Eseries

I was extremely fortunate to a) happen to be in Amsterdam last week, and b) receive an invitation to attend Nokia World. I was only able to attend the event for a few precious hour so this is my brief 30,000 feet summary from the show floor.

Nokia World was a big event. I have been to quite a few trade shows, developer and corporate events in the past but even in comparison, this event felt really huge. Attendees seemed to be everywhere and the show floor was packed. The high number of attendees also translated to a good event. The energy and excitement was clearly noticeable.

Because I only had a few precious hours to spare I decided to focus on the show floor rather than attend the sessions. It was a tough choice to make because the sessions looked very interesting.

The show floor was large and featured products from all of Nokia’s various businesses. What surprised shocked me was the number of impressive products on display. (More photos from the event on my Nokia World 2006 Flickr set.)

Deliberately, I tend to be myopic and only focus on E-series devices on the blog. Therefore I really didn’t know much of Nokia’s many other devices. Sure, I have read about the Nseries and other devices but until you have the chance to see them, and try them out they really don’t come alive. But come alive they did! I ended up leaving each demo area impressed and wanting the devices I had just seen.

That was probably the biggest surprise for me - the sheer number of attractive devices that appealed to me as a consumer. Since I normally focus so much on the E-series I decided to take this precious opportunity to focus on other Nokia devices.

Although the main point of the demonstration above was Nokia Mobile Search I was equally impressed to see the TV Out function of the Nokia N93. It’s even cooler that the N93 comes with the TV cable so you can go out and use the great camera and then look at the photos and video clips displayed from your device on your TV.

I also got the chance to test the Nokia Wireless Audio Gateway. The device makes it possible to use your home stereo to listen to music stored in your compatible phone, computer or MP3 Player. It doesn’t support the Nokia E61 but a number of other devices are supported.

A device that didn’t impress me when I first saw the press release was the Nokia 5500. However, this is one of those devices that you need to try out before it comes alive. After testing it I very much want it! I really like the form factor, but more than the design I like the feature set. The instant swap key that switches between the different modes, the tap commands to play music and the sports/exercise tracking application. A great companion for the gym or when going for a run.

Many of the demos on the floor had a focus on multimedia and entertainment. The Nokia N70 was being used by a DJ and the Nokia N93 was used to play back Mission Impossible III - available on a 512 MB miniSD Card.

If there ever was a feature rich device that included everything except the kitchen sink it is the Nokia N95. It is one very sleek device. Get your hands on this one and you will have a hard time letting go.

There is a really neat “Google Earth” type application (Not from Google) on the Nokia N95 - it makes sense since the N95 features integrated GPS.

I was pleasantly surprised to see more devices with Mini USB. Perhaps this marks a shift towards Mini USB, away from Pop-Port.

A very popular demo station was “Tune my S60″ where attendees could use a simple, touch screen interface, to choose among ring tones, wall papers, animations and applications and install them via Bluetooth or SMS to their devices. I think these kinds of interactive kiosks could easily drive sales and adoption of applications as well as devices.

This new devices is using S60 3rd edition. Interestingly, the alarm application is improved and offers repeating alarms. I know that there are 3rd party applications that provides this feature but I really think it should be available on the built in alarm application. Perhaps this feature is now incorporated in all future S60 3rd edition devices?

I saw a very impressive demo of game play, above, of a game coming to the new gaming platform Nokia will introduce next year. This is the new NGage gaming platform NOT to be confused with the old hardware. The game looked very nice - great graphics. This could become very, very addictive. I think the idea of introducing NGage as a platform for games rather than a set of gaming centric devices is right. Nokia is also teaming up with the some major game publisher for this initiative.

I spent the least time in the area dedicated to the E-series devices. This area highlighted the Intellisync Mobile Suite, which I will write more about in the future, and a the E-series client software for Cisco Unified CallManager and Cisco Unified CallManager Express, which also will be covered in future posts.

No real event is complete without a party. Of course, the first day ended with the mother of all parties. Nokia proved that it not only can build world class handsets but can also through a kicking party with great food and entertainment, plenty of drinks and more opportunity to network.

A BIG *thank you* to Phil and Tommi over at S60 blogs, Stefan at RingNokia, Rafe at All About Symbian, Hocki, and Ewan from SMS Text News and everyone else!

More photos from the event on my Nokia World 2006 Flickr set.

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 2nd, 2006 at 11:49 pm and is filed under Nokia E61. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.