As Nokia launches its Nokia 7700, and with it the Series 90 platform, Editor-in-Chief Jørgen Sundgot ponders on whether Nokia's plan to merge mobility and media will succeed.
When Nokia announced the Nokia 7700 this week, the Finnish manufacturer not only announced a product - it announced a strategy as well. From the snippets of information that were revealed, it could be deduced the company has set its sight on achieving the short-term goal of a closer relationship with the media industry, and perhaps even the merging of the two on a long-term basis.
The concept of merging mobility with media is certainly not new, however, as the rather low-tech approach of SMS voting and SMS 'chat channels' has already been widely implemented by radio and TV channels. With the 7700, Nokia is taking matters a step further, and will be courting radio channels who wish to add further elements of interactivity to broadcasts. The manufacturer also has its eye on TV, as the 7700 will be compatible with a digital TV receiver accessory - and let's not forget that the device also offers high-speed Internet connectivity courtesy of EDGE.
Personally, I find the two latter abilities to be the most interesting, as I have for years longed for the ability to consume video on mobile devices. This concept is of course not new, but Nokia's attempt at pulling this off - be it by means of streaming video over the Internet or receiving digital TV broadcasts - is far more likely to succeed simply due to the company's size and financial leverage. However, I can certainly appreciate the novelty and ingenuity of the radio concept as well, as I imagine roaming youths are likely to peg this a favourite feature before long.
Strikingly, though, Nokia appears to have given little thought to any sort of textual media delivery mechanism with the exception of a standard-fare Internet browser. This is most likely due to several factors, such as the abundance of free information available on the Internet combined with lacking standards for delivery of such content to mobile devices. And with standards, I'm referring to the kind that would enable those creating the content to charge for it, since that is how the real world works - even though the Internet seems to have convinced most of the world's population of the exact opposite.
Still, as understandable as it may be, I find it somewhat disappointing since textual information would be the best approach towards gradually taking traditional media into the mobile media. This is simply due to bandwidth limitations, as well as the fact that most people have now grasped the concept of reading text on a mobile device.
On my personal wishlist lies the ability to receive - either by means of wireless streaming or synchronization with a desktop computer - the following information, for which I would gladly pay: my favourite radio and TV broadcasts, newspapers and magazines. Neither would I mind shopping for eBooks, nor movies - and absolutely not so controlling all of the above directly from the device itself. Nokia might not be there quite yet, but the 7700 appears to be the best attempt in quite some time to facilitate a media delivery ecosystem which actually works; here's hoping.
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