Now what do we have hear? Apple’s Siri, espousing the virtues of their Nordic rival Nokia, in the shape of the Lumia 900 series, yes it appears that Siri has decided, in its infinite wisdom, that the sleek but rather boring (app wise) Nokia Lumia is king of the smartphones.

According to a report on Ubergizmo and using the data and statistics based search engine Wolfram Alpha to help determine the answers the shock reply appears to be that Siri loves Nokia Lumias, so what next for Siri?

I prefer it when it appears to have no idea what the average Scotsman has to say, and would rather hear it blurt out profanities at some smug apple loving schmuck in all honesty, but if it wants to seemingly poo on itself also, who am I not to have a good laugh.

*caveat, I genuinely and rather ironically have never seen Siri used in real!

What do you Apple iPhone 4s owners think of this, can you prove that this does in fact happen, and do you, more importantly, agree if it does in fact hold true?

I may start a site all to do with smartphone battery problems such is the current trend to moan about how long our poor mini laptops last.

*I am wholeheartedly one of those people.

2nd update to solve problem:

So now it seems Nokia have again released an update aimed at solving the Nokia Lumia 800 battery problems that have plagued so many new Nokia Lumia Windows Phone 7 device owners.

One of the main issues that Nokia acknowledged at the back end of 2011 was that the device was not reporting the full capacity of the battery.

Some other improvements are mentioned and they include performance improvements such as “Wi-Fi connectivity enhancements” though it is unclear if there will be an update to Windows phone 7.5 as many hope. This update will however bring with it another solution to the disappearing virtual keyboard bug that has also been a cause for concern for Nokia Lumia owners.

The roll out has already started with owners getting a notification on their device o show they can indeed go ahead and do the update, this will require access to a PC or Mac and will be delivered via Microsoft’s Zune software to finish off the installation and all being well result in an improved overall experience for Lumia 800 owners.

With Samsung not particularly acknowledging reported battery issues on their various devices affected until a recent statement saying that all 2012 Samsung smartphones will last a full day on one charge it is quite nice to see Nokia actually have a go and stand up to the reports and actually look like they care while taking some action…fingers crossed it all works.

Have you had issues with your Nokia Lumia 800, if so please do let us know any ways you have manged to rectify or avoid problems moving forward.

And here is the video to show you how to do that:

Source: Nokia_UK Twitter,

Are you waiting patiently for the slightly more advanced Lumia 900 which is due to arrive on UK shores soon, well you may be interested to know that the date for its arrival looked like it would be in June according to many reports and shots of the carphonewarehouse website.

Unfortunately for the Nokia fiends among you T3 has shown that this page has in fact been pulled and this leaves the UK release date of the Nokia Lumia 900 up in the air again.

Nokia Lumia 900 Specs:

[arrowlist]

• Windows Phone Tango Operating System.
• 800 x 480 pixels screen resolution
• 4.3 inch Multi Touchscreen Display with Corning Gorilla Glass
• Size:125.5 x 65.8 x 9 mm.
• 1.4Ghz processor with 1GB RAM.
• Connectiviy:3G,Wi-Fi,microUSB,Bluetooth.
• HD Video recording & playback.
• 16GB of internal memory.
• FM Radio with Recording.
• 3.5 mm jack audio jack

[/arrowlist]

With the Nokia Lumia 900 getting a release at CES 2012 it was shown to be a pretty sizable beast coming in with a larger 4.3 inch display and an upgraded (we hope) battery, it also brings in 4G LTE support.

Windows Phone 7 still needs a bit of a kick start and while there are growing applications in their own marketplace, they are still leaps and bounds away from Apples offerings or the Android marketplace and I am personally unsure just how many app developers are looking at this alternative currently, my hunch is less than Microsoft would like despite little sweeteners to encourage more to join.

Why are the UK getting a 4G enabled smartphone anyway?

Some were questioning why we the UK would be getting a 4G enabled smartphone when we are so far off even deciding on a date to have the UK 4G spectrum auction, never mind actually roll out a full service to customers.

So it seems likely that the Nokia Lumia 900 handset should get released sometime this year and will be a 3G enabled device, with the Windows phone team getting cocky about the speed with which they can boot up facebook with their Smoked By A Windows Phone Crap….woopty f**ing woo….:)

I wonder if the impressive sounding (kind of) shipping figures will result in actual sales, as I hear mixed reports coming out about these figures.

Do not get me wrong I think Windows and Nokia could be on to a winner here in the long term, I have used a Lumia 800 and feel it makes Android look like one of those crap phones your Mum buys from Tesco/Walmart and claims she has bought an iPhone for £30.

Of course I fully understand their tactics and fair play to them, and good luck.

Tablet owners helped increase amount of ad impressions:

With tablet owners generating some 11.2 billion impressions while using their device, this helped the Mobile Advertising firm increase their overall figures and saw a jump of 771% increase for tablet adverting impressions over the same time in 2010.

Similar story for smartphones:

There was a pretty similar story being told in the smartphone camp as InMobi saw increase of some 488% year on year with some 109 billion impression made in the last quarter of 2011.

Feature phones still very strong:

I would imagine that InMobi will reach a tipping point in the next year for more advanced devices to see a larger proportion of ad impressions.

But last year saw “feature phones” bringing in over 50% of the overall impressions made on their advertising network with some 54% or 125.8 billion impressions made on these devices.

Android biggest player overall:

With Apple dominating the charts of the top five most popular devices that obtain ad impression on the InMobi network, the O/S that really stands out is he Google owned Android platform which sees some 21.2% of all mobile ad impressions on one of the plethora of devices which has Android as its operating system used by various manufacturers.

Apple meanwhile, despite having four of the top five devices in the list, only achieve 16.7% of ad impressions made, which is still pretty huge considering this is one company and only four devices, with Nokia’s old Symbian O/S (now replaced with Windows Phone) accounting for a pretty hefty 18.8%, I imagine this will reduce slowly before hopefully increasing again for Nokai and Microsoft’s sake.

InMobi’s James Lamberti, VP of global research and marketing said,

“Mobile technologies have empowered the development of the media and advertising market and pushed consumer acceptance of media consumption through emerging channels. Advertisers are now on board with this trend and we expect to see strong innovation in this space as consumers spend more time on mobile devices and less on PCs.”

I think the further we go towards using more mobile centric devices, the more we will see rich media type advertising shining through, with associated benefits that include more user engagement in adverts, thus ticking the boxes of social media marketeers, corporations and ad networks, and with self serve platforms like Celtra I am sure there could be some cool mobile adverts coming out soon to a tablet or smartphone you.

When CNET decide your device is worthy of an award, you know your hard work has paid off. And with news that CNET believe the Nokia Lumia 900 was the best smartphone that graced the CES 2012 show in Las Vegas we hope that the Finnish guys are more than happy with the new title.

Good news for Nokia = Good news for Microsoft?

No news is good news when life is dealing you a shitty hand, but when you are looking to get back in the mix, you want to know what is being said about you.

News from CES that the Nokia Lumia 900 has gone down a treat will be welcome affirmations for both technology firms that their chosen paths should pay off in the long term.

With the Nokia Lumia 900 rumoured to be arriving on AT&T in March with a rumored 18th of March tipped by many, it will be nice to see this device added to the already popular but app lacking Nokia Lumia 800.

So it looks like they may have cracked the egg that will bring both giants back into the land of the waking, smartphone wise.

But, they still need a good application marketplace in order to ensure that more people choose Windows when given a choice of Android or iOS.

I must say that I for one believe that the sleek Nokia Lumia series will be a serous contender in 2012, I just wish they had a good application marketplace that could compete with Apple and Android on scale and functionality, but things change and with Nokia and Microsoft’s drive to encourage more developers I think this may well see some serious growth after gaining accolades such as this one from CNET.

