PR Thoughts

Is it a phone or a computer ?

As you perhaps already know, I've been given a Nokia 7710 to evaluate it and tell what I think about it. The last experience I'd like to share is a one day trip out of the office and out of France, say in UK.

This was a perfect opportunity to test the email client hosted on the 7710, which I must say , has worked very well during this day out and has been very helpfull. While in the Eurostar, the taxi, I've been able to check email thanks to my GPRS connection, first click to download headlines and second to download selected emails content.

I've been also happy to take pictures of places, people I met there, reminding me I still have to set up my moblog by the way...

I upload my power point presentation that I've been able to check directly on my Nokia 7710 and also use this way to back up any lack of my laptop batery.

As everyone knows, unfortunately it is not possible now to get any WiFi connection when traveling through Europe by train, so being able to use a "phone" to download emails without having to wait till the next jump in your hotel or any hotspot is great.

But at the end, is is really still a phone or is it a computer ? Where are the boundaries between mobile phones, camera phone, PDA, MP3 player and a 7710 that has all these functionalities ? Or perhaps even with a computer, as I had sometimes to reboot it ...

It seems to me by using it for several weeks now that it is about "communication" tools what ever the media could be. Today, you basically want to be able to call someone, but also to send pictures, text, videos, listen to radio, voice, music, share any kind of content at any time and in any conditions. That's what it is about.

But if you only want to call and use it like a basic phone, then that kind of "phone" is not the one you need: it's quite impossible to simply answer the phone if you have an umbrella in one hand and your kid in the other one, don't even try to put it between your head and shoulder, as you won't be able to take the line... It is not done for that simple basic use.

It's no more a phone, but it might be the best commmunication tool for nomade.

 

Collecting emails on my Nokia 7710

That's it, I succeed in the configuration of the email client on my Nokia 7710 ! I could never believe I will be abble to get them there. Not because of the technical requirements, but as the camera phone is so new, my Telco SFR doesn't have the user guide in hands, so no one at the hotline has been abble to guide me in the configuration process nor to understand how I could be abble to surf on Internet but couldn't connect to download my emails...

Anyway, that's behind now, and it's working so well ! I am going to configure also my Gmail acount to see if I can collect both and don't get any confusion between them.

On the camera feature side, I must say I really enjoy camera phones and the potential that we have as "grassroots journalist" to take any picture at any moment, this is really lot's of fun. Unfortunately, moblogging is not so easy with the 7710, it's sad they didn't integrate Nokia Life's blog software... More over, it seems like Life's Blog is not even compatible with the 7710. I hope they will work on making this improvement. Although there is a Typepad plugin allowing you to connect directly from your mobile phone to your Typepad account administration interface, it takes much more time to moblog than what you can so easily do with a Nokia 7610 + Life's Blog...

See below a picture I took from my bike in the garage, it is of a 2 stars quality level out of 3 available on the Nokia 7710, quite nice indeed, isn't it ;o) ?...

Nokia 7710 Smartphone - Launch of the evaluation

For those who miss the story, please have a look there to understand what it is about in this new category of my posts.

So, now, let's share what I think from my very first hours spent whith my new companion. Firstly, I must say the list of it's features is estonishing. This Nokia 7710 Smartphone is doing everything and is, from my point of view, at the minimum, a mix between a mobile phone, a PDA, an MP3 player and a digital camera....

Say more precisely, the features are: 

• Touch screen
• Connect to the Internet with EGPRS or HSCSD
• Internet browser supports HTML/XHTML and Macromedia Flash 6
• Vibrant 65,536 color wide screen
• Megapixel camera (1152x864)
• Email (SMTP, POP3, IMAP4)
• Integrated handsfree & voice recorder
• Bluetooth technology (including audio)
• Personal Information Management: calendar, contacts, tasks, and more
• Word, Sheet, and Presentation Viewers; Word & Sheet converter
• Flight mode
• MP3 player with stereo audio
• Visual Radio

My favorite ? The MP3 player ! I was willing to get an MP3 player to listen to my favorite weekly podcast, and I have already been downloading it on my Smartphone ! It took something like 8 minutes for a 25 MB file to be transfer through USB from my laptop to the phone. Have no idea if it's a good timingor not as I am new at downloading /transferring MP3 files, but now I have it.

I've been also taking a lot of pictures with the camera, unfortunately can't share any with you now as I have been maily shooting my family this week-end, but my first impressions are very positive, from the quality side of the pictures and from the ergonomical and intuitivity side of the "software" to manage them hosted in the Smartphone. At this point the wide screen is just great, although I suspect it must request a lot of energy compare to others phones, but this is the traditional fight between large/small screen and colours or black & white.... Ihave to creat my first moblog here to make sure I can alsouse easily this feature.

So a lot more to tell you soon !

Remember Marqui's Blogosphere program ? Now Nokia is playing ...

You certainly remember Marqui's blogosphere program that has been launched last december ? Marqui has been recruting bloggers to blog about their product and paid them around 800 $ a month, providing them with a contract with the following terms sumary:

- Mention Marqui and link to our site - once a week.
- Put our mark/emblem on your site.
- Three month contracts will be honored.
- No "gotchas." None.

20 bloggers have been playing the game, and a huge controversy erupts at that time... See the Technorati on this story.

It was the first time a brand has been recruting bloggers and announcing with full transparency they will be paying bloggers to give feedback on their products.

Why do I remind this story ? I've been recently hired by Nokia as member of  Nokia 7710 VIP Program, including 1800 people around the world, 50 in France. That's the reason why I remember Marqui's story...

What is it about in this case ? We are asked to give our thoughts on the Nokia 7710 Smartphone by connecting once a week on a specific forum, to answer two times to a phoning questionnaire and of course to use the Nokia 7710 as our main phone during the time of the testing. We can keep the Smartphone for us at the end.

I found this approach very intersting and clue for several reasons. This time, people are not able to pitch as in Marqui's case, Nokia has been hiring them. We didn't ask, we've been asked. So we couldn't decide to do it to get something in return initially. Then we are much more free than in Marqui's case, we are not asked to blog or to sign any contract, we just have to connect on this forum and participate a little bit + answer the questionaire by phone, which is much better for lazies...

What I like more than everything: the composition of the VIP pannel: Celebrities/stars, well-known CEOs, and bloggers. And bloggers ! How clever from Nokia to ask bloggers to participate. How many discussions are going to raise from this 3rd group. And more over, at a time where so many people are seing the fall of PR vs. the raise of Bloggers, (the PR pro blogger I am is talking ...) thanks to this new channel = blog offer to anyone who wants to say anything, Nokia comes whith it's VIP Program.

Let me make the point. PR has always been recruting stars to promote brands or messages, the marketing archives are full of examples. This is indeed not the most original side of Nokia's strategy in our case. But the mix between traditional PR and what some are calling "New PR" is here just great. It shows that some clever folks have understood that PR is definitely not dead, (but traditional PR is) and can be on the contrary strengthens by new communications tools as blogs that where supposed to replace them ! And this is huge.

So congratulations to Creadrive who has been working in France on this project with Xavier des Horts, Communication Director of Nokia France, thanks for having hiring me, it was a good surprise for the geek or IT friendly that I am.

For transparency reasons and as I'd like to share my deep thoughts without any confusion, I am going to create a specific category on this blog, dedicated to this program.