Ovum: Nokia Nseries: setting the agenda for mobile multimedia or losing the plot?

Eden Zoller at Ovum provides a thorough analysis of the Nokia Nseries and the company's attempt "to set the agenda for mobile multimedia and produce the defining device category for this market. Nokia calls the Nseries a multimedia computer: a fully converged, feature-rich class of device that it predicts will make single-purpose devices like the iPod obsolete."

Zoller likes Nokia's vision and "emphasis on the convergence between the mobile content world and the Internet, or more precisely next-generation Internet or Web 2." She believes "This is a key driver behind the Nseries, and in line with this Nokia has announced a new range of partnerships for web-based services. The most prominent is a partnership with Yahoo!-owned Flickr, which will give Nseries users access to the huge online photography management and sharing community of the same name. Nokia also launched Nokia Nseries Studio, an online community run by Nokia that encourages users of Nseries phones with a video recorder to create and send in films that can be stored, viewed and shared online."

While the services might be great for consumers, they probably won't help network operators generate extra revenue from content service, "although they will, in theory, help drive data traffic (but this is partly dependent on operator data tariffs). The Nseries devices are also not geared for operator channels and Nokia concedes that a "sizeable part" of Nseries sales are through third-party outlets."

While Nokia is positioning the Nseries "as a new class of mobile device - a converged, feature-rich, web-optimised multimedia computer," and it "maintains that convergence of this kind is the way forward and single-purpose devices are dead," Zoller believes otherwise. She states that:

While we agree that convergence is happening and that devices will need new features, we don't think you need to put everything into a single device, or at least not just yet for most people. The vast majority of users still gravitate to compact, nicely designed mid-range phones optimised to support a set of related applications, and will continue to do so for the medium term. Phones that support full-track music downloads, music video clips and photos are a prime example. This is also what the iPod now does, minus connectivity (so not quite the single-purpose device Nokia would have us believe).

She also points out the "Nseries devices they are in fact optimised around a particular application or, in Nokia speak, a "lead experience". The Nseries devices are optimised for either video, photography or music, although all are based on Symbian/Series 60, have high-end megapixel cameras, are music oriented and have good browsing."

Zoller then looks at the features and functions of the Nseries and writes "The existing Nseries models have been doing well for Nokia, and five million units have shipped since the third quarter of last year. The N70 is now one of the best selling 3G phones in the world and is a much more modest affair than the N93 and N91. The N70 has done well because it is a good all-round 3G phone with some nice features." Zoller concludes that:

The convergence of mobile content and the Internet means we are moving away from domain-centric devices to portable devices as the major control mechanism for access to content and services. Nokia recognises this and wants to make sure the connected multimedia computer is the hub in this universe. However, this shift is not happening overnight and neither is there high demand for the kind of full-on convergence envisioned by Nokia - not yet. In this respect, Nokia is ahead of market development rather than totally out of step with what is happening. We think Nokia probably knows this, and what Nseries is really about is shaking things up, setting an agenda and ensuring that Nokia, its products and services sit centre stage.