Nokia Lumia 900 AT&T March Release Date:

The Nokia Lumia 900 phone runs Microsoft Windows Phone 7.5. It is the biggest and fastest smartphone yet. And it will become available exclusively through AT&T in March.

With the Nokia Lumia coming to AT&T exclusively are you interested in going from your iOS device or Android smartphone over to Windows and Nokia?

If so why?

People are starting to wake up to the marriage between Nokia and Microsoft and soft buds of love and joy are emerging for the love birds of old.

So what is all this about am 18th of March release date for the hotly anticipated smartphone?

The Nokia Lumia 900 looks set to see a Spring release on AT&T:

According to a report a leaked photo in WMPowerUser the Nokia Lumia 900 will get a March release date and what is more that actual date will be the 18th according to a Nokia developer newsletter.
stating that the device will “become available exclusively through AT&T in March”.

With the phone only just being show, it is intriguing to note that Windows rumormongers, Mary Jo Foley and Paul Thurrott state that their sources are claiming specific date of March the 18th for the Nokia Lumia 900 release date.

What do you think to the phone being exclusive to AT&T, are you hoping for an unlocked version also?

Source: WMPowerUser

What would you think if you received a Xmas card with a picture of a Nokia Lumia 800 or 900 on it for Xmas?

Well, if you are in the UK and suspect it to be a Lumia 800 from your local phone shop then you know that they are just being friendly and keeping in touch with you after you have perhaps bought one of the new Nokia Windows phones, or perhaps are due an upgrade, in which case, have you seen the new Nokia Windows 800’s?

Either way, make no mistake, the shop does not care about your Xmas but would like to sell you a new device.

But what if you received this as a savvy US consumer and noticed that it had AT&T on it and a front screen camera!

If so, this could be more intriguing, is this a new device that is yet to emerge called the Nokia Ace?

Nokia Ace due at CES?

Americans usually need a name for their devices, and not a number, presumably on the advice of device manufacturers marketing departments.

So with a pinch of salt we wonder if this was a slip up by an over zealous Microsoft employee, or just a photo-shopped image that snaps together a few layers to create a perfectly good Nokia Ace rumour image.

Some noticeable features anyway:

[arrowlist]

• AT&T Logo
• 4G Icon
• Front facing camera

[/arrowlist]

AT&T are on schedule to release three LTE enabled phones this year one of which will be the Nokia Ace, but exactly what the Nokia Ace will be is another story best left to rumor right now, it could even be Tango and not Mango that is used as its operating system.

The other two LTE enabled phones due for release will be the Samsung Mandel and HTC Radiant.

What do you think to this picture? A hoax? Or, nicely timed rumor picture that will get people talking?

Your comments as always greatly appreciated.

Now this is a rumor that has been going around for some time now. And with Nokia launching their first Window phone handsets globally, could the couple of old tech “has beens”, forge some sort of a lasting relationship that ends up in marriage rather than the “friends with benefits” thing they currently have going.

So would it be a good buy if it was on the cards?

According to Slash Gear the Danish bank Danske Bank is apparently reported stating that they predict that Nokia could sell their smartphone arm to Microsoft, and after this news the share price of Nokia was seen to rise by 3%, though it has to be said that Nokia have played down any future sale to Microsoft.

However the rumor, if true, could see the deal could go ahead as early as the first half of 2012.

Make or break for Nokia:

We did a report back in our formative days stating that Nokia needed to pull something out of the bag and quickly, otherwise seal a fate worse than death, OK that was exaggerated, but it was paramount that Nokia properly entered the smartphone market with gusto.

The release of the Nokia Lumia series has been pretty well received, generally.

With Nokia well and truly on the marketing trail peddling their new Windows Mango devices, it would seem ajar to then go and sell their smartphone division to Microsoft as other rumors suggest that Nokia are going to manufacture the new Windows 8 tablets.

But with the Lumia series getting mixed reports and analyst Alexander Peter stating that “only 2.2 per cent of surveyed buyers are firmly intending to purchase the Lumia,” could a sale now, be better than being bottom rung for the old Giant of old?

But in defiant talk, a statement from Nokia to Slashgear said:

“We have only started our journey to regain smartphone leadership, but we are pleased with the early results. The Lumia 800 is getting good traction in all six European markets where it has already launched. Initial feedback from India, Hong Kong, Russia, Singapore and Taiwan — where the Lumia 800 starting selling this week — has been very encouraging”

So how much would it cost Microsoft to buy Nokia?

Talk earlier this year surrounding this very issue suggested that a price tag of $19 billion was a ball park figure for Microsoft to obtaining Nokia’s smartphone division.

And with Google already in the process of buying Motorola Mobility could this be a smart move or are both companies best off staying independent and collaborating in the way they are now?

US citizens will be happy with news just in from BGR, who are claiming to have obtained information about the release of the new flagship Nokia Lumia model which is likely to offer a slightly larger display than the current Nokia Lumia 800, the name of which is likely to be simply a Nokia Lumia 900.

What other features are offered:

[arrowlist]

• 1.4 Ghz processor
• 8 megapixel camera
• 4,3 inch ClearBlack AMOLED display
• Windows Phone Tango

[/arrowlist]

US to see a huge marketing drive for the new Nokia/Windows marriage:

January and February look set to see a huge marketing drive from the Finnish device manufactures, which suggests that the launch of the new phone will be some time after the CES show in January 2012.

It looks like exciting times ahead for Nokia despite rumours that they are not selling units of the Nokia 800 series very well here in the UK.

With the launch of the Nokia Lumia 800 in the UK last week, Nokia are only expected to ship around 500,000 units globally before the end of 20122.

Now forgive me but that actually seems like quite a large number for a device that has just entered the market. Most people on the high street are unaware of Nokia’s need to save face in the smartphone arena, so this figure actually seems to be pretty high considering there are only a few weeks left in 2011 and it only just got released, and we seem to be in a global meltdown financially!

So let us look deeper into the findings and opinions of the Bernstein research and others:

An analyst at the firm going by the name Pierre Ferragu has indicated that the Google trend activity seems to be roughly the same as what was surrounding the Nokia N8 which was the Symbian powered older brother to the Lumia 800.

Why are they predicting lower sales?

Bernstein Research reckons that the Nokia Lumia 800, which launched in the UK last week, will only ship half a million units before the end of 2011.

Similarly, another research company called Pacific Crest says it has revised its forecast for units shipped from two million by the end of 2011 to the figure quoted above of half a million, so why have both of these companies ended up with pretty much the same figure?

Pierre Ferragu is quoted saying:

“We don’t believe Lumia phones are competitively priced…..and with no breakthrough innovation, we believe Nokia’s new phones are unlikely to get traction in a highly concentrated high-end…..we have seen evidences of lack of traction for the Windows operating system over the last 12 months and challenge the idea that the Nokia brand can make a meaningful difference today.”

In my own opinion and from speaking to people at recent events I have to say that my own theory is that Nokia will bounce back slowly with their new product ranges as the device does look very appealing running Windows O/S, and the general public seem impressed.

Time will tell.

Have you used a new Nokia Lumia device? And if so, were you as impressed as me at it’s overall look and feel? Though for me the browser seemed sluggish and average.

Nokia have chosen the UK ahead of the Us to release their 800 series phones, the Windows 7 Phone handset is not expected to arrive on US shores until early 2012, much like the Samsung S2, US consumers seem to be behind the cure in smartphone stakes but lees so in tablet sales.

Mango Phone 7.5:

The Nokia Lumia comes endowed with the Windows phone 7.5 O/S which also packs a 1.4 GHz processor with a 3.7 inch AMOLED screen, and 16 GB of internal memory.

