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Does Nokia Do Windows Phone Better?

// February 13th, 2012 // 2 Comments » // windows phone

As a long-time Nokia fanboy, the minute they announced their shift from Symbian to Windows Phone, I picked up a Windows Phone device, the HTC HD7, to try out this new-fangled system. I’d used Windows Mobile before and hated it, but Windows Phone is entirely different. You can click through to read my first thoughts on Mango (the latest update).

Since the Nokia Lumia 710 is one of Nokia’s first Windows Phone devices, I thought it would be interesting to see how the ‘Nokia’ Windows Phone experience compares to the ‘HTC’ Windows Phone experience. So if you’re expecting to read a review of the Nokia Lumia 710 or of Windows Phone 7.5, you should check out MobileBurn.com’s review. This post will simply compare the manufacturer-specific aspects of the HTC HD7 and the Nokia Lumia 710.

Hardware:

Hardware is difficult to compare, mainly because the HTC HD7 was one of their headliner devices with the original Windows Phone launch, while the Lumia 710 is an entry-level device in the middle of the Mango releases. That being said, the Lumia 710 feels alot like a more solidly-built 5800 XpressMusic. It doesn’t feel quite as cheap as the plastic used on the 5800 XpressMusic, but the Lumia 710 also doesn’t feel like a Nokia smartphone should.

It’s also really weird to see a Windows button on a Nokia phone, and to have a Nokia smartphone that doesn’t have a front-facing camera. For those of us in the U.S., the front-facing cam on Nokia’s have always been pretty useless anyways, but it’s still weird.

Software:

This is where Nokia really has an opportunity to differentiate from its competitors. It’s also the place that Nokia has really sucked it up over the past few years, to be honest. Nokia has already said that the differentiation in Mango devices is limited since Mango was pretty much finished by the time they joined the party, so anything that stands out is only just the start.

As it stands right now, though, HTC has more apps to offer its users. At last count, there were 14+ different apps on the Market from HTC:

• HTC Hub – similar to the old homescreen from Windows Mobile, this offers swipeable views from stocks, news, weather, etc.
• Notes – sticky notes for your phone
• Flashlight – self-explanatory
• Photo Enhancer – duplicates the Instagram-like ‘filters’ from HTC’s Sense-enabled Android handsets.
• HTC Watch – HTC’s movie-rental/purchase service
• Connected Media – DLNA client that allows you to browse uPnP devices on your network and play content to/from them
• Connection Setup – Automatically sets up the proper access points for various operators. This app has also been used to help ‘root’ (or whatever they’re calling it for Windows Phone) your device.
• Compass – self-explanatory
• Dock Mode – like Photo Enhancer and HTC Hub, this duplicates the ‘dock mode’ from HTC’s Sense user interface
• Converter – self-explanatory
• Lists – simple to-do list manager
• Locations – HTC’s geotagging solution for pics, voice notes, etc.
• Stocks – self-explanatory
• Calculator – self-explanatory

At first glance, it would seem as though HTC is winning – they have many more apps. However, at least half of those apps are small utilities that are easily found for free from other developers on the Windows Market – they offer nothing really specific to HTC’s Windows Phone devices. On the other hand, Nokia only has a few apps available, mainly Nokia Drive & Maps and Nokia Mix Radio. Unfortunately, (and unsurprisingly) Nokia Mix Radio is not available in the U.S. on the Lumia 710, so we’re pretty much stuck with Nokia Drive and Nokia Maps.

Mapping

Nokia has two mapping apps for Windows Phone – Nokia Maps and Nokia Drive.

Nokia Maps is free and will eventually be released as an app for any Windows Phone device regardless of manufacturer. It lets you browse around and whatnot, basically the same as the built-in Bing Maps app does. It works well and has a great user interface. Unfortunately, while the Lumia 710 prompted me to login to my Nokia account, I didn’t see how that information was used. I have about a dozen landmarks saved in Nokia Maps from previous phones, but I didn’t see any of those downloaded to the Lumia 710, which was unfortunate.

Nokia Drive is an off-shoot of Nokia Maps that gives you voice-guided turn-by-turn directions and will be exclusive to Nokia’s Windows Phone devices like the Lumia 710. When you first start up Nokia Drive, it asks you to download the maps and voice packs for your area. It defaulted to download the entire U.S.A., along with the U.K. female voice pack (which I thought was rather odd), a total of 1.8GB. After selecting just Texas, it was down to ~150MB. It also wouldn’t allow me to download via T-Mobile’s 3G/4G network – I had to be connected to a WiFi network. While I appreciate the savings to my data plan, I would also like the option to choose.

