Nokia N9 raised the bar for smartphone operation systems. The innovative swipe user interface (UI) gained a lot of attention from mobile phone users, developers, producers and tech journals. Winning several awards by different organizations, the N9 with MeeGo Harmattan is certainly very admired.
With the idea to set new standards in smartphone use and interaction, Nokia developers had thought beyond of what has been on the market and invented a phone, which is similar to what we are used to, but at the same time very different.
A wasted potential
Nokia often has been a step ahead of other smartphone manufacturers, but rarely knew how to merchandise their potential products the right way. Unfortunately this didn't change with the N9 and got even worse. Nokia's change of strategy under CEO Stephen Elop (former Microsoft employee) made the N9 and MeeGo Harmattan suffer a lot. With a small sales territory, restricted support and a heavily reduced developer team, the N9 had to make place for Microsoft Windows Phone. But why?
Giving a right answer is difficult and bolt. It's pretty obvious though, that the N9 seems to be a big threat to the inferior and rather unpopular Windows Phone - such a big intern concurrence certainly was not in the interest of the new Nokia-Microsoft collaboration (where Microsoft seems to dictate a lot).
While Nokia is loosing a lot of money, market share and loyal fan base with a not (yet?) successful new strategy, the N9 is a waiting bundle full of potential which could have brought some variety to the more and more Android and iOS dominated smartphone market.
Who needs buttons?
A highlight of the MeeGo phone are certainly the swipe user interface and the first convincing live-view multitasking. Equipped with a very intuitive user interface the user doesn't need a single button to operate the phone (with an application like ShakeLock even locking the device works button-free). In our opinion a smartphone doesn't only have to be able to do smart tasks, but also being smart enough to do it as simple as possible. Not only swipe gestures achieve that, but also Nokia-typical features like bluetooth sharing or NFC (which now finally comes to phones like the new Samsung Galaxy S3).
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| Is thats how phone evolution looks like? Certainly in the eyes of a N9 admirer. |
When Swipe UI becomes Flow UI
RIM recently announced their new BlackBerry 10 OS which it has a remarkable similarity to MeeGo Harmattan. Like the N9 it uses a similar method to switch between applications/windows (called Flow UI by RIM) leaving out frontside buttons. Thorsten Heins, president and CEO of RIM, presented their new operation system the following way (watch video of presentation here):
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| "Flow UI" and multitask view on BlackBerry 10 |
Aside from the similar user interface, RIM wants to focus using Nokias QT-framework for their future operation systems. Therefore it looks a lot like RIM's new smartphone concept could "inherit" a couple features of the N9.
Thoughts come up if RIM tries to copy the N9. Well, in some parts certainly yes - nevertheless there are differences and additions like a very innovative keyboard or notification system. Compared to Nokia's executive suite, RIM seems to fully stand behind this concept and sees the potential of an operation system which is different than what most people are used too.
Design-wise BlackBerry 10 OS is not in par yet with MeeGo Harmattan (in our opinion), but we follow curiously its development. Although the biggest wish remains: A Nokia N10, a legit successor of the N9.
