search for n – the end

Well today marked the end of the Nokia “Search for N” treasure hunt.

The last time I spoke about this competition, I used the title in my blog posting. It was terribly naughty of me I know, I succumbed to the temptation that I think has overwhelmed most on the blogosphere. I chose a snappy title that would generate salivating eye-candy. The winners have been announced by each of the distinguished personalities who were chosen to promote this latest and greatest device. You can check them out on http://www.simon.co.za , http://pauljacobson.org, http://www.imod.co.za and http://www.nafisa.co.za. Of course if you are reading this you either weren’t too clued up about the competition or just love my startling wit.

That title certainly did wonders for my little blog. These past few wintry days have had me rubbing my palms together in vertiginous glee as I watched my stats rocket like Astro_Mike. But now, like the irrational exuberance that has sunk global financial capitals, my numbers are also plummeting back to reality. I have seen a lot of blogs, which once were of interest and actually injected ideas into the blogosphere succumb to this numbers game. It’s sad, when a blog degenerates to being about who can regurgitate the fasted, the latest video or health update of Susan Boyle or comment on the vacuous exploits of Julius Malema (oops, that’s the mainstream media). It’s sad when tags are more important than the actual story, that’s what porn sites do, but it could be argued that a lot of blogging is whoring yourself anyway.

On the positive side though, stats are interesting tools that can help you to understand your audience. It’s a skill any writer must grapple with. But there is a line between understanding and whoring that must be tread lightly. I was reading today about such a fine line that our President Zuma will have to tread when presenting his first state of the nation. In his case of course, that line is between serving the people of the country as a whole and satisfying the desires of narrow interest groups. Fortunately for me, even with the help of the Nokia N97, this is a precipice I am not near having to leap across.

search for N

When I was much younger with all my brothers and sisters on the farm, I used to wonder why the humans at the farm gave so much attention and treats to the Great Grandfather aka Dudley. True, he had been the one to father us all, but did he really need the best corn, the sweetest melon seeds, the crunchiest lettuce?
In the same way, I have always wondered why cellphone companies give the phones with the best capability, the smartphones, to executives and ‘old’ folks. I can see the rationale, that they have the wallets to support the exorbitant packages that invariably one must be tied to to use the technological marvels, but it’s very short-sighted. Last week, I was speaking to a senior colleage when suddenly we got cut mid-conversation. When he called me back, he bragged, “Sorry, I haven’t got used to my new iPhone… all you have to do is look at this thing and it does something”. It was absolutely hilarious, he was bragging about his new status symbol, that he could not use!! This is the fundamental problem with the pricing model used by providers. In an environment where young people are more likely to manipulate, update, modify and download all manner of bling such devices are just not accessible.

The iPhone which has in the Apple way, created such a hype or in the words of a zealot – revolutionised the smartphone, has an application store with thousands of applications. Unfortunately Apple is not known to be cheap and in South Africa, providers of any apple product take advantage of that fact to make it even more expensive. This is a shame because there are so many applications for the phone. Apple gets most of the revenue though, so the providers have to get their cut and the poor consumer gets shafted. Apple fans don’t seem to mind as they’ve got this superior device. It’s not called the ‘Jesus phone’ for nothing.

Blackberrys are traditionally boring smartphones with one killer application – email. This is the only phone that justified the “sell to executive types” angle. But it is also reacting to the iPhone by trying to be more appealing to consumers. It has an application store of its own but are those executive types going to be downloading all of those funky applications? Would it not make sense to sell a cheaper version and allow real geeks to play with it?

Nokia, for me, is a bit of a Toyota of mobiles. It does it all in a safe, reliable, functional way but doesn’t really excite. They have surprised me with their recent campaign to promote their newest and greatest ‘N’ phone, the N97. The global campaign is called surprisingly enough,  ‘Search for N’. They have enlisted the help of some of the technological glitterati of the SA blogosphere. The idea seems to be a spin of the old treasure hunt, only the ‘map’ is the blog and communication can be using email or even twitter. 5 Clues are leaked out and the first person to send the right answer wins one of these beauties. It’s pretty ingenious, maybe Nokia are more funky then I give them credit for.

Android. I know, it’s not a phone, it’s a platform. I had high hopes for this Google innovation but when MTN decided to match Vodacom and bring their own ‘exclusive’ bling toy to SA, I thought they would realise that this toy runs on Linux, has a platform that is mostly open source and a growing hacker community itching to get their hands on it. Unfortunately, it’s turned into a status toy and the HTC Dream has again been aimed at the executive market.

The phone that excites me is the Palm Pre. This phone is due for release in the States early next month. It promises to be the phone that hits the sweet spot between executive phone and consumer toy. It also seems to be designed from the ground-up to handle the requirements of a mobile environment. Unfortunately, all this info is based on a presentation, and there are none out in the wild. I’m not sure who’s going to bring it to SA but I have the dreaded feeling it’s going to be priced out of reach for those local enthusiasts with a geek edge.

My point, is that these phones could be subsidised at cheaper rates to encourage more people to access these phones. They could be marketed at younger people like students and the newly employed. I’m sure that their use of the phone to access data, would more than make up for the subsidy of the phones. Cell phone companies are of course reluctant to become data pipes but their revenue models lean too much to the other extreme.

These are my views on the different smartphones in South Africa. Click on the poll and share which smartphone you like the most.