Why I Think Nokia Should Offer Paid Upgrades to S60 V3 FP2
Kirollos Fares | March 14, 2008
Nokia is regarded as the largest cellphone-manufacturing company in the world, but it’s after purchase phone support doesn’t match it’s elite role in the cellphone market.
Some phones get tens of firmware updates (like the N73 that got updated to v4.0808.4.2.2), some get frequent updates ( like the N95-1), and some don’t get any updates at all ( like the N95-3, and that’s pissing off a lot of people for example Ricky Cadden).
It’s very clear that Nokia’s main goal is achieving the highest profit, no one can’t blame them for that, But sometimes the customer is deeply hurt by such policy, Their way of handling Phone releases and updates really prove the fact, like releasing N95-2 “N95 8GB” in the US, and few months after that announcing it’s US variant, Couldn’t just Nokia announce both phones at the same time?! “If they need the extra 10,000 unit sale, maybe they should think of releasing Egypt Variant! yes, Egypt variant Nseries devices with no GPS on board, but that’s not the point here”
Nokia doesn’t seem to upgrade all the specs in one phone, it gradually updates their specs in each phone to keep customers hungry for more, and subsequently selling more phones, That doesn’t mean that Nokia’s lineup is an oldy one, They have got the best equipped devices, but Nokia is capable of creating devices much better than last announcement’s phones “N96, N78″.
Nokia’s new firmware releases rarely have anything new, and most of the firmware updates are for bug fixes only unlike other manufacturers, I can’t believe I’m saying this, But Apple really leads the market on after-purchase support, each new firmware version of the iPhone has lots of new tweaks, updates and tons of applications and options, If we take Microsoft for example, when it released new Zune models with brand new Menu structure, it updated previous Zunes, and didn’t keep ‘em with their sluggish menu, And that’s what I want Nokia to do, to offer the opportunity of expanding the possibilities and performance of current S60 V3 FP1 devices by enabling paid upgrades to S60 V3 FP2, Which is said to have major new options, Graphic interface and most importantly, Better usage of power.
Offering a Paid option of upgrading to S60 V3 FP2 for Users will be one hell of a give and take deal, Nokia will profit from the increasing number of customers that don’t afford to get the N96, but can pay an extra dime for that new S60 Version.
Finally, Don’t expect to hear about this from Nokia, They are not going to do such procedure, It’s just fantasies by me
Oh, how much I wish that would happen... And btw, you
Vlad | March 15, 2008Oh, how much I wish that would happen…
And btw, you forgot to mention WM devices that are several years old and still get updates from WM5 to WM6.
S60 seems to become the only platform that doesn’t allow such updates. And that’s just plain stupid, if you ask me.
If you want to become an Internet company, focused on after-purchase services more than on selling phones, than what you need are loyal and satisfied customers. The kind you don’t necessarily get if you change the OS once every year or even sooner (not that that’s a bad thing in itself) and make people buy new devices that are similarly specced to what they already own just for the software update.
It’s a freaking SOFTWARE update. Hardware updates, they don’t seem to be doing anymore (if you don’t count the STM platform for the N96, even if I’m not yet sure whether that’s an upgrade or a downgrade). Maybe they should start working on the software part.
@Vlad Totally agree, they suckk when it comes to software updates
Kirollos Fares | March 15, 2008@Vlad
Totally agree, they suckk when it comes to software updates “excluding demand paging and Flash lite 3, Thanks Nokia for that”.
Man, I’ll pay 50 bucks to have S60 V3 FP2 on my device, what about ya vlad??
I'm not following your comparisions, allthough Symbian is considered an
Dennis | March 16, 2008I’m not following your comparisions, allthough Symbian is considered an Operating System, it’s not that flexible as others. Nokia has it’s updates mainly on fixing problems, no problems, no updates. Allthough Nokia does release feature updates as AGPS and some others, it’s not their market, talk about two Operating System Giants like Microsoft and Apple, and how good they manage their stuff, it’s simply because they choose to focus on the OS, because they are builders of that, they simple ask people to invent hardware to install their OS on.
Nokia runs the apropriate Symbian version on the hardware it can support. Having the FP2 on my N80 would be fun, but how usefull would it be? Asking for auto-rotation in the firmware is useless, it’s nice to have a dream, but that would mean you could ask for any usefull 3rd party app to be included. It’s not do-able, but that’s why it will let you install 3rd party apps in the first place, to fix minor problems with certain aspects, like key-locking, profiles, SIP stuff etc.
