3 Showcase Takeaways from Nokia Connection 2010 Singapore

Here is my post on the Nokia Connection 2010 event in Singapore where I added in my self-recorded videos on the 3 showcase takeaways - Nokia X5, local apps for Nokia Devices & the Nokia N8 (caveat: amateurish first raw takes on my part!).

Chris Carr, VP Sales for Nokia SEAP opened the event when he talked about how Nokia's strategy is to integrate Ovi services (map & free global navigation, millions of songs, integrated social networking access and globally local app store - Nokia Ovi Store) across Nokia devices of different price points, to be able to address different consumer segments who use Nokia Smartphones or feature phones.

Jo Harlow, Senior Vice President of Nokia Smartphones, further augmented with the message that Nokia continues to own the largest market share of mobile devices, smartphones, with more than 1.2 billion people are using a Nokia device today - and so lots of opportunities (to reach).

And now for my 3 showcase takeaways from the Nokia Connection 2010 event.

(1) Nokia X5 Hip with Colors, QWERTY Keyboard, Cool Spin & Shake Features

The Nokia X5 is the latest addition to the ever enlarging portfolio of Nokia's QWERTY keyboard devices.  It was just announced on 14 JUNE and will be availed in Indonesia in Q3 2010. The Nokia X5 feels nice when tucked in the palm of your hand. Slide the QWERTY keyboard out and you are on your way to access your favourite social networks on the nicely spaced out keyboard keys. View the video below which was recorded from the Nokia Connection 2010 event on other cool spin and shake features of the Nokia X5!




How cool is that?

1. Spin the Nokia X5 to change the music track.
2. Shake the Nokia X5 to hear beeps on how many unread sms you have.

(2) Local Apps from South East Asia Pacific

Presenting Nerd Attack, a 2 man company based in Malaysia who had developed upon their web design background with Web Run Time skills, built more than 10 apps in the past 1 year, working on regional South East Asia Pacific apps to the Nokia Ovi Store. 

Key app titles from Nerd Attack include:

1. Sky News Australia
2. KL Traffic
3. Headlines
4. I-S Mobile

Presenting Nanyang Polytechnic, an educational institution based in Singapore, whose students had developed 9 apps (sms utilities, fun casual games and more) which have generated more than 500,000 downloads globally from the Nokia Ovi Store (October 2009 to 14-June 2010). Have a look at the video below on Nanyang Polytechnic's apps. And there are many more upcoming in Nanyang Polytechnic's apps pipeline - so stay tuned.



 

Presenting Breakdesign, a 3 man South African award winning Adobe Flash developer team who are now based in Singapore. The Breakdesign team have developed Barking Seed, which is an indie mobile gaming community that connects players together with social elements tied into a portfolio of flash games, now available exclusively globally from the Nokia Ovi Store (more than 635,000 downloads globally in last 4 to 5 months till 14-JUNE and growing). More about Breakdesign in a later post. Have a look at the 2 videos from 2 of the founders Rick Treweek and Stefan Wessels below.







Here Rick talks about Barking Seed.





Here Stefan introduces the latest new Barking Seed enabled game title (very soon to be launched exclusively to the Nokia Ovi Store) 10PM!

(3) Nokia N8 Smartphone HDMI Dolby Stereo Video Showcase

The Nokia N8 was showcased, attached via HDMI cable to a plasma TV and a home entertainment set. Imagine the possibilities ... 

Signing out from the 3 showcase takeaways from the Nokia Connection 2010 event in Singapore. The possibilities are endless with Nokia's leading market share, consumer reach, new upcoming Devices and local Apps. What are your thoughts?




cheers,
Nelson Wee
@nelsonwee

For other related links to Nokia Connection 2010, do refer below:
1. VR-Zone's Post on Nokia Connection 2010
2. TechieLobang.com post on "Nokia Connection 2010 Debut N8 and Unveil X5"
3. Hip to be Square: Two Xseries launches at Nokia Connection (photo gallery)
4. Nokia N8: First hands-on reactions (what the media are saying)

3 Social News Apps for a Nokia Phone

In a previous post "4 Trends in New Digital Media Development", I wrote briefly about a trend where media consumption is going beyond only individual consumption.  There are now increasingly more applications and services from the media publishers available from the Apps Stores which are incorporating social sharing features.  Have a look below a good 2X2 overview chart from Distimo on the current Apps Stores in the market today.

In a report which Distimo wrote (yes, they do provide free monthly reports on apps stores, the downloads performance and killer categories etc), it was mentioned that by far the most sticky of all mobile apps was from the news and info genre - most sticky as a function of of frequency of use and lowest level of churn (this of course depends on the quality of the content).  From my usage of apps on my phone, I certainly do not discount this observation one bit.  In fact, all the 3 apps below - 2 from the news content genre and the last a Twitter client are on the home screen of my phone and constitute my daily news media fix in the mornings before I start work!

App #1: Snaptu - dashboard to News, Facebook, Twitter and more!

Snaptu offers me my daily news fix.  It is a free ads funded app which provides a dashboard to various business (e.g. economist, new york times), technology (e.g. techcrunch, gizmodo), content (e.g. paidcontent.org), entertainment news (e.g. tmz), sports (e.g. reutersports), weather forecast etc.  And the coolest social sharing thing? I could share interesting news articles and information nuggets to my Facebook Wall, my twitter account or an email address!  I am currently using Snaptu on my Nokia N97 mini device but this app is also available for other platforms.  Enough said, catch the video on this cool app.

Other reviews and information on Snaptu can be found below:
- Snaptu on Facebook 
- oneforty.com


App #2: AP Mobile - Stellar News Reader from Associated Press - text, photos and video news!

I like the AP Mobile App from the Associated Press as it provides me with excellent news categorisations by region, country and also by media, i.e. text, photos and even streaming videos.  It is certainly a very nice and rich news media reader and ... you guessed it, social sharing tool - allowing you to share the news article you found interesting to your Twitter account or an email address or Delicious or even a text message!  I run AP Mobile app on my Nokia N97 mini but it also works on other platforms as well.  Check out the AP Mobile website for more details.


App #3: Gravity - Gorgeous Twitter App for multiple Twitter accounts and image uploading

Thanks to all of you wonderful online friends, my Twitter account is by far and large the most up-to-date news channel for me.  I get deja vu when I listen to the radio DJs using old news or the news channel on the TV.  And so, talking about Gravity. This richly featured Twitter App, which by the way, looks simply gorgeous, is a main stay as one of the home screen shortcut icons on my Nokia N97 mini.  It allows me to configure multiple Twitter accounts (if I have more than one, at this point only @nelsonwee), upload pictures to various Twitter Image services like TwitPic, monitor Twitter trends, form groups, get audio alerts etc.

Have a look at the following video on Gravity.

As for entertainment on the move, there are a couple more other apps I could talk about, probably in a subsequent post. 

Catch you later.
Nelson Wee
@nelsonwee