Overall, I was pretty impressed with Nokia Maps and Nokia Drive. They’re pretty much just as awesome as I remember them being from Nokia’s Symbian devices, and that’s a good thing. The navigation was spot-on, voices clear, and maps beautiful.

It’s nice to see that even though Nokia has only a few specific apps, they’re actually adding unique features that aren’t currently available elsewhere, as opposed to easily-replicated utilities like HTC is doing. It can’t stop with Maps and Music, though – Nokia is going to have to put some serious resources behind differentiating software for its Windows Phone devices if it’s going to be able to stand out in the crowd.

Another place that the Nokia Lumia 710 really shines is the addition of the ‘Nokia Blue’ accent color. You’ll recall that the default accent colors included in Mango are “the most drab versions of those colors that you could possibly have imagined” and I stand by that. There is already a ‘Blue’ accent color, but Nokia Blue is just enough of a difference to make the whole color tolerable. You can see side-by-side below that Nokia Blue is a bit more deep and slightly darker.

If I had the choice today, I would easily go with the Lumia 710 over the HD7. The HD7 has a bigger screen and better hardware, but Nokia’s offering me more truly useful software enhancements, and I’ll be honest, I really, REALLY hate the default blue color scheme. I got much better battery life with the Lumia 710, as well. Shoot, I was honestly tempted to sneak the HD7 in the box when I mailed the Lumia 710 back to Nokia.

So, what would I like to see Nokia doing to further differentiate?

For starters, get some of that legendary camera knowledge baked right on in – make the photography experience with a Nokia Windows Phone just plain head-and-shoulders above any other Windows Phone experience. That’s not just in the photo-taking experience – buy up Pixelpipe (which they should have done YEARS ago) and bake that service right into the Nokia level of the phone, or release is as a for-Nokia’s-only app like Nokia Drive.

Next up, keep on improving Nokia Maps and Nokia Drive – work endlessly to basically replicate the Symbian Nokia Maps experience on Windows Phone. That includes easier map downloads, custom voices, live traffic, cloud-synced landmarks, etc. Really make that shine.

Nokia also had some really great N-Gage titles on their last run with that – games like Reset Generation, Hooked On: Creatures of the Deep, and System Rush: Evolution. Get those on Xbox Live and start connecting gamers.

It’ll be interesting to see how Nokia is going to differentiate when they’re able to get a bit deeper in the software. According to most speculation, Nokia got in with Microsoft a little late, and so missed the window (excuse the pun) with Mango, but has an opportunity with Apollo, the next major Windows Phone release. They’ll have to do something spectacular to avoid becoming just another OEM.

I really want to see Nokia succeed with this, and I think with the Lumia series, they’re on the right track.

My Third Klout Perk – Windows Phone – Part 2

// December 20th, 2011 // No Comments » // Mobile, windows phone

Yesterday I detailed my third Klout Perk, this one from Windows Phone that included a free Windows Phone device, along with VIP access to a private party and concert in Dallas with Young The Giant. You can read about the party here, but today I want to talk about the device. I also want to make it clear that I’m not intending to complain about a free device. Rather, this type of thing is directly related to my current job at RadioShack as Social Media Community Manager, so this is more of an analysis, really.

I registered for the Windows Phone #WPDAL Klout Perk on November 8th, and when I did, I got the friendly message that ‘Your phone is on its way!‘ Great, I thought, and the aforementioned party was 8 days later, on the 16th, so I assumed I would get the device in time to use it at the party to post to my social networks about how awesome it was, and snap photos showing off its camera, and all that sort of thing.

Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. The party came and went (they also didn’t hand out the devices at the party, which would also have made sense) with no sign of a device. Finally, three weeks later, I reached out to Klout to ensure my shipment hadn’t been lost in the mail. Klout responded and assured me that Microsoft was sending them out, and had experienced some delays. No problem, but still no ETA.

I then tweeted about it at four weeks, and finally received a response that the Windows Phone team had shipped them out the previous week, and they should begin arriving any day now – great.

