“Our go-forward smartphone platform for CDMA will be Windows” – Nokia US VP

According to an article by Forbes, Nokia will be looking to make CDMA phones in addition to GSM according to USA Vice President and General Manager Mark Slater. This is a change under Elop, helped by the end of the legal battle between Nokia and Qualcomm that holds most CDMA patent.

To succeed in the the US they would initially need to address the CDMA market given the 2nd largest carrier (post the T-Mobile and AT&T merger) is Verizon and 3rd Sprint. Given the expansion of LTE, and the investments all the providers are making, it should not take very long for all carriers to be on the same page and all have SIM cards (yaay!).

Nokia’s latest phone in the NA market, the C7, is an awesome entry. Slater asserts that is not positioned as high, which is apparent with the price but is extremely good value.

Other comments by Mark are below:

Nokia will continue to be very, very aggressive around Symbian even as it adopts Windows Phone and even though Nokia intends to make Windows Phone devices that are more affordable than the current crop. We will have high-end Windows smartphones, but with Nokia’s scale, Windows will have to play in all parts of our portfolio.

Mark Slater, Nokia US VP and GM

Read on for the full article

Rumor: “4 Windows Phone devices + 1 Tablet in Nokia R&D”

According to the infamous Eldar Murtazins tweet, there are 4 Windows Phone devices and 1 Tablet presumably Windows 8 in Nokias labs.
This could of course be true. Nokia is exploring their options for tablets and Microsoft would be a potential partner given their partnership. Of the 4 Windows Phone, Eldar says that 2 devices are Chasis 1 i.e. minimum 1 GHZ processor, capacitive screens and two Chasis 2 devices that are 800 MHz with resistive screens.

I would guess that the high end phones would be released first, followed by thee Chasis 2 phones in 2012. This supports Elops assertion that Windows Phones could be pushed to lower price points very quickly indeed.

Take this with a grain of salt, Eldar was the same guy that said Android is coming on Nokia phones soon and Nokia had no money for a booth at MWC.

Nokia Tablet may not be Microsoft–considering Meego + other alternatives

According to Reuters, Nokia is still considering the OS to use for its Tablet strategy. They have not necessarily decided to go with Windows, and are looking for options including Meego.

If true I would guess it is because there will be no differentiation with all the Windows 8 tablets out there. Going Meego would be interesting but given the talk about it being for ‘future disruption’ only it seems unlikely.

According to the post:

But Nokia wants to get its first tablet right rather than rushing to join the party at this late stage, and hopes to come up with something distinctive that will also help it with strategies for other screens including televisions.

Reading the above, you would wonder why they didn’t stick to Meego since it would unify the phone, car, TV and tablets, much like Android is doing.

Hit the source to read the full article.

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New Footage of Internet Explorer 9 in action

TNW has a video of Internet Explorer 9 SXSW. The footage shows what we glimpsed earlier at MWC. The main change besides the much improved rendering quality is that the address bar is located at the bottom instead of the top. I for one appreciate this, especially when having touch screens as large as the HTC Hd7 and it is of course similar to Maemo and Symbian, but much slicker.

The interface looks as slick as usual but it must be noted though that we can expect other changes since this is an early preview. I hope it isn’t long before we see a multitasking demo with the usual of actual backgrounds not some neon green.

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Paypal App released

Paypal has released their application in the Ovi Store. It is very similar to the Android app and there are some problems with ‘exiting’. But besides that good to know Symbian is still getting love, despite being shelved. Nokia has to make sure the developers are happy in order to ease their transition to the WP platform. Some manufacturers have openly criticized Windows Phone saying it is not popular enough and Microsoft is not ding enough.

Good to see more mainstream applications entering the Ovi Store, curiously on searching the Windows Marketplace I could not find the app.

Head over to here to download now the application now and share your thoughts in the ‘review’ section to give feedback to Paypal.

Windows Phone gripes, thoughts, and suggestions.

