Nokia presents ‘Comes With Music’ or shall we say ‘Goes Without Music’?
December 6, 2007
Nokia just announced the ‘Comes with music’ program at Nokia World 2007 in Amsterdam.The ‘Comes with music’ program basically means people will be able to buy a Nokia device with a year of unlimited access to 2 million and growing tracks from UMG (Universal Music Group). I have not find any information on this, but I strongly believe Nokia will use the Nokia Music Store in order to deliver all these tracks to the users. I love the idea, buy a phone and have access to million of tracks instantly! No need to download them i..*cough*..lly anymore, wohoo! Great initiative Nokia, you’re now changing the way we download music.
But of course Nokia is not doing this just because they want us - the users - to listen to lots and lots of music for free. No there’s something far more bigger going on here, but before we get into that I’ll need to give you some basic facts and background info.
Know this:
- 1000 million cellphones are sold per year worldwide, most of those do play music.
- 100 - 150 million digital music players are sold per year worldwide, the digital music player market is believed to have reached it’s peak, now more and more people use other devices to listen to music (such as their phones).
I’ve discussed this in an earlier post called ‘The future of mobile User Interfaces and the post iPhone era?‘, which might be interesting. To make things short these facts basically means if you intend to make business with mobile music, you’d probably want to look at cellphones. Apple knows this, that’s why they made an iPod which also can make calls - I’m talking about the famous iPhone of course! Other manufacturers have also noticed this, such as Nokia with the N81 or the XpressMusic series, Sony Ericsson with their Walkman® series and Motorola releasing the Z8 (aka. the multimedia monster).
The Apple Threat
Apple has shown the mobile industry they both talk the talk and walk the walk. Not only do they deliver a superb user interface with iPhone, but also a decent device (yes it’s not good, it’s decent). It’s amazing how Apple manages to sell the iPhone with it’s price tag of US$400 PLUS a monthly fee of US$60, making a minimum cost of about about US$1100 for a two year contract with AT&T.
I mentioned Apple talks the talk, public relations and marketing is what Apple does best, and design of course all going hand-in-hand. That’s why everybody’s talking about the iPhone and that’s also why people want the iPhone. How many of your friends know about the iPhone? How many of them have heard about the Nokia N95 8GB? Not that many huh?
The iPhone has been good for the mobile industry. After the initial chock company’s are beginning to understand how good design, a user friendly interface and great marketing is equal to profit. Now it’s no longer a question of investing money on a good user interface, it’s about delivering what the users demand. iPhone has been educational, both for users, developers and manufacturers.
That’s why the whole industry is trying to adjust and adapt to this new threat, afraid of losing market shares to one of the giants in mobile music. Recent reports also indicate people use the iPhone to browse the web more than any other mobile device in history (except for computers of course!). This tells us people like to browse the web with an iPhone. Don’t get me wrong, I love my N95 8GB, but browsing the web should be smoother..err…I mean the whole OS (operating system) and UI (user interface) needs to be changed to work smoother and be more intuitive.
The iPod, the iPhone, iTunes and all those other i’s yet to come are here to stay, fo’ shizzle my friends… Apple is huge in delivering music to mobile devices. It all started with the iPod which is a huge success, the iPod alone changed the way people listen to music, maybe not for you and me but for a lot of people out there. I myself first understood the iPod impact when I saw a +50 female social worker using an iPod mini as if it was the most natural thing in the world.
By now most of you hardcore Nokia fans have started thinking this Dario guy talks a lot of BS, this could of be the case but before you judge me, remember I mentioned Apple walks the walk? Here’s the hard figures.
Apple facts Q4 2007
- Apple reported a quarterly revenue of US$6.22 billion (Q4 2007) and an annual revenue of US$24 billion in 2007.
- The iPod alone counts for US$1,62 billion of that cash, thats 26% of Apple’s total revenue!
- There are at least 119 million iPods out there worldwide as of October 2007.
- There are about 2 million iPhones sold as of December 2007.
- The iTunes store reports they’ve sold over 3 billion music tracks as of July 31st 2007.
- These devices together with the iTunes store make a serious threat to Nokia’s devices.
After all, Apple - just like any company - wants to dominate the business segment they’re involved in. That includes the way we listen to music and the way we use our phones. They’ve seen the smartphone future, the fast data transfers and all the possibilities (read $$$) these devices bring.
[Source: Apple.com]
Nokia adjusting strategies
Nokia of course is not an inexperienced small company with no clue of what’s going on. The truth is Nokia makes more money than Apple, with an expected annual revenue of about US$70 billion for 2007 (I personally believe US$65 billion is a more likely scenario without getting into details), which is about three times more than Apple.