With a Carl Zeiss lens, 720P recording at 30 FPS and a 25 GB quota of space on the cloud equivalent of SkyDrive, the package is quite appealing.

So is Nokia playing a catch up game of no hope?

With the new range being offered in a number of colours, Engadget seem to believe that this Nokia range has seen the rise of Nokia take a hold, so with a few quality videos and promotions it seems that the marriage of Windows and Nokia can get quite a lot of attention if needs be!

We hear a mixed report on Windows 7.5 O/S moving to 8 and are very much keen to hear more from users of smartphones who have the technology already and have some strong opinions, good or bad on the developments.

Quick update:

It seems that the Nokia Lumia will now be hitting UK shores in mid November and it looks like it will be the 16th of the month to be precise.

This comes juts a day before Samsung release there own Galaxy Nexus mobile device to the UK also, so looks like Nokia are after a bit of limelight stealing!

The company has said that it will be offering the new smartphone at €420 but we are yet to see what that actually equates to exactly in sterling.

Big news in Nokia land in the last few days with the arrival of their new Nokia/Windows smartphones coming in the form of the Lumia Series.

So what next for the collaboration of tech giants of old?

Well if news in the FT (financial Times) is anything to go by, a recent illuminating interview with Stephen Elop the CEO of Nokia could mean that the Finnish company are also in line to manufacturer the new Windows 8 Tablet range…now this could be exciting.

With Apple’s iPad being the unstoppable force in this niche it will be very interesting to see if Nokia’s eye for design and build quality will marry well with the new Windows 8 O/S, which in my eyes looks like promising a mix of innovation and actually useful features.

How big, small and fast is not that important if things do not work well:

As Apple have proved time and time again, fancy is no good if it is not functional; speed and other boastful factors are not that important ultimately to users of mobile devices

Elop is quoted saying:

“We’re not commenting on specific plans for tablets, but one of the things that we are excited about in terms of support for the Windows Phone are the announcements that Microsoft made around Windows 8 for tablets and personal computers, When you see the user experience from the Nokia Lumia environment appearing on hundreds of millions of tablets and PCs in the future, you can see that there is a clear synergy between all those environments. So that presents an interesting opportunity for Nokia.”

Does this translate to Nokia manufacturing the new Windows tablet range?

I think both corporations would be stupid not to work together from day one on this project now that Nokia have decided to opt for a third party O/S on their devices…But will they want their own range as they are doing with Windows phone O/S? or just go head to head as a major force with Windows as the O/S and Nokia as the manufacturer with one flagship tablet?…This I suspect would be the best way forward, but not sure of the economics for both firms involved long term.

Nokia’s Journey:

In the interview Elop also muted that the new range will not be the make or break of the Nokia brand, but is the first step in a general shift and transformation for the company from old to new.

Nokia A Brand To Love?

Nokia have that certain quality that any brand would dearly love: A seemingly ethical business operation that produces high quality goods, and does not come across as brash and crass in any way. I ask any of you readers here if you have any serious negativity towards Nokia and my hunch is no responses will be given to the contrary other than to sort it out!

Yes Nokia, I sense people want you to succeed and bring back another decent competitor to the mobile device market, after HTC, Samsung And Apple plus the occasional others.

Time still of the essence:

One thing I am acutely aware of after switching from Apple to Android this year is that I do not want to do this often, mainly due to setting up contacts/settings and getting used to a new phones O/S…I sense that people will pick one of the big three operating systems and stick with this for a large part of the next few years purely for ease.

So getting in now may give them a chance to allow people to trial there new O/S and convert people who are not yet hooked to Android or iOS.

If there is a way of replicating everything from O/S to O/S in the future then this may benefit all concerned and level that playing field out for contract renewals, but I doubt Apple will play ball in letting competitors easily do this…they love to lock you into proprietary software and applications as we all know.

Android the target

With Android coming on leaps and bounds in terms of market penetration it is surely this multi platform beast that is the target for Nokia and Windows though I wonder if the more niche Apple iOS should be more the model to look towards?

What happens when two Goliath’s of the tech world who have both seen better days decide to combine forces?

New Nokia Windows Phones:

With Nokia’s Meego O/S now relegated to “ongoing support” for a few years, many in tech land have been pontificating on the state of play that a marriage between Nokia and Windows would mean for the mobile industry and consumers alike.

On the one hand both companies have had significant falls from grace over the last few years, with Microsoft/Windows losing out to Apple in the hardware stakes (and now mobile O/S), and similarly Nokia also losing out to Apple and Android devices on both the O/S and hardware front.

On the other Nokia and Windows/Microsoft are both seasoned veterans of both hardware and software combined and could surely still pose a threat to Apple and Android…especially when combined?

Too little too late?

With technology moving on at such a rapid pace, especially in the mobile arena, could the offerings that have finally been brought to the table be a little too late to see them muscle back in to a market dominated by iOS and Android?

I doubt it, and here is why:

Nokia make fantastic looking and working phones, you have to hand it to them, they are design masters on a par with Apple.

But what about the Windows operating system?

Well as someone who dislike Windows O/S by and large, I am always sceptical about an operating system from a company who fails to even bring us a decent web browser in 2010/11 and after many many years of peddling an atrocious (IMHO) operating system in windows XP. There next entry is an equally horrendous O/S to be superseded quickly by another O/S after admitting they had essentially screwed up with Vista.

But….from cursory observations it seems that Windows Phone 7 and then 8 look like they will be a very powerful user centric O/S. Couple this with access to a multitude of X-Box users via the Microsoft network and you have an operating system that seems to seriously have some potential.

Nokia Lumia 800 Features:

The new Nokia Lumia 800 looks very much like the Meego based Nokia N9. This is a good thing, as one thing that the Nokia N9 phone has apart from a soon to be outdated O/S is serious good looks, with its ClearBlack curved AMOLED display the screen will have to be reduced from the N9 size to incorporate the Windows phone buttons but with a reduction from 3.9 inch to 3.7 inch we hope this will not be too much of sacrifice in screen real estate.

Processor wise we see a powerful Qualcomm 1.4 GHz that includes graphics and hardware acceleration. An 8 MP Carl Zeiss lense with a Dual LED flash, but no front facing camera like the N9 but a dedicated camera button is offered. 16GB of memory is on offer and a free 25GB of SkyDrive space is also added to the package (this I particularly like). RAM wise a pretty average 512MB is built in down from the 1GB N9 memory.

Price: €420 or $480 or £300 (roughly)

Colours: Cyan, magenta or black.

Nokia Lumia range different from Windows?

With the Lumia 800 aiming for the “serious” smartphone market and the Lumia 710 picking up the budget end, Nokia hope to differentiate themselves from Windows phones by virtue of access to Nokia based applications such as:

Nokia Drive: Which delivers a full-fledged personal navigation device (PND) with a free, turn-by-turn navigation and dedicated in-car-user-interface.

Nokia Music: MixRadio, a free, global, mobile music-streaming application that delivers hundreds of channels of locally-relevant music.

Gigfinder is also part of the above Nokia Music service, and proves the ability to search for live local music for a hopefully very powerful integration and overall experience, coupled with the ability to share information on social networks and also buy concert tickets using your mobile device which will be coming in the Nokia Music update later this year.

Nokia Lumia 710 Features:

Coming in on the budget end of the smartphone range, the Nokia Lumia 710 will be priced at around €270 or $370 or £230, and will fit snugly into the affordable end of the smartphone range.

It will come with very similar specs to the Nokia 800; same processor, same RAM, though will cut corners on camera quality (5MP) and single flash, no hardware navigation buttons, LCD instead of AMOLED and a smaller 8GB of on board storage.