Now, I did have some assumptions about this device. Given what I saw at the party, and the fact that it was all about the ‘new’ Windows Phone (codenamed ‘Mango’, though they didn’t talk much about that at the party) and whatnot. All of the phones on display at the event were the ’2nd Gen’ hardware, such as the Samsung Focus S, HTC Radar, HTC Titan, etc. The second wave of Windows Phone devices to hit the market. Thus, I assumed that the device I would receive (as a VIP) would be one of these. Awesome.

It wasn’t. I received a Samsung Focus, which officially launched in the market in November 2010. A year ago. Also, it wasn’t brand-spanking new. My box had been opened, presumably so the phone could be updated to the new software.

It also came with a SIM card pre-installed. Cool, I thought. Maybe I get a couple months of service to really check it out. Nope, this SIM was issued to Beth Goza, and it was still in my phone. A phone number was listed on the baggie, but the SIM doesn’t appear to be active. So…..I honestly don’t know what to think of that, but it’s a pretty poor user experience.

So, to recap, the phone arrived 4 weeks later (3 weeks after the actual event highlighting the phone), and it was a year-old device, despite the new devices being demo’d at the event itself. It was also previously opened (and presumably used), and arrived with an inactive SIM addressed to someone else inside. Hmph.

One thing that DID impress me, though, was the box it arrived in. In fact, I made a video of the box (and didn’t bother to do anything for the phone). You can see it here:

We’re constantly looking for ways to improve the experience of people who interact with RadioShack socially, and this is a great example of attention to the small details of the experience – such a fun box. However, something that I mentioned previously and discovered was still true, is that there was no paperwork included in the box. No card thanking me for being social, no pre-printed form letter congratulating me on the Klout Perk and giving me info about the product, nothing. Just the product.

If a company were sending you a special something for engaging with them in the social arena, what would you expect to receive?

My Third Klout Perk – Windows Phone – Part 1

// December 18th, 2011 // No Comments » // Social Networks, windows phone

Klout has been a hot topic lately, with many social media folks declaring it bunk, crazy, and making a big hooey about deleting their accounts. Instead, I’ve been exploring it, trying to find the value. While this is interesting to me as a consumer, it’s also directly related to my job as Social Media Community Manager at RadioShack. My first Klout Perk was from Axe, and my second was the #KloutChevySonic. The third was a two-parter from Windows Phone that included a free Windows Phone device, as well as VIP access to a party in Dallas.

The Party

The party was held in downtown Dallas at a snazzy fashion place. I’m not much into the ‘club’ scene, so that’s about all I know. They had the line split in two – VIP and ‘the regulars’. However, I was able to get my wife in the VIP line with me easily, and was also able to transfer my friend Philip from the ‘regulars’ line to the VIP easily, so they weren’t too strict on it. Once through the line, you registered, connecting your wristband to your Facebook account. The wristband was used to ‘check-in’ to various points throughout the venue to be eligible for various drawings.

They had food and drinks, but you got tokens when you checked in to be able to get the food and drinks. Since I was registered officially as VIP, I got a couple of drink tokens and a handful of food tokens – my wife and Philip weren’t ‘officially’ VIP, so they only received food tokens, and would have to buy their drinks (the alcohol ones, anyways. Sodas were free). They only had one food line, and it was INSANE, so we opted out entirely. The drink line was relatively short, and the waitstaff was friendly. They did have cookies and such that didn’t require a token at all.

The room was setup with live device demos EVERYWHERE, but oddly, there were only about 4 different models shown. Basically, there were probably 30-40 different devices on demo, but they were pretty much all the same. Also, Windows Devices (for now) are pretty much all the same hardware, thanks to Microsoft’s requirements, so aside from a few style cues, there’s not much differentiation between them.

There was a small stage in the middle, and they used this as a launching point throughout the night for device giveaways, as well as the Young the Giant concert. The stage was on the floor and it was quite the intimate evening.

If I had never seen a Windows Phone before, I would likely have enjoyed the evening. The music was hopping, there was alcohol, and the crowd was pretty young and preppy.

Tomorrow I’ll share details about the device portion of this Klout Perk.

Nokia Should N-Gage With Xbox Live

// November 29th, 2011 // 5 Comments » // Mobile

Now that Nokia has finally launched a Windows Phone device, they need to begin making inroads in that ecosystem. One of the first opportunities that comes to my mind is gaming. Nokia has a weird history with mobile gaming. They were one of the first companies to put games on phones (Snake) and one of the first to try building gaming-specific hardware (original N-Gage). Nokia also tried to kickstart the mobile multiplayer gaming with the second coming of their N-Gage platform, though eventually it failed, due to a number of reasons.

