Nokia still not touching
- 11 Feb 08, 09:26 GMT
has unveiled a raft of new handsets and services at the - but one of the key questions asked of the senior executives was about "touch".
The question people want answered is: when will Nokia react to the Apple iPhone and bring out devices that have touch screen capabilities?
The answer is: not yet but it is coming.
, head of services and software, said: "We have said that we are platform-ising touch and we will bring out touch products.
"It's important you don't bring out gimmicky touch. We want to take the heritage of the applications we have today - over 5,000 - and make sure there is some reasonable migration path.
"Absolutely the user interface will evolve. It will be different for different categories - some will have a lot of touch, some will have little and some none."
He added: "It's an over simplification to say touch is the answer or not the answer."
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Maggie Shiels is the 大象传媒's tech reporter based in Silicon Valley.
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Comments
Intriguing.
Two ways of looking at this, either they are after an iPhone-quality device, so keep it under wraps and put lots of time and effort into it, or are trying to pass the gimmicky stuff by.
Interesting how they say it is coming though, could this mean that they are going one step further with some exciting new technology that nobody has yet even conceived?
I wonder...
Please don't take too long, Nokia. Whilst I'd be reluctant to leave you behind, and whilst I'm sure you'll eventually deliver something fantastic, those iPhones are just too tempting. You've got six months until my current contract expires, and I go looking for a new handset.
Why oh why oh why do we need a touch-screen?
All the touch-screen devices I've ever used (although I've yet to use the iphone) have been cumbersome and slow to use.
I want a phone that has extras, not a pocket PC (or macbook!) that makes phone-calls.
Nokia, Don't give in, improve the voice-recognition so I can call my customers completely hands-free whilst driving or tell my phone where I'm going to by speaking to it!
That's much better than a touch interface as far as I'm concerned!
"Platformising" - great new technical term. I'd love to see a list of the top ten bits of new jargon emerging from this conference.
iPhone's touch OS is essentially a gimmick on an otherwise average phone. I'm pretty sure Nokia will work to build on the capabilities and services of their products, only introducing the S60 Touch OS when they feel it fully necessary and complimentary to the services offered by their new phones.
Sure, there are plenty of videos of the S60 Touch OS in operation but does anybody have any real complaints about the navigation controls on say the N95?
I'd sooner have a phone with no Touch OS that has a wealth of features than one that does have Touch OS but can't send MMS, can't record video and has a 2MP camera. Apple take note...
Fair enough. I have to say, when I had to replace my phone at the end of last year I initially went home with the new Samsung F700, which is a very sexy touch screen item but the terrible quality of the included software and the difficulty of getting anything else had me returning it within 2 weeks and trading it for a Nokia N95, my first Nokia phone which I've been very impressed with indeed. It's no good having something that looks great and does nothing.
Agree with ProfFalken on this, no need for a screen that gets covered with fingerprints & dust very quickly (why else are there companies already making a profit from selling iphone screen covers), voice recognition and commands are more useful longer term or gesture recognition that does not involve actually 'touching the screen' rather 'waving' (for want of a better technical term) across it. I like some aspects of the iPhone, but I've had an N82 for 4 days now and it has all the functionality I need without a touchscreen.
I'd rather see use a tactile keyboard for the majority of tasks. Touch is awesome on the iPhone, but sometimes I wish I had a keyboard.
Is Touch really the big thing, or is it the slickness of the interface, the capacity, the size of the screen? The slimness? The battery life? Apple's iPhone is harder to beat than just Touch.
I have seen the future! All 'internet classified/auction adverts' for mobiles will read "For sale, one mobile phone. Fully working, cosmetic damage to case, screen badly scratched"
I had a touch-screen phone (Sony Ericsson 950i) and it was so awful I killed the contract after the requisite 6 months and went back to Nokia. I have an E65 which I'm very happy with (my son has an N95, which he's happy with) and I don't miss the touch screen interface at all.
I can't help wondering just how long the interface will last before either a) it packs up altogether and/or b) the screen becomes unreadable due to minute (and maybe not-so-minute) scratches!