So all in all a pretty good phone with out some of the little extras.

It will be offered in black and white with exchangeable back covers with cyan, black, white, yellow and fuchsia back covers.

Emerging markets targeted first for the budget range Lumia 710:

The Nokia Lumia 710 will be available first in India, Hong Kong, Russia, Singapore and Taiwan toward the end of the year alongside the Nokia Lumia 800, before becoming available in further markets in early 2012.

Could Nokia/Windows devices fill that sweet-spot?

With Android and iOS dominating much of the globe, it is true to say that certain parts of Asia, Russia and the Far East are still in the beginning forays into smartphone territory and are therefore these people are firmly “in the market” for new devices. I imagine many will be wowed by the shine of Apples offerings and also the functionality, cost and ubiquity of the android O/S and devices that run on this O/S, but Apple do price themselves out of many pockets and Android still has an air of cheapness to it due to the one size fits all approach.

With features and applications being the name of the game for mobile devices it will be interesting to see if price, quality of hardware and brand appeal will play a large part in the success or failure of this, what must be described as last ditch effort from the tow giants.

Will they succeed in establishing a position in the competitive smartphone marketplace and what about a tablet range?

Your thoughts welcome as usual.

You have to hand it to the Finnish team at Nokia.

When they need to, they can seriously compete with style with their mobile devices.

Nokia N9 Manufacturing:

This video showing the manufacturing process of the Nokia N9 running Meego (shame that this O/S is likely to slowly die before really showing us it’s capabilities) allows us all to see where the new Windows Nokia marriage may well be going.

The link above suggests that the new Nokia Sea Ray running windows phone 7 will use pretty much the same shell as the N9 so we can not wait to see what this will feel and run like with an operating system that is aiming a little higher than Meego ever was.

Nokia have released their final phone that will run on their own operating system before they move all future devices to the much anticipated windows 7.5 O/S.

So what does the N9 look like?

The N9 is a bit of an oddity, running on the Hartmann user interface on top of the MeeGo platform.

Why no N9 release for the UK and US?

The likelihood is that the upcoming release of the full blown N9 running the sea ray operating system is the reason that Nokia have not bothered wasting shelve space in the more advanced UK and US markets.

So what will the future of the MeeGo platform look like?

It appears that they intend to merge this O/S with a Linux based platform called LiMo.

Technical specifications N9?

Well the Nokia N9 is a pretty tasty bit of kit, it is being touted as a “pure touch” phone by Nokia and is designed with a unibody 3.9 inch WVGA AMOLED gorilla glass display.

The phone will be powered by a 1Ghz Arm Cortex A8 processor, with a pretty impressive 8 megapixel camera with dual LED flash, and a super wide lense.

NFC, A-GPS and a 16Gb or 64GB memory storage is also part of the package.

Ilari Nurmi, Vice President of Marketing at Nokia has said:

“Since we announced the Nokia N9 in June this year, the feedback that it has gotten from discerning and avid smartphone users across the world has been nothing short of fantastic, With the innovations in industrial design, user interface, and the Qt developer experience, the Nokia N9 sets the bar for how natural technology can feel, and represents the first in a number of products from Nokia that will be brought to life in similar fashion.”

Still want a Nokia N9 in the US and UK?

Well you can always simply import a phone. It looks like the cost of the N9 will be around 500 – 600 Euros for the 16GB and 64GB

Or is it wiser to wait for the new Nokia Sea Ray that will run on windows 7.5 and will be the start of new things for the two giants…my advice wait on a few months.

*Since this article went live a few months ago, and has now received over 15,000 page views, as of Jan 1st 2012, I thought it best to write an article on how to improve your smartphone battery life.

So what is wrong with my Samsung S2 that warrants a plain old rant…?

Well firstly, here is what is not wrong with the Samsung S2:

[arrowlist]

• It has a wonderful bright Super AMOLED screen that can light up arenas.
• It has dual 1.2 Ghz processors so is no slouch.
• Slim and very light.
• It integrates with Google maps to give you a pretty good sat nav (when it works well)
• It has enough RAM to make playing games responsive and fun.
• It offers SWYPE as an input method and makes pressing buttons totally redundant once you get the hang of it.

[/arrowlist]

Unfortunately though, like many things in this wonderful world. The Yin and Yang have to be at odds with each other to create the occasional beauty that you see with the Samsung S2.

So what is the Yin to the Above Yang?

Quite simply BATTERY LIFE!

As someone who works from a place with a power socket, or having access to my computers USB lead for most of the time, there are perhaps fewer times when I need to use my phone all day without any chance of a top up…cue yesterday.

[arrowlist]

Agenda:

• Meeting at 10.30am
• Meeting at 3.00pm

[/arrowlist]

[arrowlist]

Schedule:

• Leave house at 8.30 to catch train, occasionally read news on phone using 3G connection when possible (lots of tunnels make it tough)
• Walk to meeting point at 10.00 after train journey using GPS satellite for help, this lasts 15 minutes.
• Have meeting.
• Walk to train station to catch a new train…not using GPS as it got me well and truly lost, and it was easier to find my way back once I had done the initial walk.
• Wait around in one area of the City and have a bite to eat while using the restaurants Wi-Fi.
• Catch a train to next meeting in another City…not using phone, as at 2.00 pm I am worried about battery life…have been out of the house now for around 5.5 hours.
• Get to the next City and use Sat Nav once more for general directions, find it totally useless and realise my battery had lied and it had now jumped to nearly dead….great…I have no pen to write down numbers (my fault) and no way of easily contacting my meeting point if this phone dies on me…luckily I get there OK and the battery has a smidgens of life still in it.
• Just before the meeting I text my better half to let her know that I will not be asking her to pick me up as arranged loosely after the meeting, as I will not be able to be any more specific as to timing, not knowing how long this meeting will last, and seeing my phones battery finally dying.

[/arrowlist]

So at 3.15 pm my battery had gone and my phone was nigh on useless.

Duration of day….between 6 and 7 hours.

Amount of time using phone?…Really quite minimal apart from GPS which was also used sparingly after the first 15 minutes at my first meeting.

Conclusion: What happened to the Nokia’s that used to last 5 days with one half charge…yeh I know they never used data etc but seriously this is the one big issue facing mobile technology right now and one that needs to be solved.

Otherwise the term mobile is slightly ironic don’t you think?

Of course we can all carry spare batteries, but why should we, and if this is needed, why don’t manufacturers factor this in and be honest.

If tablets and smartphones are to be truly mobile they damn well need to have a battery life that can handle being used on a days work schedule without a charge. Actually, 2 days work would not be ridiculous to request.

I pay huge amounts for my phone each month, and really, the Samsung S2 battery is not even good enough for using during one days work, with full charge from the outset.

If you are away from a trusty power supply, never mind an actual full 24 hour day on the road….the battery life of the S2 can not even offer one third of that duration without dying a death….not good.

Think twice about buying the Samsung S2 if you need to have battery life for a full day….of course spares are an ugly option though!

Though this seems to work very well:

*Update – As this article has ended up being quite the flagship for Mobile Inquirer, I now feel a need to clarify that I think the Samsung S2 is a cracking phone (note initial praise) and the battery life issue is not actually a fault of the Samsung S2 per se, that said, I do feel that battery life needs to be addressed at manufacturing/design/R&D level and something needs to be done about the issue all mobile devices face in order to make them truly mobile and functional as intended.

*Ok before I go on, an update again – I think it would be useful to get a petition to help manufacturers see just how much of an issue battery life really is to people:

If you feel as strongly as most of the people who have commented on this post (which has been read over 10,000 times as of Mid December), carry on sending us your comments and add your email to the petition so we can pass this on to the device manufacturers ourselves.