So, where’s the opportunity now? Xbox Live is one of the largest gaming communities on the planet today, and with its deep integration to Windows Phone, Microsoft has a huge potential to really grab a significant portion of the mobile gaming industry, as well. The Kinect is one of the fastest selling consumer electronics of all time, and Windows Phone is also poised to get some integration with Kinect on the Xbox 360 soon, as well.

Despite its many flaws, one of the things that Nokia really had going for it with N-Gage was the in-house produced titles. Games such as the launch title Hooked On: Creatures of the Deep, System Rush: Evolution, ONE, and Reset Generation were completely awesome and a perfect fit for the mobile device. Unfortunately, these games are no longer available, even on the Ovi Store (or whatever they’re calling it these days).

Windows Phone and its Xbox Live integration is a great opportunity for Nokia to generate some additional revenue from pre-existing projects, and might be motivation to finish some of the N-Gage titles that were previously in development. I know I would love to play Reset Generation with my Xbox Live buddies. Would you?

Thoughts On Windows Phone Mango On The HTC HD7

// August 13th, 2011 // 24 Comments » // Mobile, windows phone

When Nokia announced that it was going to partner with Microsoft and start using Windows Phone as the smartphone platform of choice (at least in the U.S.), I was floored, but I also knew that if Nokia was so confident in this platform, then I needed to get a Windows Phone device and start checking it out.

I promptly picked up an HTC HD7 on T-Mobile, and tried to use it as my primary phone. Coming from Android (and even Symbian), Windows Phone initially seems almost like a dumbphone OS. In ‘NoDo’, the release that was available at the time, there was no multitasking to speak of, approximately 4 apps worth downloading, and a completely new way to look at the phone’s homescreen.

Not long after, Microsoft announced that the next version of Windows Phone (and likely the first version that Nokia would be using) would be called ‘Mango’, and it has over 500 new features and a host of bug fixes. That’s not a small update, and I was immediately intrigued. Fortunately, HTC is well-known in the ‘hacker’ space (it’s not *really* hacking, but that’s what they call it. It’s more like…..tinkering), and they tend to release phones that are easily tinkered with. The HD7 is no exception.

There have, at this time, been three ‘Mango’ releases – two betas, for developers who are building applications, and one ‘RTM’, which is the version that’s been released to the manufacturers (hence the acronym). RTM is essentially final shipping status, for all intents and purposes. I’ve now been running Mango (in one form or another) for a few months, and I find myself coming back to the HD7 quite frequently, for a few reasons:

1. Windows Phone is freakin gorgeous. It’s easily one of the most aesthetically pleasing mobile operating systems out there, rivaling HP’s webOS in beauty. This is interesting because it’s really not very graphical, instead relying on beautiful typefaces and interesting fonts to really make itself stand out. It’s incredible, and it kind of sneaks up on you.

2. It syncs with nearly everything out of the box, and it does so really well. I really only need four accounts on my mobile device – Google, Exchange (for work), Facebook, and Twitter. Everything else is icing. Windows Phone handles all of these like a champ – especially the Exchange and Google support – it’s top notch, and more importantly, can sync both of them at the same time (Symbian cannot do this – not even in the upcoming Anna release). Repeat after me: I SHOULD NOT NEED TO CONNECT MY SMARTPHONE TO MY COMPUTER IN ORDER TO USE IT.

3. The Live Tiles are pretty sweet – so the main idea with the live tiles of Windows Phone is that you unlock your screen and can quickly glance at your phone to see all the important details. It even puts your next calendar appointment on the lockscreen, so you may not even need to unlock it. It’s brilliant and really works well – assuming the apps have a ‘live’ tile. Most don’t, and that’s a big problem. My only complaint here would be the ability to disable the calendar on the lockscreen, or have different settings for weekend/work week. It’s depressing on a Saturday to turn the display on and be reminded I have a big meeting on Monday morning.

4. The System-wide speech features are awesome. Speech-to-text, being able to talk to your phone and have it do things, works brilliantly. Text-to-speech, having your phone read stuff to you, is also great. If you get a Mango handset, connect a Bluetooth headset and have someone give you a call or send you an SMS. It’s just plain awesome, and most importantly – easy to use.

So, what still sucks in Mango?

