Google’s sense of design for the future

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It seems almost crazy to see a massive piece on Google design given the history but if you’ve been using Android recently you’ve probably noticed some great things. I’ve discussed the differences between iOS and Android quite a few times and the more you use things on both platforms the more things that might seem like small details start to add up …

Examples like these happen everywhere in iOS, and they’re painfully obvious when compared to Lollipop, the latest version of Android. There, your notifications appear in a drawer, again from the top of the phone. But every one takes you directly to an action inside an app, making it foolproof to get into maps or Uber or Facebook. There’s intelligence behind what you see: A algorithm that invisibly figures out what notifications are most important to you, and serves those up first. There are hardly any chances to swipe wrong. You won’t end up in a place you hadn’t expected. In so many places, Android is so much more logical, the details so much more alive. Tapping any button sends a wash of color across the screen, like a ripple across a pond—a smart way of underscoring your taps, while hiding the teensy bit of lag that occurs as you wait for app to response.

Such attention to detail used to be Apple’s thing. Today, that distinction falls to Google. Unveiled last year, Material Design—Google’s evolving design language for phones, tablets, and desktop—offers relentless consistency in interactions; invisible rules that govern everything, so that every app feels familiar; and beauty in the service of function. It’s why so many designers will tell you, as they’ve told me, “I just like Android better.” Whereas iOS is still inching along without improving much, Google is creating a coherent, unified language that easily scales across phones, with enough flexibility to jump to watches and cars. “It’s not even about composing a UI in one place,” says Nicholas Jitkoff, who helped lead the creation of Material Design. “It’s about composing interactions from one device to the next.”

FastCo Design

When I woke up this morning there were over 100 notifications on my iPhone lockscreen from Google Photos which is processing the 90,000+ photos uploading from our home computer.  There were quite a few additional bits from other apps like email and news I use but a single action of opening / unlocking the device and they are all gone … Forever. On android things are nicely packaged together and importantly are not destroyed if I swipe in or act upon a single piece.

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The considerations that have evolved in Material Design and that consider to evolve are very clearly focused on the ever changing waybin which we use our devices. It’s easy to say there is copying going on between the two key platforms but that misses the important nuances that really highlight the focus Android has on enhancing the real user experience.

Unnecessary use of location services

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Fandango is looking to track us ..: or at least that’s the impression this implementation of location services suggests. The “while using” option would be totally fine and expected and is what Movie Tickets has opted to do. Apple pushed the reminder about location being used in the background which is what suggested I even look …

I’m sure there’s a built in response for that’s how we can deliver “at theater” value but the main use case here is drop the tickets into passbook.

Quick update … Just got another notice for Apple’s Trailers app which also uses the same mechanism for location. Maybe I’m over thinking this but it really seems like overkill.

We Pay for Digital Media

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With a family of 5 and a lot of screens our bill is likely at least as high if not much more. AppleTV is our go to for movies on demand and the number of apps (in both app stores) we’ve utilized year over year is too high to try and tabulate.  I’m not opposed to paying for quality and utility and have certainly entered my password countless times.  Those small tolls really add up.

Nick Bilton explains …

I was tallying my spending of the last year, and much to my surprise, I spent $2,403 in one category. No, that wasn’t on clothes. It wasn’t on my most recent vacation, either. And it wasn’t the total of all my parking tickets (though that did feel as if it came close).

The $2,403 is what I spent on digital media.

But wait, people are spending money online? On media? Didn’t music industry executives declare, “People won’t pay for things online!”? Yes, as did movie industry executives. TV, radio, book, newspaper and magazine bigwigs, too, have all made similar claims over the last decade.

Well, those apocalyptic predictions turn out to be wrong.

I am spending more on digital media than I used to spend on the physical stuff. (The federal government says the average American family spent $2,572 on all entertainment, not just digital, in 2011.) And I know why I am spending more on digital media.

Digital media, unlike its slow cousin, is immediate. In the past, if friends mentioned a good book they had just finished, people made a note (mental or on a scrap of paper) to pick it up during their next visit to the bookstore or library. The same went for other items like CDs, DVDs or magazines.

via NYTimes.com.