[Source: Reuters.com]
2007 has been a hectic year for Nokia, launching several new services such as
The Music Store enabling users to listen and download music to their devices- Cooperate with famous artists such as Kylie Minogue delivering their music digitally before it’s even available in stores!
- WidSets allowing people to share and enjoy internet content using widgets
- MOSH being a multimedia distribution platform where users can share videos, images, games and applications to a global community
- Nokia Maps as a part of their location based experiences allowing users with to navigate and search (which also has been improved with A-GPS functionality)
- The N-Gage platform which makes it possible for users to get together and play games,
- and perhaps most importantly Nokia’s new portal, Ovi - which gathers all Nokia’s internet services in one place and makes it easy for users to find and share what they need, directly from the device (Ovi will be what the ‘multimedia menu’ is today), a PC or using the Internet, no more copying your contacts to a new device, just store them using Ovi!
Nokia’s also been busy developing a lot of new devices. In 2008 S60 Touch will become available the new touchscreen user interface which very much reminds of Apple’s OS X interface used in the iPhone.
The roundup
All is good, Apple got the OS X, Nokia has access to S60 Touch. Apple has iTunes, Nokia answers with The Music Store. Apple only use Widget applications and games (and will soon release their SDK), Nokia delivers WidSets and Symbian has offered their SDK for long. Apple and Google are allied and deliver content such as YouTube clips and maps (Google is YouTube’s owner), Nokia offers MOSH and Nokia Maps. Apple has no gaming platform (widgets suck for advanced gaming), Nokia’s got N-Gage. Nokia is also packeting all their products in a nice little package known as Ovi, making it easy for users to understand what it’s all about, something Apple always has done.
At the moment it’s really hard to tell the future. Apple can become very successful in the mobile industry if they succeed to grow beyond the American market (so far they have not done to well in Europe) and deliver more powerful devices. Nokia on the other hand is already a powerful competitor with ~40% of the total cellphone market. Just like Apple has problems in Europe, Nokia has problems getting their products accepted in North America. Nokia’s smartphone market also relies much on the coming S60 Touch interface, which really needs to be as smooth as Apple’s OS X.
At the same time one of Apple’s biggest allies, Google is developing it’s own operating system and will release a new ‘Android’ device in 2008. There’s also Apple’s archenemy Microsoft and the Windows Mobile platform, which now is starting to shape up. The Microsoft brand could be strong enough to rely on it’s reputation more than it’s usability and they’re doing good right now. There’s also Motorola and Sony Ericsson whom joined forces to develop the UIQ user interface for Symbian, trying to ride the Symbian wave, of course those companies depend on Symbian’s success which so far has been great, but there’s still the question of S60 Touch, why use a UIQ platform when we’ll get S60 Touch?
2008 will be a very interesting year for the mobile industry, whether you’re a developer or a manufacturer, limits will be pushed as they all strive to deliver the best products and experiences possible. The only certain winners in these battles are the users.
Quickoffice signs extended agreement with Sony Ericsson
December 5, 2007
Quickoffice and Sony Ericsson have agreed on extending their agreement consisting of Quickoffice delivering its software suit for Symbian UIQ smartphones for the next five years. Quickoffice is the worlds leading mobile office document software for smartphones. The software allows users to open, edit and send their original, native Microsoft files without the need for desktop conversion or synchronization.
QUICKOFFICE AND SONY ERICSSON EXTEND AGREEMENT FOR SYMBIAN UIQ SMARTPHONES
Partnership provides award-winning software to mobile business professionals
Dallas, Texas, December 3, 2007 - Quickoffice, Inc., the leading global provider of mobile office productivity software and solutions, today announced a multi-year agreement with Sony Ericsson that includes the Quickoffice software platform on all future Sony Ericsson smartphones. Customers will have fast and easy access to their native Microsoft® Office files and have the ability to open, view, edit and create documents directly from their Symbian UIQ smartphone.
In addition to the view and edit version of Quickoffice Premier, Quickoffice will also provide Quickmanager, an on-device e-commerce portal, to Sony Ericsson’s growing base of smartphone customers. Quickmanager allows users to upgrade their on-device software over-the-air, and provides mobile consumers and business professionals with the latest applications. This agreement will also allow both companies to collaborate on new and innovative productivity solutions for mobile professionals.
"This agreement with Sony Ericsson is a testament to our product quality as well as the ever-increasing depth and breadth of our solution offerings," said Gregg Fiddes, VP of sales and strategic partnerships at Quickoffice. "Quickoffice develops software and services based on our years of experience in partnering with the world’s leading smartphone manufacturers, such as Sony Ericsson, and the feedback we receive from them is invaluable to our end-users."
