Commitment issues
Nokia launched four new phones at an event in Singapore earlier today - the Symbian Series 40 C2-02, C2-03 and C2-06, and the Nokia N9, the operating system for which Nokia has kept from nearly all of its promotional material. At the same time Nokia reiterated it expected the first WP7 handset to be launched before the end of this year.
It turns out the N9 runs on version 1.2 of the supposedly abandoned MeeGo OS, which Nokia is calling ‘Harmattan'. This was the codename of a version of Maemo - the Linux mobile OS Nokia contributed to the MeeGo project - which implies Harmattan is a fork in the MeeGo roadmap away from whatever work Intel is doing.
All this leads to some pretty confusing messaging from Nokia. Having caused a big fuss by announcing its commitment to WP7, Nokia not only restates its commitment to Symbian, with the ‘Anna' version rolling out over the next couple of months, but launches a new high-end smartphone running the platform WP7 is supposed to be replacing.
The headline to this story is a little bit unfair, in so much as Nokia has already made it clear that Symbian will keep going for mass-market handsets. Nokia CEO Stephen Elop is trying to perform a very delicate balancing act as the company makes its transition to WP7. We won't see the first WP7 Nokia handsets on the market until next year, and in the meantime it still has to do business.
Additionally, while Nokia's number one priority is to address its deficiencies in the high-end smartphone market, it also does a lot of business in the value end of the market and in poorer countries. It has to maintain momentum in these markets at the same time, which requires quite different strategies and products.
"Earlier this year, we outlined a comprehensive strategy to change our course," said Stephen Elop, president and CEO of Nokia. "Innovation is at the heart of our strategy, and today we took important steps to demonstrate a new pace of innovation at Nokia. It's the beginning of a new era for Nokia."
But even allowing for this balancing act, the launch of the N9 is a bit of a head-scratcher. When you're about to embark on a wholesale shift to WP7, why launch a new high-end smartphone on a different platform?
Not only does this lead to confusing messaging, it provides little incentive for end-users to purchase, knowing it's based on a redundant platform. There isn't even the prospect of upgrading the N9 to WP7 down the line as it runs a TI OMAP 3630 SoC, while WP7 is still a Qualcomm-only affair.
While part of the reason for this launch may be contractual obligations to Intel, the answer is its essentially a public beta designed to scope out a few things in the wild. These are principally a new UI that could be used in subsequent Symbian smartphones, and a testing ground for the Qt development framework, that also applies to Symbian phones, and which Nokia wants third party developers to keep working on.
"With the Nokia N9, we wanted to design a better way to use a phone. To do this we innovated in the design of the hardware and software together. We reinvented the home key with a simple gesture: a swipe from the edge of the screen. The experience sets a new bar for how natural technology can feel," said Marko Ahtisaari, Nokia's head of Design.
"And this is just the beginning. The details that make the Nokia N9 unique - the industrial design, the all-screen user experience, and the expressive Qt framework for developers - will evolve in future Nokia products."
Credit where it's due though - while Nokia may be in product limbo to a certain extent, it's doing a good job of playing the hand it has dealt itself. The Nokia N9 promotional site is pretty slick and does a good job of making the phone look desirable - just don‘t expect the word MeeGo to crop up much. On the next page you can see a bunch more stuff about the N9, including a spec list, piccies and vids.