Ditching IPhone for Android

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GigaOm via Businessweek has a piece by Matthew Ingram and his decision process in (probably) moving to Android from an iPhone. If you haven’t noticed, I’ve been somewhat having the same thought process here. Android with Jelly Bean has become a very powerful platform and the more I’ve played and used it regularly (over the past few years) the more I like it. Up until recently though I’ve still largely leaned on the iPhone for a lot of things but I’ve begun to reach the conclusion that’s largely unnecessary. Here’s a quick look at my daily usage …

Core Apps:

  • Gmail / Email for both personal and work accounts. Yes it’s silly there are two apps and even sillier that they work a bit differently but this is not a critical issue for me.
  • Chromea bit of a no-brainer perhaps, but it’s rather awesome on Android.  Everything (almost) syncs.  I can’t seem to get my passwords to load, but tabs and history are all there across every screen I use.
  • Reader HD – I love this application and it’s become my workhorse for Google Reader consumption.
  • Pocket – I’ve used the competing read it later services and really just love Pocket.  I’ve even recently installed this on my Mac so I’ve got the full loop.  The Chrome extension is a key part of the equation.
  • Everything else I need or want to use is also there … Google+, Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Instagram, Tumblr, WordPress, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Flickr (better on iPhone actually), Flipboard, SoundCloud, Spotify, Snapseed, Dropbox etc etc … all good.

 

The main place iOS still wins is in depth of games, but even that particularly on the more casual side, things are changing very rapidly in favor of Android users.

 

I think I might have felt that battery life was better on iPhone in the past, but my iPhone 4S eats battery just lying around and when I use it things drain just as aggressively.  On the Galaxy Note, before I changed the ROM, the battery was amazingly solid.  Given my choice to run an early beta of CM10, I’m sacrificing some time.  I might actually go back just to get the battery life back.

The things I really love about Android though are how you can move between applications in a fluid and frictionless way.  On iPhone you can only move content or share with the things the developer or sometimes Apple has selected for you.  On Android, you can share to quite a few applications at any given time.  This means I can quickly save content to Pocket from everywhere, blog something from just about everywhere and share a picture or link to any service I want.

I’m in control and I like it that way.

I need to maintain access to iOS for work purposes, but I could definitely be very comfortable without my iPhone in my pocket at this point.

very quick camera test: iPhone 4S vs Nokia Lumia 820

Here’s a very quick outside shot sample test between the iPhone and Lumia.  These are straight shots with no adjustment or change in settings.

Looking out at the deer path leaving our backyard …

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To my eye the Lumia is delivering a richer shot. Color is better – the sky shows more blue, leaves pop more and the grass is greener.  The iPhone (3264 × 2448 pixels) uses many more pixels here as well compared to the Lumia (1278 × 720).

No Early iPhone 5 Upgrade for You … or Me

Like I’m sure many people did yesterday, I checked the upgrade availability for the new iPhone 5 on Apple’s site, but I was surprised to see that unlike previous years, there is no early access.  Instead, what I found was that I am “eligible” for the unsubsidized price until May which is obviously disappointing.

I have no intention of paying $649 for the 64GB phone or even $449 for the 16GB option. I can’t imagine I’m the only one in this situation as I bought the 4S when it was initially released.  Not sure what this might do to those anticipated holiday sales, but it’s likely to slow a large portion of the potential upgraders into next year as a result.

Now would be a great opportunity for another carrier (hello, VZW, Can you Hear me now?) to swoop in and offer a competitive switch opportunity.  It could generate a great deal of good will, brand love and of course a new base of recurring payments on the network.  This is common in car sales where a competing brand might offer a dealer incentive to get you out of another car’s lease early.  I don’t believe there is any precedent in wireless for this, but hey no time like the present!

Apparently Consumers Don’t Trust Google or Apple With Mobile Payments

An interesting study from Ogilvy … and a not so surprising response given our historical payment relationships are with the traditional payment brands. Should be interesting to track changes here though as it’s quite clear that Apple and Google will both be evolving considerable solutions. Even though Apple has yet to formally announce payments, they already have over 200 Million cards on file and are ready to roll. With or without NFC.

via Adage

 

Google Sync For iPhone

I guess I knew about this, but had yet to consider why I’d want to switch my Gmail config over to Google Sync.  5 minutes later I can assure you that it’s the right move.

