Boo Hoo For You: Symbian mocks Western smartphones

It's no secret that cellphone manufacturers and carriers alike are getting quite crafty with their marketing approaches, but Symbian went straight for the low-blow with its Boo-Hoo campaign. Frankly, the site (and more specifically, the Boo-Hoo For You video) slams the Western smartphone for not being as "technically capable" as the Symbian phones overseas, but we're not quite sure we're following all the slighting. Aside from being a bit weirded out by a talking Pac-man lookalike and a hump-backed eraser, we're not so sure that Big Brother being right there on your cellphone at all times is actually a perk. Additionally, e-wallets and cellphone-based ticketing aren't exactly Symbian exclusives, and having the nerve to actually flaunt an "aroma phone" just about nixes any and all credibility this wacky cartoon had left. Nevertheless, we're sure this here promo was intended less for informative purposes and more for water-cooler jabbing, so click on through to see what the fuss is all about. [Warning: Psychedelic video could induce epilepsy]

[Via S60, thanks Stefan C.]

[Gil @ May 17th 2007 1:28AM]

That's very odd considering Symbian was developed by Nokia and Ericsson. Two WEST european companies.

[tim @ May 17th 2007 1:35AM]

i think ill keep to my north american doped out drug-induced advertising, thank you very much

[top @ May 21st 2007 4:40AM]

This just dosent make sense. Symbian is London based company that Nokia mostly owns. Has to be some random video.

PS. That 'song' makes ur head hurt

[sundeep gambhir @ May 17th 2007 1:36AM]

wow

[tchiseen @ May 17th 2007 1:37AM]

how does it feel to be pwnt by gumby's ugly cousin!?!!?

[Sc10 @ May 17th 2007 2:04AM]

C.r.e.e.p.y.!

[peace2901 @ May 17th 2007 2:09AM]

wow ! what a hateful world !

[Dustin @ May 17th 2007 2:13AM]

Yeah, I'm crying all the way from here to Tokyo.

We must be so sad here in the West that our suicide rate is half of yours. BOO HOO FOR YOU!

[ghastly @ May 17th 2007 3:04AM]

Suicide isn't as taboo overseas as it is in the USA (Their religion does not forbid it), hence the increased rate.

[tek @ May 17th 2007 2:20AM]

Most heinous thing about Symbian phones in N.A.? The providers stripping them of their wi-fi capabilities, at least here in Canada with Roger$. Big ol' red loves to charge 5 cents per kb. Yes, you heard me right. FIVE CENTS PER KILOBYTE!

It's not 1998 anymore but they sure are charging the same prices. And not letting us use alternatives. Odds that Rogers will disable wifi on the iPhone - very very high. Odds I'll buy one? About a zero in ten million chance.

[Chrisboff @ May 17th 2007 1:22PM]

Hah, this is NOTHING compared to the UK. On Vodafone you are charged 8p or around 16 cents per kilobyte!

[Money @ May 17th 2007 2:31AM]

Is that the gingerbread man?

http://www.goodforyourwallet.com/

[nikster @ May 17th 2007 2:35AM]

if symbian didn't suck so much, maybe they wouldn't need a psychedelic ad campaign.
as soon as the iPhone is out it's Boo-Hoo to you, Symbian. my symbian-based and majorly sucking N73 going to get a kick out the door as a thank-you.

on second thought... this is too weird, are you sure this is not a hoax?

[Juppa @ May 17th 2007 3:45AM]

I've seen maybe 4 "symbian" devices on the market in japan. all from
western vendors (ex panasonic) and all lag their proprietary OS domestic counterparts for features.

[Rich @ May 17th 2007 3:52AM]

Juppa - You've probably missed most of them. Two thirds of NTT DoCoMo's FOMA range are Symbian phones.

[Juppa @ May 17th 2007 3:57AM]

I stand corrected. I'm a KDDI user.

[akijikan @ May 17th 2007 3:49AM]

So they mock their own inability to market and sell their products in the west??? okay...

[The Doctor @ May 17th 2007 4:09AM]

Oh, for God's sake. Symbian is headquartered in Britain and is majority owned by European manufacturers; the advert is a joke although some people seem rather slow in realising that...

