The making of N97
About a week ago I had an MBA class from the University of San Francisco visiting me at the Nokia headquarters. Charming, energetic and smart young people. It was really nice evening for me, and based on their messages after, I think they enjoyed it very much, too. Talking to people from California, there's only one way the discussion can go. That's of course comparing Apple and Nokia. It's a much discussed topic, and sometimes I feel that everything's already been said. We know the streangth's and weaknesses of both companies and both products.
While discussing the Symbian Foundation and open way of doing things, I emphasized the global and cross-cultural aspects of Nokia device portfolio and Symbian software. Nokia makes tens of different phone models in 5 different categories every year, sold all over the world together with services that are designed by local people for local people. This is something that I've learned intuitively when traveling to different Nokia sites around the world.
But watching the Making of N97 video this morning really hit home with the global and cultural thing. The video starts with the team talking a lot about the mechanics, "click click", and about the device being an object of desire. The project team has been a Finland-Japan based team with both nationalities included in both countries. The designer Shunjiro Eguchi is based in Finland with the rest of Nokia's Design people. The product managers Tomoharu Yazawa and Tomi Kuparinen both sit in Tokyo. And, of course the directors of Nseries - JP Sipponen interviewed - are based in Espoo, Finland.
Getting the feel from both Japan and Finland is nice, but there's more. When the video introduces the software teams that all contributed for N97, they are found in Finland, India, Boston, Dallas, China and Singapore. And in my opinion software makes the device. The N97 has been called the ultimate internet device, and the ultimate Facebook device. There must have been also Nokia people in California negotiating widget development with Facebook, and other people elsewhere in the US talking to Reuters, Amazon, Boingo, YouTube, just to mention few of the widgets found on N97's homescreen.
You can get global and cultural aspects from the video in a cute and very humane way. The part where the team wants to take pictures of themselves with the first protoypes, Shunjiro complaining that his girlfriend is not happy because he spent more time with N97 than with her, and the overall theme of being who you are, where you are, when you are, and where your connections are. Very .. well, cute.
Lastly, let's not forget that all you developers out there can make the N97 experience even more global, adding the touch of your own culture. Go to http://www.forum.nokia.com/devices/N97 or http://developer.symbian.org to find out more.
While discussing the Symbian Foundation and open way of doing things, I emphasized the global and cross-cultural aspects of Nokia device portfolio and Symbian software. Nokia makes tens of different phone models in 5 different categories every year, sold all over the world together with services that are designed by local people for local people. This is something that I've learned intuitively when traveling to different Nokia sites around the world.
But watching the Making of N97 video this morning really hit home with the global and cultural thing. The video starts with the team talking a lot about the mechanics, "click click", and about the device being an object of desire. The project team has been a Finland-Japan based team with both nationalities included in both countries. The designer Shunjiro Eguchi is based in Finland with the rest of Nokia's Design people. The product managers Tomoharu Yazawa and Tomi Kuparinen both sit in Tokyo. And, of course the directors of Nseries - JP Sipponen interviewed - are based in Espoo, Finland.
Getting the feel from both Japan and Finland is nice, but there's more. When the video introduces the software teams that all contributed for N97, they are found in Finland, India, Boston, Dallas, China and Singapore. And in my opinion software makes the device. The N97 has been called the ultimate internet device, and the ultimate Facebook device. There must have been also Nokia people in California negotiating widget development with Facebook, and other people elsewhere in the US talking to Reuters, Amazon, Boingo, YouTube, just to mention few of the widgets found on N97's homescreen.
You can get global and cultural aspects from the video in a cute and very humane way. The part where the team wants to take pictures of themselves with the first protoypes, Shunjiro complaining that his girlfriend is not happy because he spent more time with N97 than with her, and the overall theme of being who you are, where you are, when you are, and where your connections are. Very .. well, cute.
Lastly, let's not forget that all you developers out there can make the N97 experience even more global, adding the touch of your own culture. Go to http://www.forum.nokia.com/devices/N97 or http://developer.symbian.org to find out more.
Posted by Petra S at 6/5/2009 8:23 AM 
Categories: Phones'n'Stuff
Tags: Mobile technology Nokia Innovation Symbian Foundation
Categories: Phones'n'Stuff
Tags: Mobile technology Nokia Innovation Symbian Foundation
One correction.
I think it was Tomoharu Yazawa, who complains about his girlfriend's unhappiness...