If you choose to opt in to the newsletter sign up, you agree that we can add you to our popular mailing list to keep you updated with news surrounding this matter and in general, one email a day maximum.

Socially mobile!

And please join in the debate by going to our Facebook site here, giving us a like if you are feeling nice, and our twitter site here, and following is, and then get involved using the #MoreJuice hashtag when you are referring to this particular post or your general annoyance at how short your mobile phone battery lasts!

This is what you are saying to device manufacturers:

I am signing this petition as I am unhappy with the general battery life of my smartphone, I believe it to be unacceptable to last shorter than a full day on a full charge, and would prefer that my device was larger to accommodate a bigger battery if this was to improve performance of my “mobile” device.
Otherwise, please ensure that the performance of my phone matches the expected enjoyment and use that I should obtain from my mobile device, or provide me with a spare battery or similar option to improve my battery life at purchase.

Small victory for Mobile Inquirer with help from you guys

I must now point you to a new article here, where Samsung Promise All Day Battery For Smartphones which relates to Samsung’s new stance on improving smartphone battery life, hopefully this article and your help has gone some way to forcing this shift in mindset that will help the average smartphone user get a full days use out of their phone as they expect!

It would appear, according to Nokia’s twitter account, that the arrival of the much anticipated Nokia/Windows phones will be sometime around Q4 2011 with the main bulk of arrival due in 2012.

With noise from the Nokia camp being suspiciously low in the last few weeks, anticipation is high and a feeling is in the air that something is about to be announced of some magnitude.

Nokia tweeted the following:

“We cannot confirm local availability but the 1st Nokia w/ WP devices will ship in Q4 and with volumes in 2012,”

The new Nokia codenamed Sea Ray was first shown on video by our good selves back in June, when it was “leaked” in a rather contrived way to the blogosphere, since then things have gone a little quiet.

I suspect that a first round of releases could be with us in late October, so stay peeled for further news.

This is a major step for Stephen Elop and will be his crowning or damning in terms of how he will be judged as the relatively new CEO of Nokia.

Windows 8 – A trick in the back pocket?

If all fails with the release of the new Windows 7 phones from Nokia and Microsoft, there is still one last hope left, and that is the arrival of Windows 8 as an operating system with the new “Metro” style interface designed to be PC, tablet and smartphone capable.

Nokia senior vice president Marco Argenti has recently said this in relation to Windows 8 O/S:

“Personally, I’m most excited about what’s new with Metro, and how much momentum Nokia and Microsoft are building together, creating an opportunity for you, here and now,”

With the release of Windows 8 O/S due soon and tests being run in Beta as we speak. Nokia are hoping that the new “Metro” style interface will be perfectly suited for running smartphones and that applications will be developed in the magnitude that they are for Apple and Android. If this comes true it could signal the start of an exciting new dawn for both Microsoft and Nokia, though it is very much make or break for the two technology Goliath’s in my opinion.

With Nokia paying a Canadian company called polar to make 300 apps for Meego and Symbian it must be the season that the underdogs in Appland finally get some statistics worth shouting about.

Yes Windows Phone now has nearly 30,000 apps for download onto Mango and Windows Phone O/S’s and unlike Android they do not count wallpapers as apps.

Huge increase since march:

Back in March Windows were reporting a measly 11,500 apps for download so it is nice to see the amount more than double in a few months, but obviously a far cry from iOS and Android, who total a combined 675,000 + apps made up of 425,000 iOS and 250,000 Android but as we mentioned Android cheat a bit by counting wallpapers as apps.

Nice to see the Mango update will be compatible also:

Windows has also reported that all apps released for Windows Phone will be compatible with the update called “mango” due next month.

With over 300 new features, Mango will be an almost brand new mobile O/S and many believe will actually prove to be quite a success and a real alternative to iOS and Android.

The Windows Mango operating system will be featured in Nokia’s highly anticipated “Sea Ray” phone also due soon, so it is exciting times at Microsoft this next month or so.

Windows tweet for help in gaining even more apps now HP have made WebOS developers jobless:

In a remarkably opportunistic and open tweet, Brandon Watson the Windows Phone director made a plea to the stricken HP WebOS developers to come over to their own O/S with incentives for the already published:

@BrandonWatson tweeted 19/8/2011:

To Any Published WebOS Devs: We’ll give you what you need to be successful on #WindowsPhone, incl.free phones, dev tools, and training, etc

It was later stated that over 1300 developers made contact pretty much straight away, ah the power of social networking and free stuff.

Mango app submissions accepted from this week:

With the final SDK for Mango due for release in September, a new RC development kit has been provided that will allow developers to create apps in English and Japanese. Version 7.1 will include a “Go live” license that will allow developers to publish their Mango ready apps to the marketplace after being recompiled.

The Microsoft advertising SDK will also be included which will allow developers to include ads within their applications.

A test profile has also been provided to allow developers to test their apps before release and this should help to improve the approval speed of newly submitted apps.

It is nice to see that Windows will care about what gets into its marketplace unlike the Android alternative.

Users will still have to wait to use Mango apps:

Even though Mango apps will be able to be pre released into the Windows market place at the back end, people running the pre-release version of Mango will not be able to run them yet and so like the rest of us will have to wait for the final version due out in September, yep, its all moving very fast again in Windows world.

Anyone fancy the deal to build 300 apps for Nokia?

Actually, the gig has already gone to a Canadian outfit called Polar Mobile.

It is however nice to see that Nokia are still thinking to some degree about their existing Symbian users, as the contract will allow for a number of apps to be developed for both Symbian and Meego.

The first 50 apps will actually run on Symbian and will be developed within the next two months.

The remainder will be spread over Meego and Symbian.

It has to be said that HP perhaps should have done more to ensure that their now defunct mobile devices had a chance at becoming powered by a popular app marketplace before being ditched so sharply.

Polar known for churning apps out at incredible speed

Using an approach of one size fits all, Polar mobile appear to release quality applications at an incredible pace, something Nokia admit they need:

Richard White, general manager of Nokia’s Canadian operations says:

“We need to increase [the size of] our app store with quality apps, This is obviously a great way to go about doing that.”

With Nokia playing third fiddle to Samsung and Apple as well as having tough competition from HTC and LG, the recent departure of HP from mobile manufacturing will be some relief as the decision to team up with Windows 7/8 O/S and Microsoft in general is probably the biggest strategic move the firm has made to date.

Lots ride on Nokia’s immediate future

It is astonishing that Nokia have let such a huge advantage in terms of size, power and market share diminish to the point where many people are genuinely unsure if they have what it takes to return to the market they once dominated and be major players.

Question is, can a company produce 300 quality apps in such a short period of time?

I hope Nokia are not just looking at numbers here, as I really do not see much point of adding a few hundred crap applications to their marketplaces, when they have more important things to focus on….keep tuned for more Nokia news.

Apple and Samsung have leapfrogged Nokia to become the Worlds largest manufactures of smartphones.

The findings only go to show just how much Nokia has fallen from grace in the last few months and years.

Apple has had a quite remarkable rise from being a one time PC manufacturer to becoming a global leader in modern mobile communication devices.

“Just four years after the release of the original iPhone, Apple has become the world’s largest smartphone vendor by volume,”

Apple consolidates a healthy 2010 smartphone market share:

Apple now has a market share of some 18.5% this is up from 13.5% last year and is the reason that Apple are now sitting at the top of the Global smartphone market.

The continued rise is not looking likely t abate for some time as analysts have shown that Apple has remained string in the emerging markets of China and Asia, a key territory for any smartphone manufacturer to conquer if they are to remain in the number one spot and something Nokia failed to capitalise after disappointing smartphone product lines were eclipsed by Apple and Samsung offerings.