Thanks to Business Insider’s quick guide, you can setup sync for Mail, Calendar and Contacts which has immediately reconciled my years of .Mac BS sync conflicts and duplications in contacts and added a multi-calendar view as well.  Mail remains the same …

With the addition of Google+, I’m  deep in Google services and this just keeps it all nicely together. And no I don’t have any invites at the moment unfortunately …

 

 

 

Not my favorite color

Last night’s launch of Color is certainly getting a ton of press. They have a great team, a ton of cash and an interesting app – at least on paper. Having tried to use it a few times in the day as well as last night, I’m not sure I’m really going to care all that much.

The purpose of Color seems to be enabling social through the intention of proximity. In other words, you are able to share because you are close to someone else. You might not (and probably don’t) know these people but because you are nearby you can gain a new and shared perspective. I think that’s a pretty cool idea. What I would really like to see however, is the inclusion of my existing social network so that I can also get a prioritized and shared view with people I already have a real interaction with — even if these are just digital buddies. I love social discovery, but not at the exclusion of my existing base.

I transitioned from Instagram to Picplz and much like my journey from twitter to jaiku (and back to twiiter). I engaged with a community of people with shared interests. In many cases these interests actually came from using the services. Picplz and instagram are really quite similar. They are both simple, let you have fun with your photos and make it very easy to share externally as well. What I also like about both is that I can use an existing picture and then push it out which means I have the original locally to my device – and in the case of picplz also backed up on dropbox. Color forces me to snap a new picture of myself as an ID and then continues to “force” me to snap a new picture if I want to share. Perhaps part of this is due to the focus on that shared perspective of a location (the context of the social to begin with), but it forces a very strict type of sharing.

Color comes with no instructions and initially the UI while completely fresh, is far from easy to use. There don’t seem to be any guidelines with how things are used or shared and that actually bothers me. Because it’s far from self-evident, I find a level of discomfort here and that’s not good. Also, because Color is complex not actually that fun. When I installed it a second time on my Nexus S I had to start over. My presence from the iPhone was in no way transferable … in fact it seems as though you are essentially disposable. Without a way to associate yourself to your content or contacts, you just float through.

I shared the hype of Color last night with some co-workers and quite a few people actively played with it today around the office so it’s easy to see how a collection of people and images starts to work. I’m just not sure it’s actually for me.

I usually get a good feel quickly and Color is making me work too hard to use it.

Apple’s Post-PC BS

Apple’s claim that we are in the post-pc era is a load of garbage. This weekend I had the pleasure of updating our iOS household and it required a lot of tethering a lot of time and thanks to one particular failure quite a bit of frustration.

As anyone who’s purchased an iPad knows to activate even the wifi only device requires a sync with iTunes which of course requires both a computer and a cable. iTunes controls everything. It downloads the updates, confirms your device is authorized and flashes things over … all via the cable. In our house, we sync two iPads and two iPhones on two different computers though we share the same AppleID to ensure we can easly share apps and content.

Things were generally smooth for my devices which sync through my older MacBookPro. The update process on the iPad took a very long time, while the iPhone was processed a bit more quickly. In both cases you have to back-up, acknowledge the update, (though backup first) and the sync and restore … iTunes takes care of this, but it’s quite the process.

My wife syncs against her PPC Mac Mini which is older and slower. Her iPhone updated as expected, but the iPad failed. The failure occurred sometime over night. It had already taken hours for the backup and I just left it running when we went to bed. Unfortunately things did not resolve well … Failure in sync for those who have not lived through this means you have to start fresh. Fresh means nothing on your device. You can of course re-download everything or try to restore. Given how long the initial process ran, I opted for the quicker route … this is where the Post-PC BS really comes into play. There is absolutely no direct way to download everything again from the iPad. You have to hunt for everything all over and download them one at a time … You also really get to appreciate Apple’s design of the App Store which closes out on you for each download.

In contrast, on Android when you sign into your Google Account all your apps, settings and preferences come right down. When I upgraded to the Nexus S from the One, I found even my hidden wifi networks auto-reconnected when I was nearby. When I played with the Xoom recently, my apps did not download immediately (presumable to enable preferences between phone and tablet) but did all nicely line up in the Market ready for a single click to download again.

