CapitalMarketDay2009
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Nokia offers sneak peek at improved 2010 Symbian user interface
You know that new Symbian user experience promised by Nokia for next year? Want a sneak peak? Although Nokia's downloadable slide-deck from its Capital Market Day event leaves out all the new UI visuals, fortunately the webcast has 'em all. And if we're not mistaken then that's a wall-to-wall capacitive multitouch slate up there from Nokia's conceptual studios. As Nokia tells it, the Symbian OS is not the problem, the UI is -- and we agree. In 2010 new hardware and tweaked software will reduce Symbian's clutter, add multitouch input on "large capacitive displays," minimize steps to request functions (2-taps to get to favorite music or video instead of 8, create an email account in 2 steps, not 4), significantly improve the browser experience, and make the entire UI 3 times faster than current high-end Symbian products while taking scrolling to 60fps (up from 15fps used today). Notably, Nokia will remove more than 350 user prompts that make using Symbian so frustrating today. The user experience promises to be so good that Nokia CEO, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, calls it "magical." Us? Sweet, but it's only slideware for now. Watch the rousing video after the break. Update: We added a link to the 51MB PDF containing all the presentations. Bonus points for spotting our quote about the N900. [Thanks, Pasi] %Gallery-79463%
Nokia promises to take "Symbian user interface to a new level" in 2010, Maemo 6 in 2H
It's Nokia Capital Market Day again which means that the boys from Espoo are fawning over investors and giving them a reason to stick around in 2010. And you know what? It sure sounds promising for gadget nerds. Why the optimism? Easy: Nokia is hell-bent on redefining the user experience of its Symbian devices. To quote CEO, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, "In 2010, we will drive user experience improvements, and the progress we make will take the Symbian user interface to a new level." To bolster this proclamation, the very first bullet point listed under Nokia's Devices and Services operational priorities is "improve our user experience" -- something that would thrill us to no end if it happens. The revamped Symbian UI is set to deliver on two "major product milestones" in the first and second halves of the year. Nokia will also deliver its first Maemo 6 "mobile computer" in the second half of 2010 flanked by a significantly increased proportion of "touch and/or QWERTY devices" in its smartphone portfolio. It's worth noting that all the discussion is around Symbian, just a single mention of Maemo and its "iconic user experience" in the forward looking press release. Developers will be happy to hear that Nokia will also continue to scale services geographically while continuing to enhance its developer tools like QT4.6 announced yesterday. Financially speaking, Nokia expects to see the erosion of its average selling price slowed compared to recent years. That's good as Nokia attempts to grow its margins. However, while Nokia expects mobile device volumes to be up approximately 10% in 2010 across the industry, it sees its own mobile device volume market share as flat in 2010, compared to 2009. Be clear on this though: our incredibly frustrating S60 5th user experience was by far the biggest complaint we had when reviewing Nokia's flagship N97 -- having the most bullet points on a list of features is not what it takes to lure consumers anymore (if ever). If Nokia can better the best in class experiences carved out by Apple, Palm, and HTC with its Sense UI then consumer mindshare, and our hearts, will follow. [Original image via Vladstudio]