Samsung sees biggest smartphone rise in market share in 2011:

Samsung saw a huge rise of 12.5& from last years market share and sees them sit pretty with on 17.5% of teh global smartphone market by volume of sales, managing to shift some 19.2 million units compared to Apples 20.3 million units and Nokia’s 16.7 million units.

Nokia slump to third place with 15.2% market share:

Nokia have seen their market share fall from a lofty 38.1% in Q2 2010 to a 3rd ranking 15.2% as we see the smartphone market become dominated in almost equal terms by the power three of Apple, Samsung and Nokia.

Nokia spokesman Doug Dawson spoke recently stating:

“This is a tough year for the company,”

Samsung saw an increase of 520% in the second quarter of 2011 compared to 2010 and with the release of the Samsung S2 eagerly anticipated in the US in August, the likelihood is that Apple and Samsung are going to be at each others ankles for the rest of the year.

Nokia meanwhile need to prey that the marketing budget they are putting behind the release of a new line of Windows enabled phones, is going to be enough to turn peoples heads and more importantly live up to the hype!

Nokia report only second quarterly loss since 1998

The figures right now just do not add up for Nokia, as they recently posted a shortfall of some 368 million euros down from a paltry 227 million operating profit last year, times are not rosy in the Finnish land of Nokia.

Moody’s downgrade Nokia debt

It would seem that more people are paying attention to Nokia’s current woes than just their accountants and shareholders as Moody’s the rating agency downgraded Nokia’s debt by a factor of two notches this month, with the loss in market share being the main reason behind the move, they also stated that this might not be the only move that happens if things do not improve at the firm.

Doug Dawson – Nokia spokesman said:

“We’re in a transition, but it’s a necessary one to put down the foundation for a stronger Nokia,”

Nokia’s Trojan Horse?

With the recent arrival of Stephen Elop as new CEO of Nokia from Microsoft, a shock decision to abandon Nokia’s Symbian operating system for a Windows/Microsoft collaboration had many people wondering what the future was going to hold for Nokia.

The truth is know one is quite sure just yet. But the arrival of Windows Sea Ray could see Nokia really start to claw back the market share that they have lost by shear virtue of having a second class operating system eclipsed by Android and Apple iOS and also Apple and Samsung phones.

Windows “Sea Ray” and “Mango” to the rescue?

Nokia will eventually release their Windows based phone running a Windows 7 Mango update. The phone will be codenamed Sea Ray and will look virtually identical to the N9 , and it is likely to be a success, the only worry I have is that Nokia have confused people so much over the last few years that they will not fully understand that their new O/S of choice (Windows Phone 7/8) will be a worthwhile look in when they are already very happy with Apple and Android O/S.

I think they need to move fast to catch current mobile device drifters, as once a few (three or so) O/S’s enter the market I am unsure there will be room for many more once people get settled with the new options that smartphones offer (apps, video, location based services), so Nokia need to be involved now….and while I am no Microsoft lover, they do have a beast of a games console in the Xbox that could be a great selling point for the new Nokia Windows enabled mobile devices.

So keep your eyes peeled for more news on Nokia’s current ups and downs!

Marketing magazine has suggested that Nokia will not be waiting to see what happens with the new release of Smart Phones with the Windows 7 O/S and will be spending huge £80 million in making sure that a six month campaign gets to as many people as possible and that the phones are indeed a huge success.

With so much resting on Nokia and Microsoft we can fully understand the need to finally bring out the big gins and show the World that the two floundering giants finally mean business.

Nokia may struggle to break even this year with profits and market share down so this project really needs to start bringing in the rewards financially, could this therefore be a last throw of the dice for the Finnish mobile device maker of old?

October 2011 Nokia Windows phone 7 marketing campaign:

The campaign will be set to run from October, and will tie into the soon to be announce Windows Phone on Nokia device

“We are excited about the Nokia with Windows phone, but it’s not our policy to comment on specific campaigns for unannounced products,”

The Nokia Windows partnership is crucial but is far from guaranteed to bring in the riches with an admission earlier this week by Steve Ballmer, that Windows Phone 7’s success in its first year was going from “very small to very small” since its launch. Time will tell what the outcome will be for these seasoned tech giants now they have joined forces.

Nokia N9 – The Last Hope?

In a recent article I talked about Nokia’s new collaboration with Microsoft (Windows 7) and went on to say that it was make or break for the mobile stalwart of old.

Despite the size and brand name associated with the Finnish Giant, the truth is, no one is too large to fail in the modern world of technology and commerce.

Apps make smartphones…smart:

When all said and done a smartphone without apps is pretty dumb, they are the same as the phones that ruled the day only two+ years ago.

Call, text, take a picture and maybe some video.

What applications offer is to customise the phone and enhance its functionality so it becomes your personal smart device.

We all know that customisation is a prized holy grail of any manufacturers especially when it makes you more money, so why have Nokia taken so bloody long to realise that having control of all parts of the production and consumption chain aka “vertical integration” is the way to make the dollars!…see Apple for tips.

Maybe they operate too closely to the PirateBay guys and still feel that there is no money in software or digital assets….wake up!

With the slow and scheduled demise of the Symbian OS, app developers have all but abandoned ship for the Symbian OS as a developers platform for obvious reasons.

With the arrival of the Nokia N9 we see two things happen at Nokia that concern me:

1st – Is the arrival of a “new” operating system for Nokia devices called “Meego”

2nd – We see Nokia team up with Microsoft and produce an even newer operating system for the new Windows/Nokia devices due out soon. Watch exclusive video here of the new Nokia Windows Sea Ray

The question I have for Nokia is what are you going to do about making sure that developers make quality apps for your operating system?

Yes Nokia will include the Apps compliant Qt 4.7 which should allow developers to knock out applications swiftly enough, but as with the Android marketplace (which is in another league to Nokia’s own current equivalent app marketplace) a serious issue of quality and quantity arises.

A lack of Apps is the one big gripe I have over my old iPhone after a recent switch to the Samsung S2, and believe me it is a serious gripe, though I suspect one that will be overcome soon enough given the ubiquity of the Android O/S but will this be the same for Meego or indeed Windows 7?

Lets go back to 1984

It reminds me of a time back in the early 1980’s.

In the UK you had four main choices for a home computer (PC) depending on your budget.

1, Sinclair ZX Spectrum

2, Commodore 64

3, Amstrad CPC

4, Acorn Electron

Now the geeks in the house would tell you that the Acorn Electron was vastly superior in many aspects but vitally missed the extra RAM that the Commodore and Spectrum offered.

But the real issue that faced the Acorn Electron was that they released their hardware too late for the Christmas period even when orders were already in the shops.

As a result, people cancelled and bought something else.

Over a short period of time, games developers/publishers started to work more on the larger selling Sinclair, Amstrad And Commodore PC….this slowed sales of Acorn Electrons as word got out that titles were not being released and eventually the Acorn simply stopped growing and died as it was caught in a vicious circle. Ironic considering the status of the humble Acorn in most peoples mind.

Developers make or break your market:

With Apples app market providing a record 15 billion app downloads as of mid 2011, and Nokia yet to really get going in this space, we worry that it may be too little too late.

Without developers creating quality applications for a smart phone, there is no way that that device will either sell or grow.

Now this kind of situation is deeply hurtful to a manufacturer (BETAMAX v VHS) so it is in Nokia’s best interest to make sure that developers of apps are not messed about too much and that they can EASILY port applications made for the iPhone O/S and Android O/S easily to both MeeGo, and variations of the Symbian O/S and now the Windows 7 operating system.