Apple’s reliance on the computer is certainly friendly for the lower end user, but is incredibly limiting for the more advanced consumer. There’s nothing post-pc about connecting to the pc to do the heavy lifting.

Content Shifting

I’ve had this post from Fred Wilson bookmarked since this morning and I’m finally getting back around to formalizing a few thoughts.  First the notion of content shifting is something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately.  As someone who works on multiple devices (sometimes concurrently) keeping things (and myself actually) in sync is not so simple.  Beyond just the basics, the actual content consuption bits from my digital adventures are really the parts I’m interested in connecting as I move between locations and contexts.

While I don’t have everything sorted just yet, one thing I’ve been really keen on lately is Pinboard.  I discovered Pinboard during the del.icio.us is closing chaos and am really pleased I did because it is an incredibly powerful, yet also very simple tool.  It’s not perfect in replacing delicious sharing for me, but it’s making up for things with some new features considerably.  The best thing Pinboard does is capture all my shared links from Twitter, Google Reader, and Instapaper in addition to backing up my delicious bookmarks and of course saving any new ones.  This auto-collection process makes it dead simple for me to manage my reading and really has been awesome for making sure I know where all my links have gone.  I can call stuff up or save more from within Chrome via extension, on iPhone with Delibar or bookmarklet and on Android with PinDroid.  This is far more around my collection rather than consumption of content, though one additional feature Pindroid and instapaper manage is what’s been read vs unread.  I can’t say I use that much as I’m just happy to have a simple point of capture, but it’s worth noting …

On the media consumption side of things, Netflix is really the only service I’ve seen that enables stopping and resuming between devices on your account and this has been great for my family and our small army of iDevices.

I’ve yet to find a good music solution for resume … Rdio comes close with the browser player, but as best as I can tell, you can’t pick an album or playlist up where you left it.  Pandora definitely doesn’t work that way at all …

Kindle is pretty bulletproof for books and something I love, but there’s still a lot of room to improve across other content types.

Print to any printer from your iPad

Printing from the iPad ... #handy

I don’t actually print very often, but it’s nice to have the option and given the amount of time spent with an iPad in my hand it tends to be my primary screen. As you might already know AirPrint is limited to a small handful of the latest HP printers and given I’ve got an Epson at home, I’m SOL for the time being … or so I thought.

Volker Weber published a very simple howto to get printing going with any printer via Macs running 10.6.5. Follow the instructions … it worked great for me and I printed my first test page within a few minutes.

The iPad

Where to even start …

I’ve been using the iPad since it first shipped and it’s a seriously impressive device. My initial usage like many was over the Easter weekend and I was away with family so while I certainly got a taste, it was not quite the full immersion that followed …

I’ve purchased two iPads. The first to arrive is obviously the Wifi model and I chose to get the 32GB version as it will be used by my wife mainly along with the kids – who love it. When they ship I’ll also have a 64GB 3G unit as my own to use and plan to keep it fairly constantly connected. I’ve been using my old Nokia E71 with Joikuspot as my mobile modem for the iPad while my Mifi is down for the count …

On first startup sadly the iPad reveals it’s greatest weakness which is that you need a computer to get going and of course to sync most of your content. In 2010 this is a ridiculous requirement, but it is sadly still how Apple sees the world. I did not take my Mac with me for my initial weekend of use and had a momentarily panic attack realizing I might not have any way to activate the device and get going. Fortunately my father in law invited me to use his system and within a few moments we cleared the silly dialog and were online. It’s unclear why Apple requires this initial step at all really since I did not sync or register the product through the machine … it seemed to only require a few seconds of connectivity to be ready. Apple was at least kind enough to ship it fully charged.

