Nokia To Launch Two Budget MeeGo Smartphones?

If you’ve never played around with the Nokia N9, the only MeeGo handset on the market, then you’re missing out. It’s one of those handset that geeks everywhere get a little nostalgic about because it MeeGo really was a great operating system. According to an industry insider Nokia is working on 2 new low end MeeGo handsets, and information was recieved directly from Nokia’s Next Billion Group.

Since Nokia’s partnership with Microsoft, the company has essentially been divided into two groups, one focused on Windows Phone and the Next Billion Group who is reponsible for the S40 & Asha lines. The two groups have completely different tasks, the Windows team obviously keeps Microsoft happy and the Next Billion Group is tasked with creating low costs handsets which will likely be the first place that they will access the internet. Even though Windows Phone has the budget Lumia 610, Windows Phone isn’t the capable of being a low cost handset for a few different reasons.

The big question is “Why would Nokia still care about Meego?”

The most obvious reason is that Windows Phone just can’t compete in the low end smartphone game. First there is the operating system which isn’t free, that alone drives up the price. If we take a look at the latest budget Windows phone the Lumia 610, it is a 256mb devices and some features are being disabled because the device just doesn’t have the available RAM.

Let’s keep on looking at Nokia’s other operating system options, there is also their S40 java based devices aka the new Asha line. This line up of handsets haven’t exactly received stellar sales numbers. One of the reasons the line isn’t performing as well is that the touch experience isn’t competitive. When you’re competing on price point it’s often about packing in as many features as possible and if you go up against similarly priced Android handsets there it is really no contest.

Nokia could also use Symbian, expect they can’t, Symbian is now run by Accenture so they don’t have control over the Symbian device roadmaps which is aimed at high end phones. So we’re going to see the same problems here as in Windows Phone 7 and the base cost of fully functioning feature rich handset are going to be too high.

MeeGo is also a lot more adaptable than Windows Phone, its roots are in open source. PhoneNews raises some good points around MeeGo, if we think about where the next billion handsets are coming from they are going to be in areas where solar power charging may be more important than ten-point multitouch. MeeGo can also work with monochrome or e-ink display’s and the Windows Phone platform restrictions would shoot down the innovation that Nokia will need to drop smartphone technology in places where it cannot thrive today.

Meego CE Summer Edition on Nokia N900:


Nokia N9 MeeGo Smartphone - Full Presentation with all Slides:

Nokia Lumia 610 To Feature WiFi Hotspot

Nokia announced the new Nokia Lumia 610 at last months MWC, and the device is the companies first budget Windows Phone device, although it looks like it will come with a feature that some of the more expensive Nokia Windows Phone devices don’t have.

Nokia have listed the device on their website, and it looks like it will have a WiFi hotpsot feature that will let you share the handsets connection with up to five devices. As a reminder the Nokia Lumia 610 features 3.7 inch WVGA capacitive LCD touchscreen display which has a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels, plus a single core Qualcomm Snapdragon S1 800MHz processor, 256MB of RAM and 16GB of built in storage.

Other specifications on the Nokia Lumia 610 include a 5 megapixel camera with auto-focus and an LED flash, plus a 1300 mAh battery and it will be available some time this quarter.

Nokia Lumia 610 Windows Phone live demo:

Nokia Lumia 800 Now Available In The US

The Nokia Lumia 800, which launched in Europe at the end of last year is now available in the US, although it is only available as a bundle deal and can only per purchased from Microsoft stores in the US. There are only around 16 Microsoft stores in the US, which could mean it would be hard to get your hands on the device, unless you live near one of the stores.

The device is available SIM free, but can only be purchased as part of a package, which will cost you $899, and the package includes a Nokia Play 360 wireless speaker, a Purity HD Stereo headset and an in ear Bluetooth headset. As a reminder the Nokia Lumia 800 comes with a 3.7 inch AMOLED ClearBlack touchscreen display with a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels, and it comes with Windows 7.5 Mango, processing is provided by a single core 1.4GHz processor.

The Nokia Lumia 800 also features a 8 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, a dual led flash and auto-focus, it can record HD video in 720p, there is also 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1, HSDPA, HSUPA and it uses the new micro SIM card instead of a standard SIM card. Have a look at our Nokia Lumia 800 review to see what we thought of Nokia’s first Windows Phone device.

Nokia Lumia 800 Windows Phone:

Nokia Lumia 800 getting update for its camera

The camera on the back of the Nokia Lumia 800 is supposed to be taking great pictures. After all, it has an 8MP sensor and a Carl Zeiss-certified lens. But something is not working out right and Nokia's Damian Dinning sent out a tweet to say that an update is coming although there is no specific date in mind. Last month, when Nokia stated that an update had repaired a problem that the phone was having with the battery, the Finnish based manufacturer admitted that there was an issue with the camera and that it would not be overlooked.

Apparently the problems with the camera are a software issue which is why Nokia is hopeful that this update on the way will allow the camera to reach its full potential. Late last month, word started leaking out about problems that Nokia Lumia 800 users were having with settings to the camera.

Recently we told you about a camera cowboy shootout between the shooters on the Nokia Lumia 800, the Sony Xperia S, the Samsung Galaxy S II and the Apple iPhone 4S. The Lumia 800's camera made a good showing, but finished behind the Sony Xperia S as far as how quickly the camera app took to open on the phone.

Nokia Lumia 800 Windows Phone 7.5 smartphone live hands-on:

Nokia N9 might dual-boot into ICS soon

The first and only MeeGo smartphone, the Nokia N9, might soon turn into an Android device. Well, if you’re into some hacking - Alexey Roslyakov of the NITDroid team has posted a picture of ICS running on the Nokia N9. The title is “progress” and even though it’s still just an early build with its fair share of issues, it seems that work is advancing.