[gg555 @ May 17th 2007 4:22AM]

It's a weird ad, because although it explicitly addresses "western" people (whoever exactly they are) the ad is in Japanese and clearly meant for a domestic Japanese audience. So the ad is not actually mocking "westerners" to their face, rather it's made for Japanese people to feel superior to some fictional general idea of the "west." In this sense, it's really a pretty racist ad. I mean, imagine if in the U.S. somebody ran an ad explicitly making fun of "Asians," in order for Americans to sit around and feel superior about our supposed more advanced state of technology and by implication civilization.

I'm also not sure I'm so excited about having a phone that stores my fingerprint; acts as an electronic wallet; and can open the door to my home, office, car, etc. Can you say convergence identity theft device?

[MinceyFresh @ May 17th 2007 4:24AM]

BUUFUU FO YUU!

Eesh... As much of a fan as I am of mobile phones (and music, and movies, and variety shows, and g-shock watches, etc) from Japan, I must say that clip was damn annoying... But I can't stop imitating that phrase... (>_

[CB @ May 17th 2007 4:28AM]

Methinks replace 'Westerner' with 'Yankee Cowboy', mobiles are the one technology on the planet that the US is behind on.

Just don't forget the old Tortoise-Hare fable, but it will NOT be the iPhone.

I remember a few years ago a friend married a guy from Seattle and he brought 20 mates over, half way through the night during a card game I whipped out my Nokia 6110 and started to txt someone, they looked at me like I was delving into the sub commands of some evil poker cheating device

[John Stracke @ May 17th 2007 11:02AM]

"mobiles are the one technology on the planet that the US is behind on." -- and broadband, and high-speed rail, and cars...

[iball @ May 17th 2007 5:50AM]

Actually, no matter how insulting the ad is, it's pretty much right on the money.
Asia has always been at the cutting edge of mobile phone tech for years, with Europe right behind.
The main problem is that in those countries you don't always have to go to a service provider to buy a phone.
You can walk into one of many "handy shops" and buy an unlocked phone that will probably work across many different networks on different continents. Not so in the U.S. where everything is locked down to service providers, and if that provider doesn't offer an unlocked version of the phone you want....well, tough luck.
Hit the internets then.
Not only that, the USA's outright refusal to adopt GLOBAL cell phone network standards and frequencies in a vain attempt at protectionism also puts them behind the rest of the planet.
I've seen dirt-poor Africans in East Africa with better cell phones than the ones 90% of Americans use.

[John Stracke @ May 17th 2007 11:09AM]

"Not only that, the USA's outright refusal to adopt GLOBAL cell phone network standards and frequencies in a vain attempt at protectionism also puts them behind the rest of the planet." -- I'm not sure there's any protectionism involved here; the problem is conflicts with bands the FCC already allocated. The US got started early in radio technology, and it was a long time before it occurred to anybody that allocations should be harmonized worldwide.

[Jamar @ May 17th 2007 11:10AM]

Just so you know- Japan is the same as the US; phones are sold locked to one carrier (in fact, they have declared unlocking to be illegal there). Otherwise, we'd be using cool Japanese phones here (DoCoMo just released FOMA phones capable of using Euro-3G networks, and Softbank/Vodafone has always had GSM/3G capable phones).

[Edd Mills @ May 17th 2007 5:59AM]

Oh right, but when Apple goes for the low-blow by insulting the PC it's okay because, you know, it's Apple! Right?

[Geoffrey Sperl @ May 17th 2007 11:22AM]

@Edd Mills: Apple attacks the PC platform, not the PC user. This ad is actually taunting and mocking non-Symbian users. There is a massive difference.

[poppy @ May 17th 2007 7:30AM]

kaa-chaa!! How can you not tap your feet? Woo-hoo for Symbian

[Mrmean @ May 17th 2007 8:13AM]

LMFAO @ Symbian, desperate losers

[krymson @ May 17th 2007 8:52AM]

The fact that Cingular is fast becoming monopolistic, and the phone locked down to the carrier policy, both of which discourage competition, are really big obstacles to better phones in America.

