To start the week, here’s a mobile Internet question.
An iPhone costs 400 Euro to buy plus 50 Euro per month for 24 months. A Nokia N95 costs 300 Euro and 50 Euros per month for 24 months. Which one would you be stupid not to buy!
This is the information circulating in Germany at the moment and the response to the news [in German] is pretty negative. I won’t be bothering to stand in any queues come 9th November. Especially as the temperature here dropped below freezing last night. 9th November could be even colder for Apple.
Moving on then, I had a great mobile Internet moment in a taxi at the weekend. It was a case of Everun vs E90 vs Taximan in the competition to see who could find a named bar, without address, in the shortest time? The Everun won. Why? Because I went straight to Google maps and typed the name of the bar in. My friend, on the E90 made the rookie (Sorry Steve!) mistake of trying to find it through the POI database on his built-in navigation software but of course, POI databases really aren’t that granular. Taximan took us to where he thought it was and missed by a one-way street and about 200 meters! The moral of the story is that live Internet search combined with mapping and GPS is a killer combination. Just ask people that are using the new Google Maps application for the N95 and Blackberry devices.
I’ve been getting heavily into using Google Reader on the Everun this weekend. Using it in portrait mode is just superb. The keypad gives you direct access to the shortcuts. JMNOP and hitting F11 and U to start (fullscreen, remove sidebar) makes it very quick and clean indeed. I think I could read books using this method and I’ve been on the search for some nice new full-fat RSS feeds that are not in my usual tech-sector choice range. Any humor/travel feed tips greatly appreciated. I’ve also discovered on the Everun that I can use a power-saving mode for both the processor and the Wifi at home to give me an amazing 5+ hours from one battery charge. Now that’s mobile!
Here’s another easy question. If you used a Scooter Desk at work (left) would it a) Increase your productivity but reduce your career path. b) Garner some serious behind-the-back chuckles about your sanity. c) Waste your money? Trick question. All three of the above apply! Just get a ultra mobile PC people, its much easier! (Source: Yankodesign. Via)
On to something far more sensible now, the Nokia N810 which is already the most popular Sub-ultra mobile PC at UMPCPortal.com’s product database. Thoughtfix pushed out a couple of very useful posts on TabletBlog at the weekend. The first was a video review and the second a mini-faq. While the N810 isn’t going to satisfy me, I think its a great step forward in design. People love, understand and need keyboards. Adding the GPS into the mix was a good move too. It comes with the car mount included to for the price, you’re getting a navigation system, audio player and one of the best pocketable mobile Internet devices there is. Its a real bargain and I’m expecting to start seeing these on the street next year. Facebook fans are going to love it.
Finally this morning, I wanted to highlight a comment by The Mobile Technology Weblog on a survey of teen mobile phone use. From a list of 16 features, surfing the Internet was the third most wanted by the 750 13-17 year-olds asked. I estimate that in Europe its even higher than that. SMS costs are dropping quickly which could be an indicator that the market is fading. Flat-rate internet plans are poppoing up all over the place and people are really getting used to on-phone Email and mobile websites. That figure will reach 50% in no time at all.
Thats a tough choice. Depends on what you want. I am fortunate enough to have both the iphone and the n95 (and Im in Europe!). The is definately a hit in my school. People love it. The fact that most people used itunes already makes the iphone easy to use for them. And really, the n95 browser sucks compared to the iphone. While i thought the n95 had an awesome browser, when i got the iphone I was amazed at how well it performed. On-the-go it great. At home I still prefer to use the n800. Its some much easier to cut and paste, select things, etc.
In the UK you can get an N95 free on a 50 Euro contract (and only for 18 months).
And that is indlucing 500 minutes, unlimited texts and the first 3 months half price. (No data). I could probably do better shopping around.
The iPhone will cost around 400 Euros and need an 18 month contract at a minimum of 50 Euros. This only has 200 minutes of talk time, but does have some data (not sure how much).
That is a BIG difference in cost of ownership when you consider the N95 has a good camera and a GPS included.
But they are different things really.
The N95 does everything, but I don’t really like it’s form or operating system and it didn’t do the things I need well enough to stop me needing a separate snappy camera or GPS or surfing device.
The iPhone doesn’t do ‘phone’ that well in today’s European market, it lacks a number of things people are used to. But it does do cool very well!
Anyway, just touched an iPhone for the first time and my first thoughts were, hmm, it’s a bit big.
I’ll probably get a bit more into it when I get chance to hack it later and can actually do something with it!
Second thoughts on the iPhone…
It’s lovely! I’m a cynic and I can see plenty of faults already.
But I don’t care!
Chippy,
In Ireland the iPhone has just gone on sale as a prepay phone on O2. This is an interesting move on behalf of Apple (one that is in the UK already) that I wonder if they will roll this out to other parts of the world. The price is 560 euro but you get no contact (which is a good thing) but the data deal on prepay is not good so you may end up paying more.
Mark