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Posts: 631 | Thanked: 1,123 times | Joined on Sep 2005 @ Helsinki
#47
Originally Posted by SD69 View Post
As to UI, you've got it backwards, S60 was designed for one thumb operation on cell phones and S80 was designed specifically for the Communicator, which had unusually wide screen format, four soft keys, function keys and QWERTY, and is very DISsimilar to Hildon. Changing the UI was NOT an easy change, like some imply.

Nokia/ES did not ignore these considerations. They made a business decision that S80 is a niche product with little 3rd party app support, that the field of handheld computer-like devices is getting very competitive, and that the migration to S60 was necessary to keep the product successful. They are trying to expand the appeal to business users, BB users, etc., who have never seen a Nokia device as a computer-like tool. Those people ask about software compatibility all the time. Their conclusion is that global sales of the S60 Communicator will exceed the sales of any previous Communicator in any previous year, and bring in NEW customers, and they are probably right. Nokia is a company that demands performance and looks 3 years out and not at the past.
I couldn't agree with you more, SD69.

I personally think that moving from S80 to S60 was an *easy* decision, really, and certainly the right decision. The communicator line and S80 was stagnated into its own position. Differences between S80 and S60 weren't certainly trivial.

Now, looking at E60, E61, E65, E90 all running essentially the same software platform, and running S60, makes it so much easier for software developers to make the decision to support it, instead of having to choose between S60 and S80. I don't see Nokia/ES management being "out of touch" with this issue at all. Talking on a general level, making features that a device with relatively limited popularity enjoy showstoppers - i.e. if the E90 wouldn't be able to come to the market without having those features - would really be a silly idea.

S80 really enjoyed a very limited set of 3rd party software support - compared to S60 - at the end of the day. It's a long term move, but you should already easily see and understand the advantages of that move.