1. Notifications – my HD7 has a small (super tiny) LED that flashes when I have a notification, but that’s it. Sure, I can have the phone vibrate and make noise, but to my knowledge, notifications are not allowed to wake the screen – that’s REALLY annoying. Notifications can wake the screen, and appear at the top of the screen (they’re called ‘toast’ notifications), but there’s no persistent indication (other than the live tiles) that there was a notification. If my phone was in my pocket, I’d totally miss them.

2. Customisations – you can change the ‘wallpaper’, but that’s only the photo that shows on the lockscreen. Your actual phone’s background can only be two colors – white or black. That’s it. You can, thankfully, change the colors of the live tiles and most app icons (depending on how the developer set it up). Unfortunately, you’re stuck with about 8 preset colors, and they’re the most drab versions of those colors that you could possibly have imagined. I was hoping that Mango would bring forth a way to choose *any* color (either via a color wheel or even better, letting me use the phone’s camera to ‘scan’ a color). Unfortunately, that’s not the case. I can ‘hack’ my phone and tweak some registry settings, but it’s surprisingly difficult to unlock your phone to allow this, and the registry *definitely* isn’t the kind of place you should be poking around. Not having custom accent colors is most certainly a missed opportunity in Mango.

3. Twitter notifications – The official Mango release includes Twitter support baked right into the ‘People’ hub (basically the contacts app). Like HTC’s Sense UI Twitter integration, it’s great if you follow less than ~100 people. I follow 500+, and it’s a nightmare to deal with. Plus, it doesn’t notify you of new mentions or direct messages, which means it’s basically useless. There is a ‘Me’ live tile that I had previously removed (seems superficial to have a ‘Me’ tile) that DOES indeed notify you of new @mentions, DMs, and even Facebook notifications (if you have that service activated, too) The official Twitter app also doesn’t support notifications, nor does it have a live tile (though I’m told by the dev team that they’re working on that). Seesmic has a Windows Phone app, and it also doesn’t support notifications or live tiles. I was able to purchase an app, Rowi, that supports both. but for a phone that has Twitter baked right in to not offer notifications and force the user to pay for an app that does just seems messed up.

4. Windows Phone Marketplace – it sucked before, and while the search is improved (it now separates out music from apps), it still sucks. Mainly because it doesn’t tell you if you already have an app installed when you’re browsing. So, if you’re perusing the top free apps, they just all say ‘Free’ – none say ‘Installed’ or ‘You’ve Already Got This One’ or anything. With Mango RTM, they’ve fixed this once you click on the app title to see the app’s main page, but that’s still 2 clicks (one to see it, one to back out). It’s also just not fun to browse.

5. Xbox Live – it’s a start, but none of the games that I bought for my Xbox came with a ‘mobile’ sub-game, and I still can’t really do anything with my avatar on it. Essentially, it’s a gaming-centric messaging service. Yes, you can purchase games for the phone through it, and yes, they have achievements, but as I’ve mentioned before, it would be so epic if I could work on my golf swing on the way to a buddy’s house, where my player on the Xbox would reflect the improvements.

6. Internet Explorer still kinda sucks. Then again, it’s Internet Explorer, so you kind of expect it to. For clarification on this, it sucks mainly because most sites that are ‘optimised’ for mobile have two versions: one optimised for large touchscreens like those on Android and iOS, and one that’s optimised for dumbphones. The WP Internet Explorer build on Mango RTM seems to be recognized as the latter – in fact, I cannot get the iOS-friendly version of Google Reader to show up no matter what URL I point it to. Obviously this isn’t an Internet Explorer issue, but it directly affects the user experience, and negatively.

That being said, the browser is incredibly smooth, relatively quick, and has most of the features you would expect to see (including tabs).

At this point, honestly, it’s a hard choice between the HD7 with Mango and my trusty T-Mobile G2, which has HTC’s Sense 3.0 user interface. The G2 is infinitely more powerful – especially with a hardware keyboard, but the HD7 is just a pleasure to use. The HD7 is also faster, smoother, and gets better battery life.

The thing is, if I could put Mango on my Nokia N8, I’d probably forget about the G2 and the HD7 within a week. In any case, if you think Windows Phone is a DOA platform with no hope, you’ve obviously not used Mango, and let’s face it, you probably won’t. But you’re missing out. Just remember how lame iOS was on the first iPhone…..

UPDATE: updated a few items above on 8/16 thanks to my helpful commenters, and to add clarification.