Damn!! Talk about making everyone confused!…..seriously not the best idea for a manufacturer who is still on the back foot in this brave new world.

And while many will say that the average person in the street will not care about the confusing operating system issue, my own response would be that times are changing, and if bad press or lack of press due to lack of understanding prevails, then Nokia will have a challenge to convince people through the blogosphere that they are worth looking at again, after being so noticeably absent for so long.

If Nokia feel they can just mess around until it suits them then they have seriously misjudged the way things are moving in the smart phone arena.

Now is the time to get a firm position in the high end smart phone arena:

We know that Symbian is still technically the worlds number 2 smart phone O/S but only on technicalities. It’s power and appeal is nowhere near as far ranging as Apples iOS or the Android O/S.

Here is a cool video we produced showing some great smart phone statistics please do tweet and share!

Meego Stay Or Me Go Home Now? The issue of working with two operating systems at once:

So what exactly is MeeGo and is it going to disappear quicker than Symbian now that Microsoft are fully in bed with Nokia?

MeeGo is essentially a combination of two Linux based operating systems, namely Nokia’s Debian-based Maemo and Intel’s Fedora-based Moblin operating systems.

With the departure of the MeeGo team manager for Nokia, Alberto Torres, after the news that Nokia was hooking up with Microsoft, many wondered just how focused Nokia are on keeping the Meego operating system going for future devices.

We know that the Nokia N9 release will utilise the MeeGo O/S but no news has emerged to say if this will be a one off or will continue as a line of phones separate to the ones offered via the windows phone 7 and future 8 operating systems.

And what will happen to support for the O/S in all eventualities?

Well news on the grapevine:

Actually from Twitter and Nokia’s Head of Portfolio Management, Klas Strom who assures us all that support for the Meego O/S will be provided in the future…we hope this is true.

With all this talk of apps, I am at a loss to see why Nokia are being so damn shy about which operating system will stand the test of time now they have hooked up with Windows 7.

Nokia N9 Styling:

Without sounding too harsh on our Finnish friends, Nokia have fallen wayside of the style radar for some time. That is not to say they have become un-stylish per se, but simply because the phones that have been released have all been eclipsed by something sexier or more functional that has caught the eye quicker and for longer, examples include most of the recent Samsung’s, HTC’s Sony’s and of course the iPhone range, we would even say that LG have a smart phone that beats the Nokia N8 both for looks and usability and more importantly would appear to be future proof enough for now, even if users of the LG Optimus complain of a huge lack of updates.

With Nokia’s N9 they have kept the sleek styling we have come to expect of Nokia and design houses of the Northern regions of Europe, utilising the old “form follows function” mentality preferred and originated by the modernist movement of designers and architects of the late 1800’s and early 1900’s that fits so well with items that are used daily and need a smooth functional interface.

Apple have made a success of this with the functionality of the iPhone, copied by competing manufacturers in their droves. Nokia’s method with the N9 is to try to bring something unique to the table with a system they are terming “swipe”….”all it takes is a swipe”….“We wanted to design a better way to use a phone, and it comes down to one simple gesture – a swipe.”

Forgive me but I have basically been doing this with my iPhone and Samsung S2 for 2 years or more.

Ah well, welcome to the new world Nokia, glad to see you back, now take a seat down over there while we get you a stiff f*****g drink, we have a few things to talk about.

The problem with Nokia:

The problem with Nokia and the N9 is that its release comes about at just the time when the Global population has woken up and said, you know what, where have Nokia gone?

People in the know have asked this for ages, and it is only the emerging (less profitable) markets who have kept Nokia phones to their ears for the last two or so years.

So what do Nokia go and do….release another phone with a new operating system that no one has heard of and is more than likely going to go down the pan pretty soon.

Nokia listen up:

Style will usually get you anywhere, but seriously if you dont have any friends in the club in the first place, your fancy new jacket might make you look more of a knob than you intended and while being different is usually cool, if your actually a one trick pony when scratched, your time away from being trendy will become all too apparen’t and you will be laughed back out onto the cold damp street you came in from with a black eye before you can say “swipppppeeeee! that hurt!”.

Seriously, what did you guys do that made you feel like the best way to win over an already happy customer base (with other manufacturers) was to go and confuse them even more?

Personal opinion on Nokia:

I feel that the N9 may well be a bit of a botched effort even though it looks fantastic on paper and that teaming up with Microsoft could put them in a great position with the potential for Xbox integration and the social aspect that can come from this partnership, plus Windows 7 actually looks pretty cool.

We know Nokia can make the best quality phones in the world and the N9 is proof of this on many counts, just ask Apple. Apple have been stealing Nokia’s trademark secrets for ages now.

Though I did pose a question earlier in the article above; Have Nokia missed the boat? Are they better placed to be a world wide R&D centre and sell patents and licenses for new technologies developed?

Well if the next phone (Windows Sea Ray) launched after the much anticipated Nokia N9 does not work financially for Microsoft and Nokia, then it is surely game over for the company in terms of gaining any significant foothold in the smartphone arena any time soon and many will ask why they did not just go for an Android O/S device and get a quality phone out to market way back in 2010 or earlier.

Ah Nokia, who once ruled the mobile device market….surely it’s not game over yet?

We have an almost World exclusive video of the new child of Nokia and Microsoft code named “Sea Ray” it actually looks pretty swish I must say.

Here is the video showing the full leaked video and read our report below:

Sea Ray did you say? I seem to have lost him?

So what has been let out of the bag?

A cat or a……… “Sea Ray!!!”, “Sea Ray!!!” dah dah dah da da da!!….not sure about the name I must say, especially when your Northern European colleague finds it very tough to pronounce…but apparently there are 500 new features!

Nokia starting to get open about their technology:

In a display of openness that you can only give credit to, Stephen Elop – Nokia’s CEO called for an open dialogue within the company, gong on to ask for employees to share experiences and be honest about the products they are developing even if that news may not sit well with everyone.

Adding:

“It is OK to give us the bad news. The pain we suffered just a few weeks ago about the earnings release would not have happened if the people in this company had shared the bad news earlier.”

Look and feel:

On look and feel it seems to resemble a newly released Nokia N9 although it has one tell tale sign that it is a superior model by having another button on its side….assuming that more is better!

Windows 7 Mango

It is also currently running Windows 7 Mango, a nice looking interface that works on the premise that we all want to use “tiles” and not pinch our devices bottoms quite as much.

We have done a report on Windows and Nokia releasing a tablet with Windows 8 as the OS for future Windows devices this is really quite intriguing having only just written that report the other day, it would appear that Windows 7 will be a stop gap before the Windows 8 beast that should tie up all Windows based devices with one OS that integrates better between desktop, laptop, Xbox, smartphone and tablet….time will tell.

Lets take a look at the User Interface an apps that were shown in the “leaked” video:

Xbox integration

Appealing to gamers worldwide, the expected Xbox integration looks OK, nothing to really see from the video, though I personally except this to be a major selling point assuming it is done as well as the actual big daddy Xbox, this I expect to be a given considering what is at stake.

Microsoft Office For Windows 7 Mobile

We can also see that Microsoft have ported their Office suite onto the phone which we hear Microsoft believe is a missing market for Tablet owners….the higher end business user….and assume this will also be a feature on the tablet version running (we assume) Windows 8 in the not too distant future.

British Airways App For Windows 7

Quite a nice little app here and something in deep contrast to its Xbox integration, here Microsoft are trying to widen their appeal by showing off a high end app such as the British Airways app where you can take a virtual tour of your flight and pick your seat…nifty!

We will leave the rest up to you.

Are you looking forward to Nokia and Windows finally entering the Smart Phone market properly; perhaps feeling a little sad that they missed the first real excursion into a truly useful mobile phone experience enjoyed by the likes of Apple, Samsung, HTC, Android, Motorola, RIM etc?

