Nokia Blogged, Nokia news, reviews information and more

It has been quite a week for Finnish mobile phone manufacturer Nokia as sales results have been released, the upcoming Nokia N8 gets delayed once more and the folks at Espoo react to Apple’s statements last week regarding antenna issues with mobile phones.

The financial reports for Nokia show that sales are actually up compared to last year. Nokia’s devices are still very much in demand, however, prices for mobile phones are going down and the report also showed that despite selling more devices, Nokia actually made less in terms of profits. Since Nokia manufactures large volumes of mid to low end devices, it is not surprising that they are making less money now. Of course, Nokia will eventually be shifting most of its production capabilities to smart phones.

Smart phones such as the Symbian^3 N8 handset which was supposed to come out last April; the device has been delayed and while Nokia says it will be out ‘soon’, no one has yet to give out specific details. Earlier reports hinted at a possible launch next week -though judging from the fact that network operators are only offering pre-registrations for the handset instead of pre-orders, it is possible that the device might not be released until next month.

In the meanwhile, Nokia is ignoring Apple’s recently uploaded video of the N97 Mini which showed symptoms similar to the antenna issue that the iPhone 4 is suffering from. Nokia has already given a public statement regarding Apple’s emergency conference last week and stated that their mobile phones’ antenna technology is both stable and reliable.

Considering that the N97 Mini has already been out for a while and it has not had any complaints about dropped calls, then there is no need for Nokia to make a further statement regarding the issue.

Nokia antenna, Apple, Nokia, Nokia-N8, Nokia-n97-mini, Symbian-3

Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia is a pretty well established company in the industry, and this week, they are certainly changing the way people are seeing their company.

Most recently, a new Nokia concept phone design has been unveiled, the Kinetic. This interesting new smart phone may look a little odd with the slightly bulky lower body (though the rest of the handset is relatively slim). This mass below the device is actually what gives it a special feature: when the handset is laid flat on a table, it will stand upright to inform users of an incoming call, message, alert or any other important phone function.

Designed by Jeremy Innes-Hopkins, the Kinetic is a pretty impressive handset in the way that it makes use of electromagnetic technology to change the way weight is distributed below the handset –which allows the device to turn upright. There is also one other feature to the handset as well: users can give the device a slight nudge, and the phone will gently flop back on the table –this will cancel any alerts or dismiss any incoming calls.

Nokia has also responded to Steve Jobs’ comment that the antenna issue is a challenge to the entire mobile phone industry and that “all phones are equal”. Nokia has stated that their mobile devices do not suffer from the same antenna issues as the iPhone 4. Nokia is not the only mobile phone company to express a similar viewpoint: Motorola has also released a similar statement. Naturally, RIM, Samsung and HTC –whom Apple individually pointed out, have also reacted similarly to the issue.

Lastly, the Nokia N8 is expected to hit UK stores in a matter of days. Vodafone UK announced that the device will be available in the span of a week while T-Mobile UK’s official website is already offering pre-registrations for the Symbian^3 smart phone.

N-series, Nokia antenna, Apple-iPhone-4, Nokia, Nokia-kinetic, Nokia-N8, Steve-Jobs, Symbian-3, T-Mobile, Vodafone

While it is pretty much expected that mobile phone users would be more interested in the Apple iPhone 4 than any other handset (since smart phone just came out a couple of weeks ago), it is surprising how much Nokia’s public ratings has gone down.

According to an independent study by YouGov, the number of people interested in getting a Nokia handset has gone down by at least 12%. Only 34% of phone buyers are considering getting a Nokia.

While the drop is mostly attributed to Apple’s new iPhone launch, but many also believe that Nokia has failed to keep public interest in their devices by failing to come up with truly innovative handsets in the past few months. With most of Nokia’s mobile phones still concentrating on the low end users, many high end smart phone users pass up Nokia devices in favor of phones from LG, Samsung, HTC and other big name phone manufacturers.

The Espoo based company needs to ramp up its game. Not only is Nokia currently the largest phone manufacturer in the world, they are also the most eco-friendly (with Sony Ericsson ranking in second place) as reported by Greenpeace.

Nokia has previously led the industry by setting new standards for mobile phone makers. Also, the close ties between the Finnish phone maker and the Symbian foundation has led to the creation of several iconic devices as well. Unless they are able to come up with a phone that is truly able to compete with the Android, iOS and Windows Phone 7, Nokia stands to lose plenty of ground in the next generation of smart phones.

This means that the upcoming Nokia N8 which uses the new launched Symbian^3 OS and the Nokia N9 which uses MeeGo which was developed by both Intel and Nokia are going to determine what happens to the company in the next few months.