The Gaming Industry’s Missed Opportunity With Mobile

// June 19th, 2011 // 1 Comment » // Mobile, technology

I have an Xbox 360 with Kinect, and have a few games such as Kinect Adventures, Kinect Sports, and Halo Reach that are very character-driven. The Xbox Live profile includes an avatar that you can dress up and buy things like pets and accessories for. It’s an entire ecosystem within the overall Xbox ecosystem, and it’s tragically left as a wide-open door, specifically when you look at the mobile opportunity.

I have an HTC HD7 that I sometimes use, which is powered by Windows Phone. There is an Xbox Live application that lets me see my avatar, messages, and manage a few other things around my profile. I can also buy games that often have achievements for me to unlock, and this all builds up my overall Xbox Live profile. However, there’s still something missing (and I’ve talked about this about 4 years ago)

There are many games, such as Kinect Sports or EA Sports’ golfing games where you start with a rather basic character and you build their capabilities the more you play. With Kinect Sports, it’s your avatar – you increase their capabilities as you complete more and more challenges or win more matches. With EA Sports’ golfing game (such as PGA Tour: The Masters) you have a golfer who starts out rather humbly, but gains more power, greater accuracy, and a better wardrobe as you play through various courses. Racing games are another great example of this.

When will the gaming industry see the opportunity to connect the console and mobile experience through these ‘buildable’ characters? What if when I bought EA Sports’ Tiger Woods ’12, it came with a code to download ‘Tiger Woods ’12 Trainer’ to my Windows Phone device? This side-app would download my character from EA’s servers and let me practice my putting game while standing in line at the grocery store, or hit the driving range while my wife drives us to her mom’s house for dinner. The improvements gained on my phone would then sync back to my player when I fire up my Xbox 360, so the whole experience is complete.

It’s such a simple solution, but I have yet to see a console game ship with a code for a free mobile download. Most of the big development houses like EA have mobile divisions – is it really so difficult to get them to talk to the console team? The benefit for the developer, too, is that they’re creating additional ways for me to interact with their product, in different ways than I have before.

If Windows Phone is going to take over the world the way Nokia and Microsoft hope it does, they’re going to have to get creative and tie the whole experience together. Just keep the N-Gage folks out of the room and you’ll be fine.

Stephen Elop’s Nokia Adventure

// June 4th, 2011 // 3 Comments » // technology

I’ve been a self-confessed Nokia fanboy for over a decade. Until July 1 2010, I had always had a Nokia phone in my pocket, and couldn’t really see why anyone would choose anything else. I’m still a Nokia fanboy in my heart, even though I’m also now an Android fanboy.

When Nokia announced that it was going to start using Windows Phone for its smartphones, I wasn’t sure what to think. I ended up crafting the one-line response of “It’s not the best choice, but it was the best choice for Nokia to have a competitive future.” I think that still rings true, and when Microsoft showed off some of the improvements coming in its Mango update later this year, I felt much better about Nokia’s future. It’s interesting that there are more improvements in the first major update to Windows Phone than there were in all the updates in Symbian from S60v3 to Symbian^3.

Photograph by Antonin Kratochvil

I’m a bit of a nerd, so I get really intrigued when I get to read historical accounts of major business and technology stories. I love reading about how Apple created the iPhone, and I really enjoyed The Register’s account of Symbian’s downfall. Thus, it’s probably no surprise that I thoroughly enjoyed reading BusinessWeek’s recent article, “Stephen Elop’s Nokia Adventure“.

Assuming it’s based on fact (and it lines up with what some Nokians have shared with me confidentially), I’m already a big fan of Stephen Elop and have confidence that he’s on the right track. It’s a long read, but I highly recommend you set some time aside and read the entire article.

My favorite part is mentioned at the end of page 4, where Elop is said to have sent an email to all Nokians, asking them to answer three questions:

1. What do they think he should change
2. What should be left alone
3. What they feared he wouldn’t understand

Reportedly, Elop received more than 2,000 responses and he personally replied to every single one.

It’s still too early to tell if Stephen Elop’s decisions will be a slam dunk or a complete bomb. Nokia has a tremendous history of painting a beautiful picture, only to fail at executing the plan (see Ovi, N97, Symbian, MeeGo, etc). If Elop can help Nokia pull it off, they have the potential to turn the mobile industry on its head, again.

Me? I have an Android-powered HTC G2, Symbian-powered Nokia N8, and Windows Phone-powered HTC HD7 on my desk. I rely on my G2 as a daily driver, but I try to use the N8 and HD7 at least once a week.