And the nice thing about 3rd party apps is that most of them like you to pay for it. So wish granted I guess.
I love your site, but this was the first post I just did not agree too. Keep up the posts though!
@Dennis When it comes to Mobile platforms, Nokia by far leads
Kirollos Fares | March 16, 2008@Dennis
When it comes to Mobile platforms, Nokia by far leads all manufacturers and OS Makers, 90-95% of symbian phones are sold by Nokia, And Symbian has 67% Market share, while Windows Mobile has 10% of the market share.
If you’re talking about how the hardware can handle that extra Version of the OS, it is notable that Nokia didn’t change any thing significant related to hardware in the upcoming FP2 Phones “N78, N96, 6650, 6210, 6220c”, And FP2 stands for Feature Pack 2, It’s not completely a new version of S60, it just offers new things in the SOFTWARE, and better handling of hardware and power, which is something all FP1 Devices “As its hardware is much like FP2 Devices ” need.
And not all 3rd Pary apps solve problems relating to the OS, Myself, I prefer things to be embedded in the software.
And when it comes to auto-rotation, It depends on a hardware chip called an accelerometer, something present in FP1 Devices “N95, N95 8GB, N82″, While the capability of auto rotation is added only to N82’s software, Why?! Is it because the 2 N95 are double slider phones??! No, Nokia will add auto-rotation feature to the double slider N96!
[...] Kirollos over at TheN95Blog has an interesting solution, that
Paid Upgrades Could Be Solution For FP2 On Older Devices | March 16, 2008[...] Kirollos over at TheN95Blog has an interesting solution, that Nokia should offer OS upgrades on a paid basis. The general assumption (shared by yours truly) is that it would be entirely too expensive, both in time and money, for Nokia/S60 to develop a version of the new Feature Pack for every older handset. Also, where do you draw the line? Do only S60v3 Feature Pack 1 devices get the update to Feature Pack 2, or do all S60v3 handsets? Also, what about when Feature Pack 3 comes out? update them all over again, even if sales are slowing for the older handsets? Thus, a paid update *should* cover most of the issues. [...]
[...] As a solution to this problem, Kirollos at The
Less Hardware, More Software « Skyre’s Blog | March 16, 2008[...] As a solution to this problem, Kirollos at The N95 Blog proposed that Nokia should offer newer feature packs to older devices at a price. That way, poor [...]
Awesome post. I was actually thinking just this morning that
Skyre | March 16, 2008Awesome post. I was actually thinking just this morning that I might not mind having to pay for feature pack upgrades, and then I saw this post.
I definitely wouldn’t mind paying big bucks for a software update if it included some killer features, like demand paging for instance.
@Skyre Thanks, but FP1 already features demand paging, Nokia is releasing
Kirollos Fares | March 16, 2008@Skyre
Thanks, but FP1 already features demand paging, Nokia is releasing it in every new firmware version of Nseries devices, no words about Eseries.
Yeah, I was talking about demand paging for E-Series as
Skyre | March 17, 2008Yeah, I was talking about demand paging for E-Series as my phone is an E61i.
Paying for a feature pack upgrade would be a nice
Dennis | March 22, 2008Paying for a feature pack upgrade would be a nice option to have, but if it would work on all the “older” hardware, why isn’t it possible to have a firmware upgrade of the N96 over your N95.. it all has to do with a lot of extra work per handsettype, something Nokia does not focus on, new features on a new phone, not an old one. It’s commerce, don’t blame nokia for wanting to stay the world leader. I’m really thinking of switching to the Sony-Ericsson Experia X1, just because I find the N96 and the other new handset not that innovating, that’s the way to teach Nokia that things should be done differently, don’t buy it, until they make a new handset that does have, for instace a much better battery, a higher resolution screen, all kinds of screen rotation options in the firmware and much more of our wishes.
By the way, Nokia has done a very nice job of bringing firmware updates to the N-Series, so that you don’t have to go to your Nokia dealer every 3 months for an update, also don’t forget the software Nokia is releasing themselves, allowing us to have 3rd party tools use the accelerometer. Sporttracker with integrated stepcounter is something they made as well and they are allowing use to profit from it in Beta fase. So they are learning fast and who knows how version 10 of the symbian OS will be like. I hope that is by the time my X1 is technically old fashioned.