At home the iPad is truly a stellar device. You can do anything you might want to in a casual situation. I love reading on the large screen and instantly found that the iPad has become my default device for anything online. The speed is awesome! I find it more enjoyable than my few year old MacBookPro for everything and if it was possible to edit photos through some iPad Aperture / iPhoto app, I’d probably use it for that as well. I find typing on the onscreen keyboards to be simple enough. Tapping out email is easy and while it took a few moments to find my ideal seated position, I find I can enter text from most positions now without too much effort. While writing this piece, I chose to pair my old Stowaway Sierra Bluetooth keyboard and have tapped away in the iPad WordPress app. This is actually quite the combination. I don’t really like needing two pieces, but it does meet my current desire to do just about everything on the iPad. 😉

During the week, I’ve commute as I normally do and as regular readers know I have a long enough commute that the usual mobile device battery takes a beating before I even get to the office. The iPad easily crushes this test and I’m only seeing minimal battery loss (unlike the iPhone’s 40+%) and can get to the office with no more than 10% drained … usually considerably more still charged. At the office I’m on Wifi all day (on mail, web, taking notes and reviewing files) and don’t see any reason to recharge, as the battery easily handles my day and has plenty of juice too make it home again with plenty left for some couch time. My only complaint and it’s hard to call it that is that I can’t get on my work VPN.  I’m hopeful that the 4.0 OS release and the upcoming Cisco VPN software will enable network browsing so I can more easily access remote files.

Given the obvious amount of touching, you can expect your iPad to look something like this after a while:

Signs of use #ipad

As gross as that looks it does wipe right off and I admittedly tend to be more conscious of the hand grease now.  That shot obviously caught the light in a pretty clear way.

An easier access to the file system would be welcome, but GoodReader is pretty much handling most of my filing for now.  Apple could definitely tune up the business side of the house on this.  In my travels I’ve encountered a few other enthusiasts all using the iPad in some work capacity.  Everyone gets the initial home use, but we all also want much more on the professional side.

As my kids get a bit older and it’s time to consider a personal computer (not one they share) I will probably have a hard time justifying an iMac over whatever the iPad evolves into.  It’s small and powerful and as I’ve seen already completely native to how my kids interact with technology now.

The post-iPad digital home

I’ve been thinking about the potential impact the iPad will make on my home and there’s a natural progression for a certain hobby of Apple’s which of course is AppleTV.

If the iPad succeeds at becoming the predominant home use system as I believe it easily can, it could really be an “instead of” not an “in addition to” sort of thing.  Let me explain …

Apple is positioning the iPad as a third device category which it definitely is as they’ve laid out the initial plan.  Once it arrives though, the amount of time my MacBookPro is going to get at home will be quite limited.  Currently the MacBookPro sits on my desk fully wired and connected to an array of devices.  I’ve got 3 hard drives, a slew of USB widgets and a second monitor.  Our home media collection streams via an AppleTV connected through our whole house AV system and enables music to stream anywhere and video you reach any tv.  The AppleTV is the set top box and my MacBookPro is essentially serving as an overpriced NAS.    When it’s time to do some photo or video processing I do need the Mac, but that’s something I do occasionally rather than daily.

The AppleTV or some revised iteration (Mac Mini home server edition?) combining network connected storage and speed could easily replace the Mac and sit on a rack in a closet hosting our personal cloud.  While the AppleTV works well, it’s been restricted based on lack of attention.  The iPad’s sync capability needs to be adjusted slightly to accommodate wireless sync, but as that’s already something AppleTV handles easily it should not be too challenging a change.

How might this all this all start to work together?

  • When I walk into the home and connect to the network, the iPad would know to sync with my home automatically.  Any media captured, files created or changed would automatically push up to the system waiting at home and the network would also push new content found (podcasts downloaded, pre-ordered new content etc) back to me keeping both sides current.
  • Other iPads would also be notified and could suggest we exchange mutual files based on tags of each other (faces from iPhoto, shared playlists, calendar updates, “digital fridge notes” etc)
  • While in the home, we’d be able to move media fluidly between screens.  Watching a video on the TV, but want to continue it in the home office or bed?  No problem, the iPad easily receives the stream and lets you continue where you left off.  Music could be handled in the same way … someone wants to watch a video in the family room when you are listening to music, simply switch the stream over to the iPad.
  • Apple’s Remote app for iPhone is a nice but limited suggestion on how home media control might work given the smaller screen of the iPhone.  With the iPad, you really can have a substantial view and control of what’s playing across various rooms in the home.

This is of course my “limited” future vision for how these things might come together, but I think speaks to the reality we could be living in as soon as later this year.

Configure Safari for Apps

Configure Safari for Gallery

An interesting development within the .Mac Gallery App for iPhone is the ability to configure the iPhone to redirect activity to the app over the browser.

