if connected

This post was originally published on my Forrester blog.

Today, Nokia announces its first netbook, called the Nokia Booklet 3G (press release, Nokia blog post). Like all netbooks, the Nokia Booklet 3G is essentially a miniature laptop PC and has more capability in common with the PC than with handheld devices like mobile phones. Despite misinformed advance speculation, the Booklet will run Windows and has an impressive claimed battery life of 12 hours.

In the flesh, the Booklet 3G has a neat modern design and a modern metallic appearance case. The screen and keyboard are both relatively large and well-proportioned.

Mobile operators are increasingly looking to extend their early successes in the mobile broadband market. This is the Booklet’s key differentiator: unlike almost all other netbooks, Nokia’s has an internal mobile broadband card with a SIM slot. Other netbooks rely on external USB mobile broadband modems for Internet access. The presence of this internal wireless modem is why the Booklet 3G is a natural extension to Nokia’s traditional phone handset product range.

Unlike most of Nokia’s key phone handset rivals — such as Samsung, LG, Apple — Nokia does not sell laptops today, and so is in danger of being outflanked by other handset makers that do offer laptops. Nokia will use the Booklet to support their operator customers and discourage them from taking rival handset makers’ netbooks.

Nokia’s challenge with the Booklet 3G will be how to communicate the offering in the market. Over the last couple of months Nokia has had to rebut repeated rumours which are at odds with its current strategy. The name of this netbook, the “Booklet” makes the device sound more like a MID or Internet tablet running a custom version of Linux, rather than the contemporary Windows netbook PC that is the Booklet. Additionally, Nokia now faces new and different competitors for the Booklet that are strong in the laptop PC space such as Dell, HP and Sony that are weak or non-existent players in mobile phones.

Nokia’s first Netbook deserves to do well. But Nokia must work hard to gain traction in this new product category.

Further reading:-

Refining Mobile Broadband Strategy In The Netbook Era

The Mobile Broadband Future – Tactics to Position On-the-Go Mobile Broadband for PCs

Other than Gmail, there’s been remarkably little innovation with email applications for many many years. Here’s a wishlist of features I’d love to see:

Ability to edit the subject lines of received messages. I’m fed up with people sending emails with blank subjects, or who reply to a message with an unrelated point so the subject is no longer right. It’s my message once I receive it, why do I have to be lumbered with someone else’s choice of subject line?

An easy way to convert a message into a calendar item or todo. I want a one-click way of creating an appointment. Ditto to turn a message into a todo item.

Use the email inbox for todos. It’s my inbox, I want to create todos and put them in my inbox along with messages from other people that I need to act on.

Smart handling of outgoing email servers. Laptops that move around connect to the Internet using different ISPs. It’s no longer good enough to have a single outgoing server tied to one ISP. Email programs should take this pain away from users.

Apple has repeatedly acted as a magnet for criticism with its trend towards offering hardware with non-user replaceable batteries. First with the iPod range, then the iPhone, and more recently with two of its MacBook laptops.

Rechargeable batteries do wear out. Each recharge has less capacity than previously. Typically, after 18 months of mobile phone use the battery will last for 70-80% of its original life. Hence the flak Apple has attracted.

But I’ve been pondering whether I’ve ever bought a replacement battery for any device I’ve owned: mobile phone, laptop, camera, mp3 player, games console or anything else. Or, if I’ve ever been issued with one by my employer for any of the various work laptops I’ve used.

I can think of only one instance, and it wasn’t for the Nokia mobile phone I used for four years, or for the two work laptops that managed under an hour of battery life by the time I gave them up.

Ironically, it was for my first generation iPod, which was shipped with a supposedly sealed in battery. Regardless, I bought a third party replacement, prised open the case, and fitted it.

Additional batteries are typically very expensive, hard to source, and the new batteries only become useful when most gadgets have been superseded by cheaper newer models of the gadget. Very few devices have a usable life of more than two to three years.

I really wonder if this is a case of most people’s perceptions being different from reality. Apple may be right here. But if our perception is at odds then Apple will still suffer reduced sales because of a perceived problem that doesn’t exist for most.

Postscript – Despite the above, I bet my iPhone will be the next device that needs a new battery mid life!

Unusually, while commuting to the office on the tube yesterday, I used my laptop to work rather than my mobile phone.

Two things made this possible:

• My new laptop has a flash “hard drive” which means there’s no risk that bumps will damage it — really important on the tube — and also it’s fast to start up and put into sleep.
• This time of year there are seats available. Laptops don’t work standing up, unlike phones, unless someone knows otherwise?

I’ve been using a MacBook Air for three weeks as my main computer at work and at home (plus I’ve used a MBA on and off since it came out). So, I’m going to publish a few entries covering how well the Air has worked. First up, I’ll cover the physical characteristics of the MBA.

