N95 8GB unboxing & trial plans

The powerhouse arrived yesterday, courtesy of the WOMWorld team, a little bit late for Christmas, but I consider it a great holiday surprise. It's a shame they didn't create a new series for the N95, like a P95 as in Powerhouse95, or a U95 as in UFO95, or an O95 as in the obvious Oh-My-Goodness-Does-Such-A-Thing-Even-Exist95. Yes the device has its flaws, yes it's not perfect, but on the actual market it's one of the rare devices that can claim to live up to the "Perfect Device" title.

Here are the unboxing pictures. I wanted to record a video but my camera battery was close to dead. Then I thought I'd make a video out of the unboxing pictures, but my computer kept shutting down everytime I opened Windows Movie Maker. So you'll have to watch the unboxing pictures in a Flickr slideshow and try to imagine the "All I Want For Christmas" song as a soundtrack. That's the closest it can get to an unboxing video.



Now for the good part: What can you expect me to cover in these 2 weeks of N95 8GB trial? Well, I won't do it the ordinary way. Normally bloggers receive a device, review every aspect of it: hardware, software, battery, RAM, camera, music,...

Well this won't be the case with me. I am starting my own iteration of S60 New York and California Ambassadors and I'm calling it N95 8GB Lebanon Ambassador.

Why?

I thought that a device as powerful as the N95 8GB doesn't always wind up in the right hands that can show what N-Series combined with S60 3rd and Nokia can deliver as an overall experience. I also thought that I'd be too selfish to keep all those wonders to myself.

What?

N95 8GB Lebanon Ambassador consists of a 14-day 14-feature demonstration. Basically I will have the N95 8GB with me all the time, and every day I will have one new feature to demonstrate to everyone I run into: friends, family, neighbors, classmates,... just about everyone I know (or don't know, for all I care). I had previously asked readers here for opinions about the main uses of the N95 and the best applications to try on it, and I came up with this list of features to demonstrate (in no particular order):
1 - Camera shooting & Video recording
2 - WiFi connectivity, web browsing, instant messaging & mail checking
3 - Music & Video playing
4 - Accelerometer : RotateMe, LightSabre & NokMote (hopefully ShutUp)
5 - Controlling TV & Stereo with Psiloc irRemote
6 - GPS & Nokia Maps or Google Maps
7 - Nokia Music Store
8 - NGage (hopefully)
9 - Mobile Web Server
10 - Podcasts & Internet Radio
11 - Medical Consultant
12 - Uploading pictures to Flickr
13 - Catching RSS feeds
14 - Watching YouTube videos

Other features that may make it to the list are Widsets, Download!, Gizmo, Wikipedia, Photo Tagging, Fring, Nokia Channels & MOSH. Too much to try and so little time.

How?

As I said, I will demonstrate one feature per day. I will then present my own notes of the feature as well as people's impressions, questions, suggestions and remarks. I will then post a recap every 2-3 days.

And else?

Depending on how much free time I have, I am also planning:
- an evolution of S60 3rd post: comparison between the first S60 3rd device, the Nokia 3250, and one of the last S60 3rd devices, the N95 8GB
- a comparison with Windows Mobile, when it comes to connectivity, web browsing, rss and podcast catching.
- an actual review of the device (hardware, battery, memory, software,...)
- other random posts.

Final Word

That is about it. It is my first trial, and with a device as capable as the N95 8GB, I knew it had to be special. The N95 8GB Lebanon Ambassador started today, with the camera and video recording demonstration. I will get into details later, but so far so good. If you have any suggestions of something I should try on the N95 8GB, a new way to use the device, a new application I should try, a new feature I should demonstrate, please do leave your suggestions. I am a newbie in the N-Series world and I could use some advice. If you also have any questions about the device, please ask. I will try to get to them in my final review. Now if you'll excuse me, I'll go dive right back into the N95 goodness!

Nokia's marketing strategies should be like...

I have been pondering about Nokia's marketing strategies for a while and now that the fuss about it is greater than it ever was (read this, this and this), i feel that it's about time to talk about it.

Ever since i got my 3250, i was suprised by two things. The first one was how many possibilities and how many wonders this little treasure could offer. The second one was that no one, except me and my friend (she has a 6630), in my acquaintance circle had crossed that line and explored the endless options that the symbian platform had up its sleeve.

Now, as I said in my previous post "top 15 things i do on my mobile that AMAZE my friends", these options are not hard to get, not at all. But why most people don't know about them? Can you blame them? No. Because you don't expect everyone to be a tech geek and roam the internet for hours looking for an app or an add-on to their device. People like to have it, easy and simple. There's this lebanese saying that really shows what i am saying "you have to put it in a spoon and stick it in their mouth". And as much as it hurts to say this, Nokia has been failing this easy and simple strategy, time after time after time.