I could easily see this evolving quickly to include all kinds of apps that can deliver a richer experience over the browser.  If you are a publisher, this seems like a no-brainer.  The New York Times showed off their swanky new iPad app this week and I would certainly want to direct traffic to that once installed.  The mobile web is great, but the richer experience of the application is much more compelling.

The potential for a brand to earn greater traction within their app just by tweaking an existing consumer behavior – clicking a shared link in email –  is quite high in this case and something I definitely want to consider for client engagements we develop in the near term.

BTW – The Gallery app also includes  a friend feature which while totally manual in nature (adding people) is I believe Apple’s first real nod to social connections.

iPad offers a clean slate

iPad

What is the iPad?

On the surface, the iPad is a larger iPod Touch.  What it represents however, is an opportunity for considerably more.  While tablets have been tried many times and failed, Apple is leading the curve of thinking with a very new approach that solves against emerging consumer technology needs.  Instead of taking the failed routes of the past and forcing a desktop computing metaphor into a touch-based interface, Apple has instead evolved the mobile phone experience developed for the iPhone into a broader experience.

It’s easy to see the form factor and initial core apps as just larger format iPod apps, but the extra speed, enhanced multi-touch controls, 10-hour battery and larger size reveal the potential for Apple to extend into a few possible areas.  All day connected access in an ultralight and slim form factor is very strong base on which to build.  As much as we tend to use our iPhones now the experience will only evolve substantially through a more immersive and engaging platform like the iPad.  Size matters.

Apple has clearly covered their core mobile applications, but provided all the cues on how to enhance applications from the iPhone into the iPad format.  Using the new enhanced gesture controls and UI components a standard for handheld computing can quickly and consistently evolve.  The core suite of multimedia functions combined with an enhanced (larger & faster) browsing experience and the iTunes Store ecosystem for content delivery and management make for a robust out of the box experience.  In typical fashion, Apple has thought through the entire user experience.

With iBooks, the iPad handily defeats the Kindle DX even with fewer launch titles.  The recently announced Kindle API will have to combat the inertia from what Apple has already earned with 140,000 (compatible) applications.  Apple’s battery life (claim) removes the perceived limitation of color screen ebook readers.  The lower than expected screen resolution and pixel density may have some eye-strain impact, but we will have to wait and see if there are any true complaints or issues.

On first glance the lack of both a 16×9 format screen and an HD output may seem like critical oversights, but seeing how Apple is crafting a new category, it’s easy to see why they are actually very smart choices.  The iPad’s Pixel-doubling screen technology enables the vast library of existing iPhone apps to work automatically and why would we want to play HD video from the iPad to an HDTV, when it’s most likely going to remain in our hands for multi-screen consumption.

Pricing is very competitive and considering this is likely to be a 3rd mobile device following a phone and laptop, it needs to be.  Apple announced that all iPads will be sold unlocked unlike the iPhone, so regardless of whether there’s a carrier deal in place, there’s little risk for an international purchase.

What’s particularly interesting for the iPad is what lies ahead.  A new category means the opportunity for new use cases.  Many companies have envisioned how the digital home or office will evolve and Apple has provided a clean slate on which to ponder new opportunities.

Nokia offers Free Navigation to everyone

Nokia free navigation

Today Nokia announced Maps with free navigation for everyone which is a very big deal.  Previously the only way to get turn by turn navigation was to buy a Navigator device. Nokia had offered free trials of the navigation service on most newer mid to higher end devices but to put it all out there is a very powerful offer.

The goes beyond just the turn by turn piece and includes all the premium content within Maps – again a very cool and substantial detail. You now have full access to all the premium content:

  • Free Drive navigation
  • Free Walk navigation
  • Free maps and map updates
  • Free Events guides
  • Free Lonely Planet guides
  • Free Michelin guides

When Google first announced Android 2.0 would include free navigation it was a bold move, and became an instant black eye for everyone else.  Nokia’s initial response with the 5800 Navigation Edition was pretty limited by comparison while today’s play is substantially more bold!  I’m sure this was not an easy pill for management to swallow given Navigation is one of the larger revenue generating services.

Nokia’s reach and share is still larger than anyone else’s and I expect others to follow suit as a result.  Consumers are now going to expect navigation as a standard feature of a smartphone – in the same way maps previously was.