Reply to this
I have mixed feelings about the N97 NAM. It's a significant improvement over my N95 8GB NAM; I love the QWERTY keyboard and the resistive touch screen has perfect sensitivity (when Symbian is responsive), but the N97 lags the user experience and proper touch user interface that the iPhone has.
My N97 was completely unusable just 3 hours after I got it -- I could not even make a simple phone call. Luckily, somebody on discussions.nokiausa.com had a similar issue and found a way to get to the dialer to perform a hard reset. The phone lock up happened 2 more times w/in 24 hours. After much online reading and research, I think I have narrowed it down to the native email client. If you have alot of email (in my case, I had over 2000 in my inbox) and configure the client for automatic retrieval, then the phone downloads all email becomes extremely unresponsive when it runs out of RAM or phone memory.
I am using the new Nokia Messaging client now and it's much better, but still not really optimized for touch.
I would have been seriously bummed if I had to return the N97. My N97 is working [ok] now, but I take a look back at all of my family and colleagues that have iPhones and it makes me envious that they did not have to go through what I had to.
Reply to this
Hi md,
I'm sorry to hear about your challenging start with your N97, sounds annoying. Discussions.nokiausa.com is the right and perhaps quickest way to get help for solving issues like you had. Other helpful places for tips can be conversations.nokia.com or the N97 blog.
I'm sorry about the bumpy start, but I wish you better times with your N97 from here on. Have a nice summer.
Reply to this
Petra,
I think it is safe to say that I have already hit rock bottom so I have no doubt that it can only get better. :-)
I have been reading about Symbian ^2 and it sounds very promising. I can only wish (and hope) that the N97 can be upgraded to it.
Reply to this
Thanks for interesting article. I will take into consideration.
Reply to this
It’s clear that Nokia has gone through lot of research for making this device. Meyer said that when they asked people what they want, it was completely different from each other’s. So, Nokia came up with homescreen customization where people can add what they want the most to homescreen, giving user complete control over their device. Even lot of study went behind the build of the phone. When you push the slider, it’s not only slides out, but also angles around 40 degree up to make it easy to see the screen while typing. The sound it makes when you open & close the slide is also very sweet, slide really gives really good feeling.
Reply to this
I like the N97 "making of" video embedded below. O.k., it's marketing, but well done and it reflects my passion for mobile communication.
Reply to this
What Is Science?
* Science involves:
o Building theories and models
o Collecting and analyzing data from observations or experiments
o Constructing arguments
o Using specialized ways of talking, writing and representing phenomena
* Science is a social phenomena with unique norms for participation in a community of peers
Reply to this
That's well known that cash can make us free. But how to act if someone doesn't have money? The one way only is to get the business loans or credit loan.
Reply to this
m exceptionally surprised how much time I’ve spent with the N97 considering how set I was against not owning one. I bought a white one for $560 running v10, only to turn around and sell it for a decent profit a week later (the profit decidedly being much more important than dealing with the POS that it was on v10).
Reply to this
As I found out very early into the trip, it is nowhere near as durable as I was led to believe. On the recommendations of Dan and several internet sources to remove the screen protector, I had managed to scratch the screen right in the center after the first night with it off. What perplexes me is that I didn’t have anything else in my pocket that night and it hasn’t seen nearly as bad a scratch since (though several noticeable smaller ones have formed). The scratches are difficult to see, but when I do see them, they drive me absolutely nuts.
Reply to this
LATEST E 90 IS LATEST MOBILE IN NO KIA FOR YOUR KIND KNOW AGE IT HAVE FEATURES
1.COMMUNICATOR INTERNAL EXTERNAL
2.PUSH PULL MAIL
3.IN EXT NO KIA NO KIA 3G
CO LOUR DISPLAY
3 G PHONE
EX Cellular
Reply to this
There’s no disguising the fact that this video has had the Hollywood polish applied to it – idyllic sweeping landscapes, smart camera effects and a do-or-die sort of soundtrack – but I must say it certainly pushes all the right buttons as it tells the grassroots story behind Nokia’s hottest ucoming handset. If you’re already fired up about the N97 this is a guaranteed goosebump giver.
Professional SEOcompany
Reply to this
Almost 2 years used Nokia N97. There were minor problems with it, but all arranged until 5800 and bought realized that I wasted $ 600 on this phone.
Do not forget to visit my website http://wwwlastlongerstorecom
Reply to this