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Nokia's internal presentation after iPhone was launched (2007) [pdf]

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Re: Nokia's internal presentation after iPhone was launched (2007) [pdf]

#301

Post by tzs »

whis-kiss wrote: post #87
wodenokoto wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In all fairness, Apple didn't expect the market to want giant phones, and were very late with big screens. Releatedly: It's fun to look at old Futurama episodes, where they joke about phones becoming so small you accidentally inhale them while talking. We all really thought size was going one way and that was down.

Well it is annoying as a 6ft 2 guitar player(I'm saying I have big flexible hands) I still need both hands to do most phone things, like type this. My Galaxy 5 and 6 were the last the worked well one handed. The "small" phones available are still larger than those most of the time! Guess the demand just isn't there, tho I wish some were still available. Can't imagine how tiny ladies with small hands deal.

Being a 6'2" tall guitar player doesn't actually say big hands. There is some correlation between hand size and height, but plenty of variation. I'm a 6'1" tall guitar player and I have small hands.

Here's an interesting paper on hand size and height: Guerra, R., Fonseca, I., Pichel, F. et al. Hand length as an alternative measurement of height. Eur J Clin Nutr 68, 229–233 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2013.220.

Here's what they did:

> A cross-sectional study was conducted using a consecutive sample of 465 inpatients (19–91 years), from a university hospital. Participants were randomly divided into a development sample of 311 individuals and a cross-validation one. A linear regression model was used to formulate the equation. Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) for single measures and differences between measured height (MH) and PH and between BMI calculated with MH (BMIMH) and with PH (BMIPH) were determined.

and here were the results:

> The regression equation for PH is: PH (cm)=80.400+5.122 × hand length (cm)—0.195 × age (years)+6.383 × gender (gender: women 0, men 1) (R=0.87, s.e. of the estimate=4.98 cm). MH and PH were strongly correlated, ICCs: 0.67-0.74 (PHere's that regression equation in easy to read form, where H is the predicted height in cm, H is hand length in cm, G is 0 for women and 6.383 for men, and A is age in years:

  H = 80.400 + 5.122 L - 0.195 A + G
Plugging in my H, A, and G and solving for L I get 21.8 cm. My actual hand size is 19.5 cm.

Going the other way, from my hand size, age, and gender my predicted height is 5'8".

Re: Nokia's internal presentation after iPhone was launched (2007) [pdf]

#302

Post by jayelbe »

badgersnake wrote: post #247
john61 wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Linux based Nokia N900 was the best phone I ever owned. With a bit of polish, finish and maturity it could have also been the best phone for the masses. RIP.

The follow up N9 was that. It was great. Elop canned it. I had to import one from Australia. It was totally worth it.

I miss my N9 so badly! Without a doubt the best phone I've ever owned.

Re: Nokia's internal presentation after iPhone was launched (2007) [pdf]

#303

Post by qingcharles »

jillesvangurp wrote: post #93

I was there as this played out. Nokia had a lot of good software and software engineers but not the management structure to do anything good with that. Nokia was huge as an organization and parts of that organization recognized the threat early on. The problem was at the board and executive level. These people had a blind spot for software. They thought they were still in the electronics business. Lots of people with…

I was working externally for Nokia around 2004~2006. They were already competing with Apple at this point. Nokia were scared by the iPod and the Rokr. They wanted to secure the mobile and online music market. They were trying to beat Apple at iTunes, to the point where they gobbled up one of Apple's biggest competitors in the music space (OD2-Loudeye).

When the iPhone launched it showed Nokia was woefully behind. All their devices instantly felt like they were from a previous age.

Delaware State Lost Property says I still have a bunch of Nokia shares to collect apparently lol

Re: Nokia's internal presentation after iPhone was launched (2007) [pdf]

#304

Post by kawsper »

afavour wrote: post #227
jillesvangurp wrote: post #93

I was there as this played out. Nokia had a lot of good software and software engineers but not the management structure to do anything good with that. Nokia was huge as an organization and parts of that organization recognized the threat early on. The problem was at the board and executive level. These people had a blind spot for software. They thought they were still in the electronics business. Lots of people with…

I had a Nokia Symbian phone, the 7610. I loved how 'quirky' it was: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_7610#/media/File:Nokia76... and I was able to download an NES emulator for it! I remember playing Mario 3 on my way to my first post-university job. I really felt like I was living in the future compared to the phones others had. And then Symbian just... never got better. I was ambivalent about the MS purchase of N…

The N-series were great too, I loved both my N73 and later a N82, both with Gameboy emulators.

I also bought a Garmin license where I could install Garmin on my Symbian phone to do car navigation on my phone, this was at a time where most people had specific hardware for GPS navigation, now we're used to having apps on our phones, but it felt quite special back then!

Re: Nokia's internal presentation after iPhone was launched (2007) [pdf]

#306

Post by EtienneK »

When things like this pop up, I always think back to Joel Spolsky's review of the Nokia E71 and how he compared it to the iPhone 3G: https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2008/08/22/a-review-of-the-no...

The E71 was arguably Nokia's best phone ever; and it was indeed better than the iPhone 3G. But Nokia just couldn't keep up the momentum.

Re: Nokia's internal presentation after iPhone was launched (2007) [pdf]

#307

Post by kbouck »

Worked at Nokia when iPhone was released. No strategy/management insight, but I recall the jokes made by my colleagues as I showed off my iPhone 1:

"Cool, but can it make phone calls"

On internal message boards, some employees advocated staying loyal to Nokia products, and others advocated buying the best product (iPhone) to challenge Nokia.

Wish they had navigated this one better...

Re: Nokia's internal presentation after iPhone was launched (2007) [pdf]

#309

Post by silvestrov »

AlanYx wrote: post #125
anonu wrote: post #29

I was expecting sort of the opposite, for Nokia to deride the whole iPhone thing. But it was quite the opposite, they understand what they were facing. Ultimately, the could not meet the challenge fast enough.

>they understand what they were facing Parts of the deck suggest that they didn't fully understand what they were facing. For example, the bullet "scaling the user experience to lower HW specs may be challenging. iPhone mini may be closer to iPod UI" comment still suggests they were stuck in the mindset of the time. They thought it was unlikely that Apple could deliver a horizontal platform, rather Apple would be lau…

also that most of the deck is about the hardware.

There is almost no understanding of the software needed for an iPhone UI.

Re: Nokia's internal presentation after iPhone was launched (2007) [pdf]

#310

Post by rescbr »

delusional wrote: post #215
jorvi wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If memory serves, it was a custom kernel and OS, then a semi-custom kernel with a few OS components shared with Windows 8, and then the Windows 10 'core' kernel (same as on the Xbox One?) with many shared OS components. At each step they left the majority of devices behind. What was equally worse was the triple (quadruple?) switch of app frameworks. If I remember correctly it was a dotnet abomination, then ?? then WP…

As I recall it, calling Windows Phone "buttery smooth" is quite an overstatement. I remember it looking drab dull and cheap at the time.

I had two Lumia flagship phones - Lumia 800 with Windows Phone 7 and Lumia 930 with Windows Phone 8 (which I later upgraded to 10).

Both look and feel awesome, not cheap at all. At the time, Microsoft were paying developers to port apps to Windows Phone. There were developers who took the effort to make their app look native, and I'd say Windows Phone 7 had the best UX to this day.

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