Oh and that's an octopus, and some kind sushi with him, not an eraser. Standard Japanese food.

[Kei @ May 17th 2007 9:38AM]

IN Japan Europeans are considered Westerners too btw. (same as in most countries). So I'm sorry to say this isn't a Japan dissing America, it's a Japan dissing the 'Western' world.

[Cesar Cardoso @ May 17th 2007 9:42AM]

Woo-hoo for creepy Japanese or fake-Japanese ads!

[Nando @ May 17th 2007 10:11AM]

mmmMMMmmm...rah-vry!!!

[Andy @ May 17th 2007 11:17AM]

its an octopus and tuna sushi - where did you get eraser with humpback? Who do they have writing for Engadget these days anyway?

[Jeff Lewis @ May 17th 2007 11:29AM]

Actually, this round of ads attack the system more than the user of PCs, but the switcher ads tended to attack the user both directly and indirectly - and in a way the current one does indirectly by implying that PC users only do business on their systems and are incapable of doing anything fun or interesting on PCs.

[Jeff Lewis @ May 17th 2007 11:35AM]

They do have a couple of points - the Japanese telco integration of cellphones into ID related things is pretty interesting, and the use of 1D and 2D barcoding is fun - but nothing they've shown is uniquely Symbian - all of that could easily be done on a Windows Mobile based phone.

Even more bizarre - there are a number of Symbian smartphones out in the west that can't do these things either.

BTW, Symbian was not created by Nokia - Symbian was a separate company that originally created one of the first PDAs (the Psion). Then they got rid of their PDA line, they focussed on the OS for various purposes. At the time, it was the most flexible OS for cellphones so a number of companies went with it - but Nokia was its biggest customer.

Eventually Nokia bought controlling stakes in it - something the other Symbian users (like Sony) weren't too happy about.

[IESVS @ May 17th 2007 11:58AM]

Damn, Engadget. Apple's gonna be mad. Four... billion... dollars. Wow.

[Hilary @ May 17th 2007 12:59PM]

So...if you lose your cellphone, not only are you without your cellphone, but you can't get in your house to call your friend, you can't travel to your friend's house in person, and you can't even buy a replacement phone? Way to go, technology!

[steve @ May 17th 2007 2:07PM]

I guess this is a poor attempt at a grass root campaign to demand more features from carriers. I think all those features are rather useful.

[John Stracke @ May 17th 2007 2:09PM]

OK, now I've seen it...and *man* is it bizarre. I downloaded the ringtone, though; it may replace the Loony Toons theme for my "who is this wacko that's calling me?" tone.

Mind you, I *like* Symbian phones...or Nokia S60 phones, anyway; I've never seen any others. But I don't think I'd want a phone that served as my credit card, keys, and train pass. Maybe Japan can put up with it because they have a low level of crime...or maybe because their sense of shame is so strong. Lost your phone? Shame on you! You deserve to become homeless!

[William @ May 21st 2007 6:15AM]

Not only Symbian do promotion things with really water-cooler content. Check Nokia "girl dancing in bathroom" promo clip: http://symbiancorner.blogspot.com/2007/05/video-of-girl-that-dancing-in-bathroom.html

[Lars @ May 22nd 2007 9:12PM]

Whew.. The folks at Symbian PR in London will be seeing these two comments:

gg555
the ad is in Japanese and clearly meant for a domestic Japanese audience. So the ad is not actually mocking "westerners" to their face, rather it's made for Japanese people to feel superior to some fictional general idea of the "west." In this sense, it's really a pretty racist ad. I mean, imagine if in the U.S. somebody ran an ad explicitly making fun of "Asians," in order for Americans to sit around and feel superior about our supposed more advanced state of technology and by implication civilization.

Kei
So I'm sorry to say this isn't a Japan dissing America, it's a Japan dissing the 'Western' world.

For the record: this viral campaign was entirely based out of their UK office, we posted a Viewpoint about it's mis-leading nature on Wireless Watch over the weekend. Note; the opening excerpt is free however our full-length article requires a paid subscription.
http://wirelesswatch.jp/2007/05/20/symbian-says-boohooforyou/