Overall, I’m impressed, the MBA is the ideal computer size. It has a large screen and keyboard but is light and thin. I’d love to see Apple extend the Air range, with models sporting 11 inch and 15 inch screens, but remaining super thin and light.

The Good:
- The screen is outstanding. I’ve used other LED displays but none has been as bright and clear as the MBA. I suspect a large part of the high price of the MBA goes towards paying for this screen. It’s worth it.
- The full size keyboard is a joy to type on (with one caveat below).
- The MBA is really light. 1.3Kg is well below the average for laptops. It may not be the lightest laptop, which is why Apple markets its slimness rather than its weight, but I suspect the MBA is the lightest laptop with a 13 inch screen.
- isight camera and microphone pick-ups work well for Skype calls.
- Power supply is really flexible and small. Apple are one of the few device makers that really seem to understand that the size/weight of needed accessories are as important as the device. The MBA PSU can be carried without part of the lead, leading to a really neat unit to put into a bag.
- Backlit keyboard. This sounds like a gimmick, but combined with the MBA’s weight, makes the MBA ideal for use in bed (!). Plus, I’ve found that working at home in the evening it saves the distraction of being forced to stop, turn the light on to see the keyboard, and then realising the time. With the MBA, the keyboard light comes on, and I don’t notice the hour. This is good for productivity, if not for sleep.
Irritating but can live with:
- Keyboard is a US layout, as have all Apple keyboards been for many years. It’s easy to get used to, but swapping back and forth between this and a British keyboard leads to typing mistakes, mostly transposing @ and “
- No microphone socket, so skype calls can only be made with speaker. I hoped that the 3.5mm jack would work like an iPhone and deliver a combo mic+headset output, but it doesn’t seem to.
- Only one USB port. I’ve taken to carrying a USB2 hub with me.
- No ethernet on-board, so need a USB dongle for that too.
- Non-standard monitor socket = another dongle to carry.
- Small and slow hard drive. I’ve realised that if I only carry around essential documents (no photos, no music, no videos) then everything does fit. And, for those, there are some really small external USB hard drives available cheaply. In Mac OS, the speed of the hard drive isn’t noticeable in my experience.

Main issue:
- Sometimes in use, the MBA runs very very hot mainly when the processor is working at max. At other times the MBA is fine and one of the coolest laptops to touch that I’ve used. If the MBA is thought of as a highly portable laptop, rather than a desktop replacement, this won’t be a problem. But Apple should update the CPU with a cooler Intel “Penryn”-based processor sooner rather than later.

Bottom line – this is a great machine. It’s an ideal second computer, or an ideal first computer for those without big photo, music or video collections. In time, the hard drive size problem will disappear as storage is miniaturised further.

The Air is an astoundingly thin PC. Steve Jobs introduced the MacBook Air by saying that Apple had made no compromises, unlike other manufacturers. This is great spin but is not quite correct. Apple did make trade-offs in the design, but just not the same ones as everyone else. Apple thought differently, again. (How many times have I written that here?)
Apple have delivered an ultrathin laptop, with an absolutely wonderful screen, a full size keyboard, a reasonably fast processor, and complete with the latest WiFi standard.
Despite the rumours ahead of the launch, Apple chose to leave out WiMAX support. This was absolutely the right thing to do in such a tightly miniaturised device. Today, WiMAX is nascent. There are very few WiMAX networks operating, let alone active WiMAX users. If Apple had increased the weight, size, or price of the MacBook Air by one iota to fit WiMAX capability inside the case then the effort would have been a waste.
Other trade-offs that Apple made are more interesting and perhaps controversial:

• Speed. The hard drive is both slow and small, unless a buyer opts for the (extremely) expensive SSD model. The processor is faster than competitors in the same size/weight category, but it appears to be a low voltage version rather than the full fat cpu used on (heavier) competitor laptops such as Dell’s M1330. For a light laptop focused on office apps, email and browsing the Air is easily fast enough.
• Connections. There’s only one USB port and no ethernet. Result: a business traveller will need to carry dongles to use a wired network, or use more than one USB device (e.g. iPod + mouse; mouse + ethernet; etc). This is an irritation rather than a major issue. The Air also has a non-standard monitor socket which needs an adaptor to plug into a projector
• A sealed in battery. If the MacBook Air delivers on its five hour promise this will affect few people.

The MacBook Air result remains very impressive. Apple has made smart trade-offs. Whether the compromises prove significant will depend on the individual and on the experiences of real world use.
I believe the MacBook Air will do very well indeed.

Looks like I was on the right lines with my advice for the OLPC project: The XO Giving site will be offering a neat bundle: pay for two, keep one, donate one. Starts November 12th for a short, presumably trial, period.