Kuneri bloggy

All the buzz of MobileMe disaster of Apple, somehow reminded me Nokia willing to be an Internet company (or should I say trying?) As a respected Hardware and Software company (they still do great), do you think Nokia can make a good Internet company? Or would it be a too big piece to chew?

It’s not hard to see that Apple’s failure has much to do with a wrong strategy (i.e launching the service toghether with iPhone 3G). However, also shows that, brand, money, blindly attached fans are not enough to succeed on Internet, and even Americans can fail in that arena. I am sure that they will take their lesson and somehow will succeed to compensate. But how about Nokia? Finland is too far from US, not only in miles, but also in mentality, speed, approach etc. As a company, who hasn’t had any luck (or chance) in U.S market, will they be able to steal the heart of US consumers? If it’s true that Internet business goes through U.S, what kind of chance do they have?

I will not bring up statements. I haven’t thought deep on that, therefore at the moment this is just a question. I would like to learn how you think about Nokia brand together with Internet and take my thoughts deeper.

Interesting statistics from M:Metrics . Although it mostly focuses on mobile games, it’s still possible to extract other interesting details about Flash Lite devices, US / Europe comparison and user demographics.

14 Million - Number of British people who browse, download or use a mobile application

Brits are clearly one of the most active mobile device users in Europe. Although the number looks quite optimistic, but can we use it on any generalization for Europe?

28% - 3G penetration in US and Europe (almost)

Having 3G doesn’t mean that you use it. Although US is very good at flat rate, European users still suffer from high price levels. Might this also mean that European users buy 3G in conscious?

5% - Europeans with flat rate data plan

Where, 15% for US. Might look like US is ahead, but considering the population (Europe is almost 2.5 times more crowded than US), it’s almost the same.

Would it be possible to say US people are much better consumers than Europeans? What I observed is Europeans are not very easy going to purchase something compared to US. Although these figures show US and Europe almost same for 3G and flat rate penetration, I am still not sure if it’s possible to do profitable data dependent business in Europe.

27% - European people with Flash Lite enabled handsets

Where this is 16% for US. This makes a clear distinction of Flash Lite penetration between Europe and US. With these figures Europe looks like a better place to do business on Flash Lite (if you are not in Japan). That’s no surprise considering in Europe Nokia and SE penetration is much better than US. However, is quantity give us a clue about quality? I have the impression that US market makes more money out of Flash Lite content than Europe, due these content is pushed by operators, rather than handset makers. This makes me think that even figures are low for US, US would still be much more convenient for paid content; where Europe would be perfect for advertising supported content services with Flash Lite.

I am little skeptic about the Flash Lite figures; due I am not sure if M:Metrics counted N70 within Flash Lite enabled handsets. Although it’s Flash Lite enabled, player doesn’t come out of the box, which takes N70 and similar popular handsets out of the picture. If N70 is in this 27%, reality would be much less, considering N70 is the still most popular handset in Europe.

Looking at the figures, market seems to improve. This is no surprise. Everyday more Flash Lite devices are shipped by Nokia or Sony Ericsson (or other S60 licensees). My missing piece is a raw model showing Flash Lite can make money outside of Japan.

These are my personal opinions after reading the article. Mark has much more optimistic approach to these figures. I might be missing some other important points, but would be happy to discuss more. I am always up to figure out and expose the real potential in markets.

Ugur.-

Great to be in a community where discussions (another one here) turn into actions. Bill and Mark from Adobe gave the good news that Flash Lite 3.0 security issue will be solved soon on S60 devices, in cooperation with (Forum) Nokia.

Thanks!

There are some great posts, which are quite good survey to the current problems in mobile development (platform fragmentation, feature access, distribution and marketing options).

Rafe Blandford post is one good, insprired by number of other well known, like Michael Mace’s post(Mobile Opportunity: Mobile applications, RIP). It is about Web as platform and question could it solve distribution and fragmentation problems and what problems web will bring as well.

Rafe lists common platforms and their problems there ( Symbian C++, Open-C, Python, Java ME, Flash Lite, WRT and Web).

About S60 he pointed this out, which I like to share here:

S60 is also moving towards a transparent consumer model - the idea that all applications are accessed and behave in a similar way. The idea is that the technology an application uses (be it native C++, WRT or Flash Lite) is invisible to the user. All applications have an icon in the application launcher, all can be multi-tasked, all have a similar look and feel (or the potential too).

Check those out (if you haven’t already), nice reading indeed.

via AllAboutSymbian, Rafe Blandford published a review

A Glimpse of the Next Episode - Nokia examines the future

In the videos, Timo Veikkola (Senior Future Specialist Nokia Design) and Tom Savigar (Trends Director at The Future Laboratory) discussed some of the key thends that is seen by Nokia and published in the past press release.

The extensive research identifies the trends, along with the technologies, that will be pivotal in the next episode of entertainment. In conclusion, the results of the survey lead Nokia to believe in the next episode; entertainment will be circular.

Check it out!

Nick posted an interesting summary about Flash Lite 3 security model.

Security model in FL3 is the same as in Flash Players 8 and above for desktops. As new security measures for desktops has been quite hot topic, need for discussions of possible solutions for Flash Lite can be expected as well.

Read the post, it great summing-up!

I got a hint of a discussion in Symbian developers forum of improvements in Symbian application signing process.

They say that signing will cost aroung $20 per application with new Express Signing (Publisher ID from TC Trustcenter is required).

That is something. With much cheaper and faster process, I see this will encourage more developers to sign their applications and more frequently.

I watched No Plan, No Capital, No Model… No Problem video on Guy Kawasaki’s blog recently. It is almost 2 hours of talk about start ups that neither has a business plan nor a business model with a capital between $0 to $100K and succeeded that well you cold not expect. Especially the story of PlentyOfFish touched me very bad :) I highly recommend you to watch this video and listen what these guys say; it’s very motivating and pushes your buttons of motivation and courage.

I’ve moderated many panels in my time, and if I had to choose one that entrepeneurs should watch, this is it. If you’re one guy/gal or two guys/gals in a garage, it will push all the right buttons, and you’ll love it. However, if your plan is to raise several million dollars from venture capitalists and then hire five engineers, one vp of biz dev, one CTO, two testers, and a vp of marketing to ship a product in a year, you probably shouldn’t spend your time watching it.

Mark Ollila, co-founder of Telco Games and Nokia’s Director of Technology & Strategy for Games and Multimedia, answers 5 questions of Digital Media Wire on mobile games. Here is the full interview.

Dr. Mark Ollila, Nokia’s Director of Technology & Strategy for Games and Multimedia sat down with DMW for five questions about the mobile games space. As one of the world leaders in mobile technology with its N-series products, Nokia is poised to be among the major influencers of the space over the next several years. We discussed some of the things going well in mobile gaming, and some of the challenges that remain.

We are proud to announce the launch of Adobe User Group Northern Finland: Augnofi!

We aim to create a warm, active and creative community on the top of the world, spreading our energy to the rest of the world. Global contests, live and online seminars, cool workshops and interviews with the experts from the heart of mobile technology are in our future program.

Spread the word; don’t forget to check it out and join! All welcome!