An Uninformed Opinion Of The Mobile Market

Back in the day, I was a massive mobile phone fanboy. People think I'm bad now? They should have seen me then. Driven by a fanaticism for a platform and a hatred of all things Microsoft, my web world wasn't a very pretty one (I still managed to get an e-mail from within Nokia thanking me for my website however!)

Things have changed since then and not only have I stopped actively blogging about mobile technology, I'm pretty much out of touch from the latest developments therein. I still pop into websites like All About Symbian and the hillarious PocketPC Thoughts and Smartphone Thoughts, but I'm aware that I'm ignorant of much that's happening.

Therefore, I thought I'd write up the impressions I have of the various mobile platforms regarding where they are and what they're about, and to explain why I feel nobody has yet arrived at mobile tech utopia.

Palm
Never used their stuff. Are they still around? Seriously, they do seem to be dead in the water. Nobody takes them seriously any more and every tech website I visit speaks of them in the past tense.

Nokia / Symbian
Nokia strikes me as the only company that's actually pushing a mobile platform. Even with Apple in the market, Nokia is the only one that is doing new things, trying new things and pushing new technology... except that it has jumped on the bandwagon of copying Apple's UI concepts which is always sad to see.

The problem I see with Nokia is that there's no smooth, seamless integration. The PC Suite software is bulky and built like a gorilla. I never had a problem with Nokia software and I hardly ever had a problem with synchronising, installing , upgrading etc. But Nokia is not getting the message across. For some reason, Nokia just doesn't seem to be able to get across to people just how damn useful its hardware is. There are even people who own Nokia Smartphones but don't know that you can install some really, really, really cool software for it.

This ignorance is going to be a problem to Nokia because companies like Microsoft and (now) Apple can come along and say they are introducing new technologies and functionality when the truth is that Nokia has had it all the time.

Sure, Nokia communicates style, but technology? Not so good.

Microsoft / Windows Mobile
Has this platform ever been any good? Sure, there's (almost) all the consumer functionality of a Nokia Smartphone and even more enterprise capability, but what's the point when the interface is clunky and confusing, the process management sucks the big one and it keeps crashing? While Nokia suffers from fragmentation aross platforms (Series60 v1, v2, v3 etc), Microsoft's platform suffers from device fragmentation, where something written for a version of Windows Mobile will work on one device but won't work on another, despite it running the same version of the OS!

A big problem that Microsoft has is that there's never anything new in Windows Mobile. There never seems to be something where someone can say 'Wow! I've never seen anything like that before!' because someone somewhere has always done what Microsoft is doing.

One more problem that Microsoft has is that, like Nokia, it just doesn't communicate very well, at least not outside the enterprise. Looking at the fantastic games and utilieies available for Windows Mobile, you'd think that it would be a big hit in the consumer market, but apart from GPS Navigation, people seem to be as ignorant of a Windows Mobile device as they are about a Nokia device.

Fragmented, stagnant, uninnovative and boring. That's how I see Windows Mobile.

Blackberry
I've never understood the awe that people in suits have for Blackberry devices. I've never understood how Blackberry is still going so strong when other more capable platforms can offer the exact same functionality and more.

If ever there was a one-trick-pony, it's the Blackberry. Apart from push e-mail, what do Blackerry devices even do? Java applications.

wow

Other Apple Wannabes
There's a plethora of iPhone clones on the market and some of them are pretty decent. Companies like Samsung and even Blackerry are in on the act. But watching these organisations produce their clones makes me feel like I'm watching David Brent do hos special dance - Cringeworthy. They may have merit, but they're selling their product on someone else's.

Apple
The iPhone, apperently, is a revolutionary mobile phone. I still don't see why people say this. The first iPhone was incredibly limited and, apart from the really nice User Interface, had nothing special. The new iPhone is much better, but is still limited in areas where I just don't get the reasoning. For example, still no MMS, still no SMS forwarding. Why!?

You could say that Apple is the opposite of Nokia and Microsoft in that it doesn't (or at least didn't) have much to offer but boy is it good at communicating. Steve Jobs and the Apple machine have a mind-blowing ability to communicate and inspire people who have no Smartphone preconceptions, and open to them a 'new world' of tech innovation - a world that has existed for many since the nineties. Apple has made technology accessible and broken down the 'too much hassle' wall.

The first iPhone was desired by many people but was outside of too many people's wallets (it took me months to save up for one). The new iPhone has rectified this and even brought it to Free on some contracts. This is a big plus and will help make Apple a huge success.

Second, though, is the App Store. Sure, you could (and still can) go to Handango, Symbian Gear and other websites to buy software for your Symbian or Windows Mobile Smartphone, but who knows? Who cares? And those online stores aren't exactly easy to use! Apple, however, have made it easier to buy software for your iPhone than it is to buy pants. In fact, to buy an application for a new iPhone is now exactly as easy as it is to buy a song from the iTunes Music Store. That is something big. Masses of regular, non-geek and non-nerdy people can finally start doing what geeks and nerds have been vainly trying to communicate for almost ten years, and it's Apple that has brought this. The queue outside the O2 store where I live is proof that it's no longer geeks and nerds who want an iPhone, contrary to the opinion of some.

There's still no MMS, still no SMS forwarding, there's no GPS navigation and the camera still sucks. But somehow, Apple has managed to pull the rug from under the feet of its competitors and I wouldn't be suprised if the suits in Microsoft, Nokia et al are still reeling from the swift 1-2 delivered by an Apple who may not yet have the market share, but has a monster chunk of mindshare.