The NITDroid team is also working on porting Android 4.0 to the good old Maemo-running N900. Now, one thing that’s particularly great about the combination of a Nokia N9 and MeeGo is the combination of a device with no physical buttons with an operating system that requires none. The handset also sports a fairly large 3.9-inch display, so you’d have some extra space for the navigational controls.

Finally, Roslyakov mentions that you can put your worries aside when it comes to MeeGo on the N9 and Android - both operating systems could run in a dual-boot setup in the future. Here’s to hoping.

Nokia N900 dual booting Maemo 5 and Android:

Nokia Belle update finally starts reaching Symbian handsets today Nokia Belle update finally starts reaching Symbian handsets today

After a long wait, Nokia Belle, the second major update to Symbian^3, starts rolling out to handsets today, Nokia announced in its official blog. The update finally makes Symbian look much more like a contemporary operating system with matching visuals, 6 home screens, a new drop down menu a la Android, neat widgets with a huge clock a la HTC Sense, better maps and plenty of other novelties.

Functionality is also improved, with faster browser with a cleaner UI, imaging applications supporting 720p video recording at 30fps and simpler menus. A couple of Microsoft apps like Lync and OneNote will also soon be made available. The Nokia Symbian Belle update is available now for the following models:

Nokia N8, Nokia E7, Nokia E6, Nokia X7,Nokia C6-01,Nokia C7 or Nokia Oro.

The only handset that will need to wait a bit is the Nokia 500. Nokia Belle will be available for it in the coming weeks. The update is available in pretty much all major Nokia markets - in Europe that’s the UK, Russia, Germany, etc. As to the updating process itself, it’s pretty straightforward, and there’s even a step by step guide at Nokia’s official blog, so hit it below to get the instructions and let us know how it all went in the comments below.

Nokia Belle Update - same phone, new experience:

Nokia shakes up Board of Directors after mixed quarter, difficult year

Nokia’s Q4 numbers came out this morning, and they’re a mixed bag, although the bad outweighs the good. More important Nokia has had a terrible year – one that was worse than the already bad numbers they projected at the beginning of 2011. To a large degree that can be attributed to poor management – they announced that Symbian was on an end of life schedule several quarters before they had a replacement line ready, leading to a crash in market share. When the Meego-powered N9 proved popular with reviewers, Nokia intentionally restricted its market reach so it wouldn’t compete with their WP7 products.

Even the adoption of Windows Phone – which makes some strategic sense, especially given the amount of cash Microsoft was willing to pay for Nokia’s friendship – even that created some initial skepticism in Nokia’s traditional markets in Europe, where Microsoft’s brand name is met with greater skepticism than in North America.

All that would be fine if Nokia’s sales were on fire now, but apparently Nokia isn’t out of the woods yet; they refused to provide guidance for 2012, stating instead that it will be yet another transition year, “during which our devices-and-services business will be subject to risks and uncertainties.”

What do you do when times are rockier than you thought, and the road back to growth is longer than expected? You shake up management, and that’s what has happened on Nokia’s Board of Directors. Three board members will step down, including Chairman Jorma Ollila, who has been on the board since 1985. Board members Bengt Holmström and Per Karlsson will also stand down.

2012 will be absolutely vital to Nokia’s chances at survival in the mobile industry. We know that Microsoft plans to pump hundreds of millions of dollars into marketing, and we may see some truly cutting-edge Windows Phone devices in Q4 when Apollo hits. Hopefully Nokia’s executives and new board members can guide them through to better times.

If not, shuffling board members may be as useful as rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.

Nokia was the top handset manufacturer in 2011 says report

According to a new report from Strategy Analytics, not only did the Apple iPhone recapture the global smartphone lead with an amazing fourth quarter of 2011, it also achieved its highest all-time marketshare amongst all mobile phones worldwide. With 8.3% of the global marketplace for all mobile phones, Apple trailed frontrunners Nokia (25.5%) and Samsung (21.3%). For the entire year, Apple is said to have sold 93 million copies of the Apple iPhone for a 6% slice of the pie.

Nokia shipped 417.1 million handsets in 2011, including 113.5 million in Q4 alone. According to the report, the Finnish based manufacturer was led by its dual-SIM powered low-end models in Southeast Asia. Initials shipments of the Windows Phone packed Nokia Lumia did not make up for the decline in Symbian powered models. With 327.4 million handsets sold in 2011, Korea's Samsung was number two with a 21.1% share for the year. For the last three months of 2011, Samsung sold 95 million units for a 21.3% marketshare. The company was led by its popular Samsung Galaxy S II unit.

Nokia celebrates the sale of the 1.5 billionth Series 40 phone

Phones like the Lumia 900 or the N9 may be the ones that get their name in the news most often, but the backbone of Nokia is their Series 40 lineup. Today, S40 phones reached an impressive milestone - 1.5 billion (yes, with a b) of them have been sold.

The 1.5 billionth Series 40 phone sold was a Nokia Asha 303 to a 21-year-old woman in Sao Paulo, Brazil. We're not quite sure if it’s a lucky coincidence or just good marketing, but the Asha 303 is the flagship of the current S40 phones.

It's a far cry from the firstborn Series 40 phone, the Nokia 7110, which first went on sale in the distant 1999. Since then, S40 has added a touchscreen, Wi-Fi connectivity, 1GHz processors, Nokia Maps and other goodies to its repertoire.

Nokia actually go as far as calling the platform "Smartphone Lite". While we're not ready to call it that, the Asha 303 did come pretty close.

Either way, congratulations to Nokia and the S40 platform. Before it blows out the candle, we'll make a silent wish for multitasking, document viewer and perhaps smart dialing. And who knows, a full-touch S40 phone may be in the cards too.