Nokia Apple, Apple-iPhone-4, eco-friendly, Google-Android, MeeGo, Nokia, Nokia-N8, Nokia-N9, Symbian, YouGov

Before the official worldwide launch of the Nokia N8, a prototype unit has found its way to the hands of a Russian journalist. Much like what happened with the iPhone 4 prototype, the mobile phone maker (this time, Nokia) was not happy to lose one of its units. This time around, instead of a covert raid of the journalist’s home, Nokia has openly contacted the Russian police in order to track down the missing pre-release device.

Eldar Murtazin, journalist from Mobile-Review.com, has written a poor review of the upcoming mobile phone. With his write up along with the photos posted on the review site he writes for, has given the impression that he has in his possession (or has had) one of the Nokia N8 handsets.

Nokia has contacted the journalist but Murtazin has apparently failed to return the prototype unit to the Finnish mobile phone maker. This angered Nokia considerably, since the N8 was meant to be their next flagship device in the NSeries. Now, they have decided to take legal action against the blogger in order to get back what is rightfully theirs.

“We have asked Murtazin for the return of all Nokia property in his possession. As he has declined to reply, we asked the Russian authorities to assist us.”

In response to this, Murtazin criticized the mobile manufacturer phone. He said that Nokia was only trying to get back their device due to the nature of his article. He also denied having sold any information to competitor companies and claims, calling the suggestion “puerile slander”.

The journalist has also clarified that the prototype is not currently in his possession. He was only able to gain access to the prototype due to one of his sources who is neither a Nokia nor mobile phone company employee. Did he mean perhaps that he was able to view the prototype from a production facility insider? If there is anyone who can solve the mystery, it is the authorities.

N-series, Nokia Apple-iPhone-4, Nokia, Nokia-N-Series, Nokia-N8, smartphones

In what is probably a tech industry faux-pass, Nokia has indirectly placed the Symbian^3 OS on the side and is putting more focus on the upcoming MeeGo OS as well as the possibility of the eventual launch of the Symbian^4.

With that said, Nokia has already confirmed that the N8 smart phone will be the only Symbian^3 handset to be used in their N-series lineup. In the meanwhile, their new MeeGo OS will be the main focus of their high end N-series lineup. With two strong operating systems already available (the Symbian Foundation’s S-series and the Intel-Nokia MeeGo) Nokia is not looking at other operating systems.

This means that die-hard Nokia users will not be seeing any Android smart phones from the Finnish phone manufacturer any time soon –or even in the distant future. Nokia’s support for the Symbian Foundation is a pre-established given in the industry, and even with the development of a proprietary Nokia OS, the Symbian still remains as a primary OS for Nokia’s other phone lineups (such as the X, C and E series of handsets).

As for the Symbian^4 operating system, there is still no news as to when the OS will finally be made. With the Symbian^3 still not yet out, it is unlikely that version 4 will be released this year, though it is rumored that development on the new OS is already underway.

The Symbian OS has been suffering from performance issues –particularly with the major bugs that plagued the Nokia N97. Even established Symbian supporters such as the Guru have acknowledged the situation and are starting to slowly withdraw their support from the OS. The Symbian^3 OS needs to bring back the confidence and trust of users in the platform, and according to Anssi Vanjoki there is plenty to look forward to with the upcoming N8 –for Symbian’s sake, he better be right.

Nokia Google-Android, Intel, MeeGo, Nokia, Nokia-N8, Nokia-N97, Symbian-3, Symbian-4

With all of the details being released about the N9, the most interesting fact that is being left out is the device’s actual name and designation. Aside from that, we can all tell at this point that this is going to be one Symbian^3 smart phone to look out for.

It has already been confirmed pretty early on that the new Nokia handset will be using a well equipped camera for those who love taking high resolution images and videos. The 8 mega pixel snapper will certainly be a welcome feature for amateur photographers while the ability to record videos in 720p will give users plenty of reasons to make use of the HDMI output port on the handset.

The phone has been popping up in a series of rumors and media content online showing off what the handset look likes and the Symbian OS. Recently, the N9 was compared side by side with the HTC EVO 4G and the Apple iPhone 3G. This allowed people to get a quick estimate of the screen size on the Nokia N9 –a nice big 4 inch TFT capacitive touch screen display. It has not been confirmed if the handset will be using other display technology such as AMOLED screen though some sources have hinted that Samsung’s new display technology, the super AMOLED screen might be used in the N9.

In the meanwhile, Nokia is set in the development of the development of the MeeGo operating system which they and Intel have been working on together. The new OS is a combination of the Moblin and Maemo operating systems. Currently, the developer version of MeeGo is already being made available in order to provide the Os with plenty of app support when it launches this coming October.

According to Nokia, the N8 smart phone will be the last Symbian OS based device for the N-series, leaving the N9 with a possible upcoming name change in the future.

N-series Apple-iPhone-3G, HTC-EVO-4G, Nokia, Nokia-N8, Nokia-N9, Samsung, super-AMOLED, Symbian, Symbian-3