My Nokia World 2010 Predictions

Sadly, I won’t be attending this years’ Nokia World event in London. However, having been to the past three, I figured I’d go ahead and put together a list of things that I think will and won’t happen at Nokia World 2010. After the event, I’ll come back and see how I scored.

Hardware

I think Nokia’s going to have 3 additional smartphones and 4 new dumbphones to announce at Nokia World.

Smartphones

1. The first is the E7 – I know this is cheating, since it’s all but confirmed, so I won’t count this in my final score. For those who don’t know, this is basically the N8, but with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. It’ll likely be roughly the same price as the N8, maybe 100EUR less. Will be expected Q4 2010 (which, in reality, means Dec 31, apparently).

2. The second is a slightly dumbed-down N8 – maybe the N7? Same tablet-form factor, but with a 5- or 8-megapixel camera, probably lacking the HDMI port, and a few other things here and there. This one’ll ring in about 200EUR cheaper than the N8, and will have many folks crying about why they would buy the N8 when this one is just as good.  Q1 2011 expected availability.

3. The third smartphone will be something a bit more….off-the-wall. It’ll be S^3, but will have something that no one expected or has seen before. Maybe a ‘creative’ form factor, dual-screens, who knows. Something weird that will have most people wondering wtf they were thinking.  Q1 2011 expected availability.

Dumbphones

1 & 2. These will be basically identical, with one or two minor differences (but different model numbers). These will be uber-low-end, with monstrous battery life and some special feature designed for farmers in India or Africa or something. Impressive, but only to folks who are on board with the whole ‘lets-help-those-in-need’ stuff (which I totally am, but some tech pundits think is a complete waste of Nokia’s time).

3. Another touch-and-type, this time with a QWERTY keyboard.

4. A clamshell, probably with a touchscreen on the outside. I think this one will be for more established markets – which means Europe in Q1 2011 and the U.S. in Q4 2012.

I’m also going to say that they’ll finally announce a new-and-improved Booklet 3G. This rehash will have an 11-inch display in the same size package, will have a backlit keyboard, and other expected upgrades (newer ATOM, etc), but will still ship with 1GB of RAM that’s not user-upgradeable, and all the tech sites (including myself) will rain Internet Hate on the Booklet team for locking it down like that. Shipping Q4 2010 (possibly shipping AT Nokia World). It also still will ship with a regular Windows theme, not a custom-built Ovi theme like it should. It’ll still run Windows 7, but be upgradeable to MeeGo.

Software & Services

Nokia will lead off with crazy stats about how many Ovi accounts they have, how many daily users, etc, but no one will really be impressed (regardless of how impressive those numbers might actually be).

Ovi Maps will inevitably get a huge upgrade (it always does at Nokia World), with new POI, and probably 4 new plugins similar to the ones already there (Lonely Planet, Michelin, Expedia, etc).

Ovi Files will be rehashed as a Dropbox clone, called Ovi Storage or some other silly name. It’ll let you upload from your phone and give a much improved interface for browsing/downloading on your phone.

Ovi Social Messaging Beta (or whatever it was called) will be ‘relaunched’ as Ovi Social’ on the N8 and whatever smartphones get announced. It’ll tie in with Twitter and Facebook, and will also connect with your ‘Ovi friends’ (other people who use Ovi – I know, foreign concept to most of you).

Ovi Contacts, Ovi Calendar, Ovi Mail, and Ovi Chat will *finally* all use the same contacts list, and will all be upgraded with new features that actually make them appealing to use. Automated sync will be included in all the new phones, even the dumbphones.

Ovi Music will launch in 5-6 new countries (but still not in the U.S.) DRM-free, and Ovi Music Unlimited will launch on 2 of the new smartphones. There still won’t be a way to buy it separately, though.

Ovi Suite for OSX and Linux will finally launch, but will be such a horrendous experience that no one will like it. The Windows variant will also get an upgrade, but will still run slow on every computer out there, regardless of specs.

Ovi Player (the desktop music player) will get a HUGE facelift and new features, including smart playlists (finally). It still won’t sync ratings and playcounts, though, cause the phone doesn’t track those, either.

Nokia’s Web TV will be renamed to Ovi Video and will offer original content. It’ll be cool, but not really something you would specifically buy a phone for. It’s all web-based, so they can launch it on a number of things.

That’s really all I’ve got. Nokia World 2010 kicks off at 9:00 AM in London, UK, which is 3:00 AM in Dallas, TX. As much as I’d like to think I’ll get up at a normal time and just catch up, I’ll be honest and say I’m probably going to be awake for it. While obviously we won’t be publishing anything on Symbian-Guru.com, a few of my blogger-buddies will be there and are live-blogging the whole shebang. Here are links to the ones I know about:

AllAboutSymbian

TheNokiaBlog

MobileFanatics

NokiaExperts

WorldOfNokia.co.uk

(If you’re going to be there, be sure to leave your URL in a comment below, so I can keep up!)

What do you think we’ll see at Nokia World 2010? Do you think my predictions are right-on, or do you think I’m too optimistic?