Yesterday Tizen, the open source mobile os led by Samsung, IBM and the Linux Foundation announced the first pre-release of tools for developers to get their hands dirty.

Tizen was born from the remains of Meego that Nokia dumped in favour of Windows Mobile, leaving their partner IBM jilted and looking for a new partner. This played right into the hands of Samsung as they deliberated over WebOs another already proven operating system fell into their hands at no cost. No wonder they dropped the idea of purchasing WebOs for silly money.

Having a quick look, things look very promising. All the things that excited developers about WebOS seem to have been migrated into Tizen. The idea of html5 and javascript app development will give many hope, but the most exciting thing is the Tizen Web API based on the w3c spec. This may influence web browsers and web apps for future devices as these apis are the way the web will going.

The initial screenshots are not the most exciting in the world but looks are not everything in an alpha release and I am sure that  these things will be tweaked along the way.

So in the last year, Samsung have knocked Nokia and Apple from the top smartphone manufacturers, then they have gone and taken Nokia’s OS and if rumours are true are going to release a new phone range based on it in at the Barcelona Mobile Congress at the end of February.   If that wasn’t enough they also announced some cool connected TV technology at CES.

It would be good to get an android competitor, and one that is more open than the google controlled Android, but with bada and  Tizen along with being the largest android seller in the market it looks to me like Samsung hold all the cards.

I watched the Nokia research center 25th anniversary video and just ended up feeling disapointed.

Nokia, you had it all. the lower end market was yours, the 2nd and 3rd world market was yours, mobile payments through Nokia was growing, gps on phones wowed us and we actually started properly using apps and they first introduced webkit web browsers.

The video shows exactly what you did to get us where we are right now, so to drop the ball so badly makes me really feel for you.

So where did you go wrong?

Well it seems to be a number of reasons, each adding to the perfect storm of decline, not seen since my beloved Leeds united slip down the football divisions.

Innovation

Nokia being predominately a great hardware company, they just didn’t foresee touch as arriving so fast. Symbian developed when battery life was key, was super efficient but tweaked for touch meant it was slow and lagged compared to its competitors.

Design

“Nokia Grey” Think about your Nokia handsets. Majority will be grey or silver. Pretty much based around a similar and maybe dated look. You snooze you lose with design trends and they still haven’t got back on form. Suppose its better than Samsung’s “make it look like an apple device” design strategy ethically, but sales-wise its beaten you.

Indecision

Symbian yes/no, meego yes/no, windows yes/no. I mean where are we now? Symbian is on life support but not dead, meego won’t die and has potential if it can be resurrected or the web developers enemy, Microsoft. Just decide a strategy and let us know exactly what it is. Your nearly as bad as HP.

Microsoft

Now this is a gamble! The future of mobile is through a browser “FACT”. So from a company that was the first to introduce a webkit mobile browser, to turn to an internet explorer browser is like wiping your arse with no paper. It just makes anyone with standards cringe at the thought. You didn’t drop the ball, you let it bounce off your forehead “doh”. Nothing to do with a new American at the head of Nokia? Knee jerk reaction in my eyes.

Marketing

Well we are just not as brash here in Europe as our American world folks. This shows in the ability to shout about ourselves and engage. Apple and Google (android) shout and shout and developers listen. Nokia release and document but don’t shout about their achievements. More importantly they don’t integrate enough with developers. Great marketing needs great commitment in mobile, that needs developers building that community. Build it and they will come (omg I feel like Kevin Costner playing baseball and seeing shit)
Don’t get me wring

For many years Nokia was my favorite phones. I often tried others but always came back, but now have they just gone too far?