2 weeks later these are my gripes, and features I would want added and a wishlist. Please read on to view my longest post yet. 

Nokia getting exclusive WP features only in 2012?

According to smarthouse.com.au, Nokia will be getting ‘exclusive’ Windows Phone Capabilities starting in 2012. These features will be revealed to the world in February of 2012 during MWC.

European Nokia sources, revealed  the OS will include  “several new software upgrades, exclusive functions forNokia phones and software that will not be available for other manufacturers who licence the OS” .

On hearing this, if true, I am happy that Nokia will be getting exclusive, but am also disappointed with the timing. Nokia executives when speaking about Windows Phone, never specified which version, thus we could safely assume it was the next big iteration. When Nokia launches its first WP, it should have this next iteration with the unique capabilities that Nokia will bring. They should not just release a slightly upgraded Windows Phone with ‘mango’ update, that makes Nokia look like any other manufacturer especially when people are doubting the partnership. The 1st NWP device needs to speak for itself, i.e. show the partnership was worth it.

Nokia is going to release a WP with the aim of 2011, but it could be 2012 1st Quarter. Their main priority should not be to get some WP out ASAP, it should be to get a a compelling experience, with the aim of instilling confidence in all the ‘doubters’ by the updates and UI changes specifically for Nokia users to help them transition from Symbian.

Having used 2 WP devices I can attest to it being a beautiful experience, however there are severe, severe limitation. I will have a post coming about the applications I want WP to have coming from Symbian, the features, the changes, and other UI niggles which need to be changed to actually make it a smooth transition.

So stay tuned and hope that when Nokia does release its 1st WP its actually their own ‘exclusive’ version, not the current version. In its current version most Symbian users will be perplexed with many of the gaping holes in the platform that Symbian/Maemo users enjoy every single day.

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Dell Venue Pro Impressions

I received the Dell Venue Pro a few days ago. After using the HD7 I really did not like the hardware, it was too big, flat, easy to drop and felt cheap. In addition I needed a QWERTY keyboard my one criteria, I hate using virtual keyboards they are far too easy to mistype on, impossible to use without looking at the screen, and just a painful experience compared to hardware keyboards.

Nokia launches Chat for Symbian S60 5.0..Symbian 3 forthcoming

Nokia has launched the Nokia chat application for S60 5.0 finally. This application has been forthcoming for a long, long time and its about time really. It is still surprising that the Nokia N8 manual had references to chat, yet it still does not have the application available months after its launch.

Hope it is worth the wait for people.

Here are some screen shots. It is available for download here.

The interface looks much improved. Having used the N8 I always wanted something that feels more ‘native’ and cohesive with the UI, like the N900, but Fring, Numbuzz etc are not satisfactory especially coming from the N900. This applications seems much better, with better home screen integration and a nice UI. I like how Google Talk, Yahoo, Ovi chat,  and MSN Live Messenger are part of the chat app. All extremely popular good to see it is not limited to Ovi chat.

In addition, I believe the reason for the delay for the Symbian 3 update would be waiting for PR 2.0, which amongst many other things would include the split keyboard, which is one my BIGGEST gripes with chat on Symbian 3.

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Nokia C7 coming as Astound to T-Mobile: $79

Tmonews is reporting that the Nokia C7 will be coming to  the US as the Nokia Astound on the 6th of April for $79.99 after mail in rebate.

In addition, they have information that there will be 4 more Nokia Symbian devices launching this year, which is actually quite surprising.

We can expect the launch this Monday evening at CTIA for the Astound, and is rumored to launch with PR 2.0. This should be a much more refined user experience with the split keyboard, and surely with more ‘eye candy’ effects. Plus PR 3.0 is coming which should be good, I think this is a good way to ensure Nokia brand becomes more visible in the US before the WP devices come.

Look forward to hearing about the new Symbian phones, if there are 4 for the US market they are part of the 20 Symbian devices Nokia is expected to launch this year.