approach to relevance is rooted in our vision for the future of mobile advertising based on ‘consumer intelligence’. This strategy of consumer intelligence allows users to manage their own profile so that we can present them with more relevant ads based on their interests. In conjunction with this, our strategy for creative and rich media is the most open in the industry, allowing an advertiser to integrate whatever rich media provider they choose to use into our network.
Our pricing for mobile media is simple and based on either CPM or CPC, not both. By having an additional charge above a CPC, an advertiser is essentially paying twice for the media the second time without knowing how much until the campaign ends.”

by Patrick Smith on April 20, 2010

Ewan’s Presentation for TechCrunch’s GeeknRolla

Mention the phrase “mobile web” to almost anyone and the chances are their mind will turn to Apple’s iPhone and the new-fangled iPad. But Ewan McLeod, editor of Mobile Industry Review, is not one of those people.

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Here’s the video, fast forward to 2.10:

http://bambuser.com/channel/TechCrunch

In his fast-paced post-lunch speech, McLeod warned that despite the iPhone’s merits its importance for developers is greatly exaggerated and they should consider putting their efforts into other platforms first, or at least as well as Apple.

McLeod argues that while Apple grabs the lion’s share of technology and media headlines with all its high-end gadgets and flashy firmware updates, the other manufacturers play a bigger role in the fast-growing global mobile economy. The iPhone may sell well, but “Nokia shipped 1.4 million phones today“, he says.

In terms of mobile operating systems, the iPhone currently has a 14 percent share of the global mobile market, compared to Nokia’s Symbian with a leading 47 percent, with BlackBerry maker Research in Motion the next biggest on 20 percent.

Adapting the old adage “Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM,” McLeod says that nowadays, “nobody ever got fired for developing on the iPhone” – highlighting the rush by so many in the media/technology industries to grab a slice of the App Store’s success.

But the key isn’t to make a mobile app, says McLeod, but to sign a deal with a mobile manufacturer that isn’t Apple. “Handset makers are really, really looking for ways to make money – and they can give you five million users tomorrow.

“Developing on the iPhone is a lottery unless you have a big brand. Look beyond the iPhone – a lot of other companies will be happy to give you money directly or put you in a position to talk to their audience.”

URL Links:

http://eu.techcrunch.com/2010/04/20/geeknrolla-why-app-developers-should-look-beyond-the-iphone/

http://www.slideshare.net/mobileindustryreview/ewans-presentation-for-techcrunchs-geeknrolla