And do you think they will muscle their way in with a unique product and operating system such as Windows 7 on mobile?

Or too little too late?

What is Graphene

Watch and learn with this great video from Yahoo news via mobile inquirer:

Nokia excited about new technology:

At the end of this article I gave food for thought when I suggested that Nokia could focus less on manufacture and more on Research and Development and then licensing, something they have spent a huge amount on in the last 2 decades (over €40 Billion)…and have now found a new paying customer via the courts in Apple.

Lets face it Nokia have possibly got more technology up their sleeves than almost any tech company out there.

But they can not lay claim to Graphene, the white-hot technology that threatens to alter the way we use mobiles completely.

Nokia are however keeping themselves firmly in with the R&D process related to Graphene as part of an EU lead consortium of interested parties, and we hear that Nokia is teaming up with four Nobel laureates: Dr. Konstantin Novoselov, Dr. Andrea Gelm, Dr. A. Fert and Dr. K. von Klitzing to further the technology as part of the Graphene Flagship program.

Graphene – Made in Manchester via Russia and set to probably take over the World.

“Graphene is a flat sheet of carbon, one atom thick; it is almost completely transparent, but also extremely strong and a good conductor of electricity.”

The Nobel Prize in Physics for 2010 was awarded to Konstantin Novoselov and Andre Geim for their work at Manchester University on Graphene.

“for ground-breaking experiments regarding the two-dimensional material Graphene”

Graphene is one of the most exciting materials I have ever seen.

Some amazing facts about Graphene:

Strength – Strongest material ever tested:

It is quite simple a sheet of atoms that you are able to pick up, its inherent strength is like no other material and is reportedly the strongest on the planet.

Weight:

Being the lightest material ever known and not needing as much mass as competitors like poly carbon, and silicon structures or steel to form useful objects, its weight will prove to be hugely beneficial in the production of many things.

Transparency

Professor Tour explains some of its unique transparency properties:

“Another amazing thing about Graphene is that you can see it. You can lay a sheet on a white piece of paper and actually see it. It is amazingly transparent, absorbing just 2.3 percent of light that lands on it, but if you have a blank sheet to compare it to, you can see that it is there.”

That means you can see a single layer of atoms with your naked eye, if they’re made of Graphene.

Elasticity

For a Crystal it is amazingly flexible giving a magnitude of around 20x elasticity, yet it is stiffer than diamond.

Conductivity:

Due to its natural thinness (single atoms) it has the same electro conductivity properties as copper and also an amazing ability to conduct heat due to its light and thin nature, actually holds the record for thermal conductivity and beats diamond yet again.

Electricity:

Just to end Graphene’s parade on a huge high.

Manchester University’s Dr Leonid Ponomarenko points out that Graphene also has

“the highest current density (a million times that of copper) at room temperature; the highest intrinsic mobility (100 times more than in silicon); and conducts electricity in the limit of no electrons”.

This means it can carry more electricity more efficiency, faster and with more precision than any other material known to man.

Possible uses:

As the properties of the material prove to be so truly ground breaking that it compete or betters nearly all properties of current alternatives, so the limit is pretty endless.

For mobile technology:

It easily lends itself to screens and more importantly for the mobile industry; touch screens.

Some say transistors could be revolutionised with Graphene, but there are are some issue due to its highly unique properties, one such issue is its lack of what is termed a band gap.

If you want to use Graphene in transistors, you need what is termed a band gap to provide the isolation necessary if you want it to act as a switch that can be turned off.

It is possible to induce a small band gap in Graphene by doping it. However a bigger gap is needed for technology like transistors, but there is possibly a solution to this over time.

Update on the Band Gap Issue:

Zakaria Moktadir and others at the Nano Research Group at the University of Southampton, UK have created an alteration that aims to mitigate the band gap problem:

A novel Graphene transistor architecture is reported. The transistor has a U-shape geometry and was fabricated using a gallium focused ion beam (FIB). The channel conductance was tuned with a back gate. The I on /I off ratio exceeded 100,000. Previously the best I on / I off ratio was less than 100.

Future of Graphene in flux:

We would like to look further into the possibility’s that Graphene holds but as the material is so new, information related to its potential use is potentially seen as mere pipe dreams, (albeit ones that are very likely to materialise) and as usual we would prefer to inform our readers with a little more scientific merit.

Putting things into perspective:

“One layer of graphite 1mm thick consists of 3 million layers of Graphene stacked on top of one another.”

Take a look at what Samsung’s creative minds think could be a possibility once it is actually brought into production for the mobile industry:

Now apart from the odd 3D part that I can not fully understand how it would work, the actual concept of a fold away mobile phone is actually completely possible as a result of Graphene.

Is this the most amazing material ever invented?…..your thoughts please.

The settlement fee sees Apple pay a one time fee and also royalties on Nokia’s technology.

Nokia’s president and chief executive Stephen Elop is quoted saying:

“We are very pleased to have Apple join the growing number of Nokia licensees.”

As part of the deal Apple and Nokia have agreed to licence technology to each other and drop all existing legal issues in Germany the UK and the US.

Nokia’s fall from power:

In the first quarter Nokia saw its position as the manufacturer generating the most revenue from its phone production fall to Apple.

And with the rise of the Google Android operating system, Nokia will see it’s position come under even greater pressure as firms such as HTC, Motorolla and Samsung capitalise on the demand for SmartPhones, and take advantage of first mover positioning and consequent brand appeal.

Nokia look to monetize its patent technology:

With Nokia having a whole bank of patents and technologies that many manufacturers would love to utilise, the company has started to look at ways it can licence its inherent wireless technology knowledge and patent portfolio on areas such as:

The SmartPhone user interface, power management, antennas and cameras.

Apple already involved with other manufacturers over patent issues:

With Apple corp already involved in litigation with Android manufacturers, Motorola, Samsung and HTC

With Apple essentially accepting that it had stolen certain patents related to mobile technology in the iPhone, the likelihood of Apples competitors having to pay both Nokia and Apple as a result of this recent agreement means that Apples main rivals should be hit in the wallets doubly from the actions taken against them.

It is thought these costs could be even higher than Apples due to the fact that Apple brought considerably more of its own technology to the table than either of the above mentioned manufacturers.

Potentially last ditch partnership with Microsoft for Nokia:

With Nokia partnering with Microsoft to help them bring about a range of devices for the Windows Phone 7 operating system, aimed at competing with Apples iOS and Android based devices, this marriage could see heavy losses or the potential to stem the tide against further ground lost in the SmartPhone arena which both companies have failed to make any serious impressions on in well over two years after the birth of the Smart Phone (a lifetime in technology terms)

Highlighting this risk from Nokia’s perspective is a quote contained in the report called Form 20-F 2010 states:

“If we fail to finalise our partnership with Microsoft or the benefits of that partnership do not materialise as expected, we will have limited our options and more competitive alternatives may not be available to us in a timely manner, if at all,”

Are Nokia better served as a form of mobile technology university or will this business model lead to a potentially precarious future.

Nokia’s past investment in research and development in last 20 years:

In the last 2 decades Nokia has invested a huge €43 billion into research and development and now has one of the mobile industry’s largest portfolios of technology related patents.

Will Nokia end up succeeding with the partnership with Microsoft (we have our doubts, due to late arrival, but do see opportunity with Microsoft’s existing customer base and the potential to sync hardware people may already own such as PC’s and Xbox’s with the new device, time will tell)

Or will they end up as a knowledge based company licensing technology and patents out to mobile phone manufactures, or will the Northern European mobile giant bounce back and lead the way with a new wave of SmartPhones in the near future?