Quickoffice developed Premier for UIQ-based phones to take advantage of the significant next-generation usability advancements the UIQ platform offers. Benefits include extensive personalization possibilities, a richer user experience and ease-of-use. The user can now perform several tasks simultaneously, such as downloading emails and writing notes.
"It is of great value to UIQ Technology to have such a strong partner as Quickoffice create solutions that extend the reach of the office. Mobile business professionals now have anytime, anywhere access to their Office files and other important content," said Carina Lindberg, Head of Partner Management at UIQ Technology.
"Quickoffice offers Sony Ericsson a leading and cost effective solution to meet our customers demands of Office document viewing and editing on our Symbian UIQ phones," said Nicklas Sivander, Head of Symbian Product Management at Sony Ericsson. "This advanced Quickoffice software platform will give our consumers a richer user experience, while also improving their productivity and lifestyle."
Quickoffice enhances users’ lifestyles and increases mobile productivity by virtually eliminating the need to rely on a laptop when accessing Office content away from home or office. The software enables mobile professionals to benefit from optimized handling of all important Office document files and now offers a wide-range of robust features and services, which include multi-lingual spell check and superior document ’round-trip’ capabilities to retain file formatting and maintain data integrity.
Star Wars coming to the N-Gage platform
December 5, 2007
Star Wars - The Force Unleashed is a new game developed for Nokia’s N-Gage gaming platform. The game will be available in sometime next year (2008), publisher is THQ and the it’s under development by Finnish company Universomo, known to have developed several Star Wars titles for mobile platforms. I’m not sure how the user input in this game works, but the trailer could be suggesting this game uses accelerometers enabling the player to use the phone as a wii remote control (pure speculations!)?
Here’s the trailer:
Here’s the official pressrelease from Nokia:
THQ Wireless, Lucasfilm Ltd., and LucasArts to bring Star Wars: The Force Unleashed(TM) to N-Gage
December 03, 2007
Espoo, Finland - Nokia, THQ Wireless, Lucasfilm, and LucasArts today revealed that Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is coming to N-Gage, Nokia’s next generation mobile gaming platform in 2008.
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed casts players as Darth Vader’s "Secret Apprentice" and promises to unveil new revelations about the Star Wars galaxy. The game’s expansive story is set during the largely unexplored era between Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope.
The mobile version of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is in development by THQ’s Finland-based studio, Universomo. Using Cell Weaver(TM) technology, the game lets the player harness the Force while assisting Darth Vader in his quest to rid the universe of Jedi - and face decisions that could change the course of their destiny.
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Mobile game provides players with unique community features, including tournaments, score uploads and downloadable content, through N-Gage Arena services.
"We’re proud to be able to deliver the next chapter in the Star Wars saga on the N-Gage platform," said Gregg Sauter, Director, Publishing, Nokia. "Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Mobile game will take advantage of the N-Gage platform’s robust native development environment to provide the ultimate mobile gaming experience, including powerful graphics, connectivity and community elements."
"THQ Wireless is dedicated to creating an awesome mobile Star Wars experience that delivers on the concept of unleashing the Force. The N-Gage platform makes it possible for us to release a rich mobile gaming experience to entertain as wide an audience as possible on N-Gage compatible devices," said Adam Comisky, vice president of THQ Wireless.
"The launch of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed will be a major entertainment event in 2008, and bringing the game to the N-Gage mobile gaming platform is a big part of that because it means that millions of people around the world will be able to access the Star Wars: The Force Unleashed world right in the palm of their hand," said Howard Roffman, President of Lucas Licensing.
Nokia internet radio beta available for free
December 5, 2007
Nokia went official with a ‘Internet Radio’ application. I’ve tried it with my N95 8GB and can say it works great. The application comes with hundreds of stations and new are added all the time. The beta download is free and works on most Nokia devices, some more than others (check the application website, http://www.nokia.com/internetradio for downloads and full compability list).
Also note that your carrier might charge you for the data traffic, an unlimited data plan or wifi is strongly recommended.
Official pressrelease as follows:
PodCast #1 - Interview with Naresh Chouhan from UIQ
December 4, 2007
Me and Dusan from Intomobile.com had the opportunity to discuss the mobile business and the future together with Naresh Chouhan, Head of Developer Programs at UIQ at the Fast Track event in Budapest. Of course our phones were there to record everything (surprisingly we both used ALON’s MP3 Dictaphone which really worked great. Not only is it a GREAT dictaphone/audio recorder but also a superb mp3 player with playlist support, equalizer and much more!). Naresh is a great guy which I hope we’ll see more of in the future.
Anyway, enjoy our first podcast and let us know what you think.
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