Now let's get to the point here. I am no marketing expert, but in the point of view of an average human, here are the flaws i see in Nokia's promotion and marketing strategies, and how i think things should be done. Please bare in mind that i am doing this because i love this company and i expect the best out of it.

1 - TV ads
Most people buy a device, or at least go to a store to check it out because they saw a tv ad and liked it. The N95's ad was great for people like us, who knew all the specs by heart and knew what a little wonder that was. But do you think that the guy next door got it too? Seriously? Nokia, you can go all sentimental in an ad when people already know what you are offering, but they don't yet, do they? Show it to them.

2 - Device flyers
Do you even look at these? I must have picked up more than a dozen different flyers, and to sum up my experience in one word : trash. Of course the devices' pics are nice, but read the text. They repeat the same thing at least 3 times in the same flyer. We get it. Be more specific, show us what's great about this particular device! I mean seriously, the E61i's flyer has a paragraph about the 2mp cam (what phone does not have that now?) but does not state that you get a free subscription to WorldMate for 3 years with it? You have to buy the device then dig in the Download! section to know that! Are you kidding me?

3 - Internet solutions
This one will be very long so get a cup of coffee.
The first thing you notice with Nokia's internet experience is the multiplicity, the HUGE amount of websites that are all official. Now let's count that, there are the sites for each country, the sites for each region, the forum nokia, the n-series sites, nokia unwired, and the list keeps getting bigger and bigger.
Of course most of these sites offer a similar experience, but not the exact experience.
The lacks i can note are, so far
a - the free apps/games available for download for one particular device differ from one region/country website to another. Why? Same device, same platform, same specs. Different apps, different games. Makes sense? No. Plus why do the N80 for example have a free Antivirus for download while the 3250 doesn't? Same platform, same risk.
b - the N-series devices have their own website, but it doesn't have the apps, games, support pages,... U have to go back to the nokia site to get those. Again, doesn't make any sense.
c - Catalogs on the phone, Nokia Software Market online, Download! on the phone and on the pc, how many solutions are there to download content again? Talk about people getting lost in the middle! Plus catalogs is part of Download! on the mobile and the Software Market is part of... Oh just forget it, even I am lost. Handango, save me!
d - Nokia software market is poor compared to Handango's shop, just for the Nokia 3250, business category, Nokia has 16 apps, while Handango has 47!
e - Nokia's website doesn't give all the specs about devices, for eg the device platform is many times omitted in the specs sheet. Head on to forum nokia to get that. Wow! Do people know that forum nokia shows all device specs? Sure not!
f - Average people don't know about Nokia's Discussions. Plus there are different links to the same discussion board for regions. Why?
g - Nokia's pages links are always something like "www.nokia.com/A653213", now bookmark that and try to remember what the hell that page was about.
h - No newsletter. Huh. Why does it take a certain Darla Mack to surf the internet for us to tell us what new solutions, softwares, sites, Nokia is offering? Now i know she won't be sad if Nokia made it a lil bit easier on us to know new features. She'll get her spy glasses on something else, i'm sure.
i - Three different solutions for PC Suite: ordinary, the N-series, the E-series. Anybody notice any difference? I saw the screenshots of both new PC Suites, and i read the info, seems the same to me, or am i just blind?
f - No RSS feeds. What?!
SOLUTIONS
Centralisation
- ONE website, and that's only one.
- ONE discussion board.
- ONE solution for downloading goodies (free from Nokia or paying from Developpers) online, so accessible on the device and on the pc.
- ONE specific link for all the device specs.
- ONE PC Suite.
- Emphasize all of the above on Nokia's main page.
- Let forum nokia be just about developping, no device specs over there.
- Promote the s60 blogs on Nokia's site, these are Nokia employees, doing a great job, why not tell people about them, especially with the new Smartphonin blog.
- Create a blogroll of the well known symbian sites, all about symbian, darla, symbian guru, symbian in motion and include a link to that on Nokia's site. People love to see ordinary people just like them (not official advertisers) talk.
- Include all of the above links directly in a "links" pane in pc suite and in the CD that comes with each device, why not in a little flyer inside the box too?
- Create a massive campaign for the software shop. It's by emphasizing on apps that Nokia can pull it through. Apps are what make their devices unique. Use that!
- Put an RSS feed for news and a Newsletter, both for consumers and for developpers/advanced users (like us).

We're talking easy and simple. Put it in a spoon, and stick it in their mouth. That's what works, right?

I won't mention anything about billboard ads, they are good as they are.

I will also point that the Download! software for pc looks like the first step towards a good app shopping experience but it's still software, so it's bound to pc. Do it online!
Also the S60 Agents in New York idea seems perfect if it's well conducted, in order to increase people's awareness towards the potential they carry around in their pockets. Make it worldwide. See how many fans you have!

Wow! This was a long post. Hope it wasn't boring, but i'm glad i got it off my chest.
Anything else you feel like mentioning?