Nokia did bring out a touch-screen handset - the 7710. I have one. The idea of touch screen is great in theory (reducing the size of the handset or increasing the size of the screen by soing away with the separate keypad), but there are one or two fundamental flaws with the whole concept, not least of which being the fact that you cannot dial a number or send a text without looking at the screen. This may seem like a minor point, but it is, actually, quite important. I do so all the time, so does everybody I know, although they are not aware of it until it is pointed out to them.
I agree that the iPhone looks good and does what it does very well, but it just doesn't justify the hype. Many of the iPhone features are just gimmicky and unnecessary. Nokia does not need to compete with the iPhone, Apple needs to compete with Nokia.
The iPhone was always going to be a popular handset for the less sophisticated user, but it simply doesn't live up to the hype and doesn't match up to the 'top-end' phones from the more established mobile manufacturers.
It's also worth noting that some of the 'touch' technology has already been incorporated in to the Sony Ericsson K850i phone already on sale - so Nokia seem to be lagging in this respect.
Another thing to consider is the accesibility values to the broadest range of users/customers: touch technology is nice and impressive to most people, but not everyone! How about people who need to actually feel each key they press because they might have difficulty seeing the keypad? (Visually-impaired users for example) Nokia might be more cautious about embracing touch-screen technology because previous variations have all been rather problematic.
Personally for me what i want is a phone that i can get on the day of launch and know that it has been fully tested and does not have any bugs. With the modern day phones you need to wait around 3-6months before the bugs have been ridden, the firmware upgraded and then you have a good phone.
The Nokia N73 was bug ridden til new firmware came out. The N95 had a poor slider which improved after 3months. We need to no longer be test dummys for the mobile giants but customers buying into a product which we know will do what it says on the packet
Nokia does in fact already have several touch screen devices similar to the iphone, the 770, the n800 and the n810. I'm writing this on a n800 right now. Like the iphone it's basically a portable unix computer with a very large touch screen and the only substancial difference is that it's not strictly a phone, it has no sim card or network chip and thus much cheaper.
Anyone saying the iphone is not a serious threat clearly hasn't seen the US sales figures but it's not the touch interface that is the problem but the os running underneath. Be it mac os x or linux symbian s60, nice as it is, is just not going to be able to compete as smartphones get smarter and the end users expect greater and more expandable functionality. To paraphrase the clinton years 'it's the OS , stupid!'
The premise here is that somehow touch screen is inately superior and something to 'catch up' with.
Touch-screen or touch activation hasn't become established in consumer goods precisely because it often has the downside of not signalling to the user that they have actually pressed a button / x number of times - something many find frustrating. There's something intuitive in feeling the give of a button.
I dont like touch screens, at least not exclusively touch screen devices. I dont like the iPhone as a result.
I need real keys, tactile keys that respond, and a screen that you dont cover with your finger as you type! The LG viewty is the best solution to touch screen yet, with its vibration feedback, but even that is way off.
I have an N95 8GB and i know its superior to an iPhone in pretty much every way, not least usability.
I think Nokia are very clear on their strategy - they see the integration of multiple media services on their devices as far more important than a touch screen. In fact, to be honest, I'm not sure a touch screen would suit the mass market anyway.
I've just seen the specs for the N96. An object of lust if ever there was one.
Like Mark, I also caught a glimpse at Nokia's new N96 earlier - now that's a phone!
That's what i'm after in a handset - great services & applications from a reputable manufacturer rather than a gimmicky touch OS which allows me to flip through album artwork!
The N96 does look tasty. Just intime for me upgrade.
I've used PDA phones with touch screens for several years now and prefer them to standard screens. Nokia can do touch, as their internet tablets prove. It鈥檚 a pity they didn鈥檛 offer a version of the N810 with 3G.
It's ridiculous to say that touchscreens are necessary or the answer or indeed the key to the next generation of devices. Nothing can fully replicate the feel of hardware keys or buttons in terms of productivity with electronic input devices.
Apple tried to jump the gun and implement something new but five of my colleagues who own the iphone lament it's input system and two have opted to go back to their Nokia handsets.
Touchscreens are nothing new...but the technology isn't there yet to make them particularly useful at such a small mobile size. In my opinion Nokia innovate a lot more than apple in this sector - my Nokia N95 8GB does everything and is a real business companion.