HP acquired Palm and the WebOS mobile platform. HP has since released a couple of smartphones running WebOS. HP have official presence in Nigeria.

When are HP going to send us some WebOS love in these parts? Or are they going to repeat the same mistake that Palm made in limiting the distribution of those devices?

Rant starts…

I have two super smartphones in front of me now, and both are pretty much useless as far as smartphones go.

iPhone 3GS
This classy looking slab (rightly hailed for its superb user interface) was purchased locked to AT&T USA courtesy of Apple’s control policies, unlocked and shipped here. You’ve read the story: I performed a firmware upgrade, lost the unlock and now it is just a glorified iPod Touch. At least till Apple announces iOS 4.2 and then some hackers find a way to set people in my shoes free from the shackles of lala-land.

Of course, the jailbreaking and unlocking processes are not for the faint-hearted.

Palm Pre
This smooth pebble is unlocked. But for some crazy reason(s), it won’t accept internet settings manually and so is as useful as a low-end voice/SMS-only device.

Searching the intertnet, I found tons of similar complaints from stranded Palm customers all over the world who are unable to use the internet on their devices for the same reason.

I found a solution somewhere, but guess – it requires downloading the Palm SDK, downloading a couple of gadzooks scripts, logging in as root to the Pre and changing parametres in the APN database of the device.

Does that sound like what you want to spend your time doing with these things?

My Advice to the Average Joe
If you were a geek, I am sure that you could derive some pleasure from these complex processes that it requires to get these shiny toys working. But I know that the vast majority of users are not geeks. My advice: Stick with manufacturers and companies that have a deliberate policy of supporting your country (in this case, Nigeria).

Stick with Nokia, Samsung, and LG, among others – and ensure you buy devices targeted at your country. If it has to be unlocked for it to work here, turn around and walk away. If Nigeria is not listed in the regional settings of the device (Nigeria is not listed in the Palm Pre, and is certainly not listed in the iPhone).

Nigeria is not supported by Android either. Well, Google can take a spade and shove it down their….. for all you care. As long as they do not reckon with you, you cannot enjoy those droids to the max (unless you have no need to purchase any apps). But, mark my words, it may seem to you that you do not need to buy anything now. Just wait until the need shows up.

Geeks
If you are a geek and you love to spend hours on end tinkering with these things, well this article is not directed at you.

Personally, I am a geek. No; scratch that. I used to be a thoroughbred greek. In the last couple of years, I have been cross-bred – administrative duties and other responsibilities keep growing. I want to attend to clients from my PC and/or smartphone, not attend to my smartphone while customers fume. I want to respond to a mail in 30 seconds and cuddle my wife for the next 1 hour, not give her a quick peck and battle SDKs, hacks and scripts for the next 3 hours.

I’m guessing that the vast majority of mobile users fall into my category. We need tools, not patients. Still, something tells me that not many people will take to this sage’s words of wisdom. We love our toys too much to care whether a manufacturer or OS supports Nigeria. Who cares about things like that?

Rant ended.

Okay, I understand that your heads may be swimming by now. First, it was the iPhone 3GS, then the Nokia N8, and now as a result of what I considered a twist of bad luck, a Palm Pre! Yes; all here at Mobility Nigeria within one week.

Yup, the Pre is getting old (well, just a year old, really), but I have always wanted a Pre or Pixi just to have a feel of WebOS. And what fun would it be if I kept it all to myself? Hang around.

Finally, all the speculations about potential buyers for Palm Inc. have been laid to rest as HP has announced that they are purchasing the troubled mobile manufacturer for $1.2 billion.

It would have been a sad day to see Palm just die out and fizzle away. With HP’s acquisition, we are excited and hopeful that we will see a new crop of WebOS devices. HP has traditionally been a producer of monoblock QWERTY mobile smartphones – a form factor that Palm and WebOS are known for.

This acquisition looks like a marriage made in heaven. And hopefully, unlike Palm, HP will put more effort into getting its smartphones in the hands of enthusiasts around the world.

CDMA mobile operator, ZoomMobile, has an ongoing “Xmas offer”. The offer provides five (5) smartphones and one (1) feature phone at extremely rock-bottom prices.

• Treo Centro (Palm OS): N11,999.00
• Motorola Q9c (Windows Mobile): N11,999.00
• Samsung 830W (Windows Mobile; Dual Technology: GSM + CDMA): N11,999.00
• Motorola Q (Windows Mobile): N9,999.00
• Treo 755P (Palm OS): N11,999.00
• Tech 101 (Dual Technology: GSM + CDMA): N7,999.00

Unfortunately, the ZoomMobile website is outdated in terms of information. You won’t find this information there.

However, should you be interested in any of the above, dash down to the nearest Zoom centre to pick your copy up. Hurry! Promo may end anytime (christmas is over!).

Note that both the Treos and Motorolas are EVDO-compliant, so high-speed mobile internet is in view with those devices, but you need to subscribe to the ZMBlast internet plan in order to have EVDO access.

Update:
For the benefit of those interested, we are publishing the various mobile internet plans from ZOOM below.

ZOOMmobile Internet Plans

1x Service Plans

• Easy Time (24 hours for 30 days): N10,000
• Busy Time (24 hours for 14 days): N5,000
• Business Time (Day Time for 30 days): N7,000
• Relax Time (6pm – 11pm for 30 days): N5,000
• Rest Time (11pm – 7am for 30 days): N5,000
• Cool Time (8am Fri – 10pm Sunday for 30 days): N5,000

EVDO/Broadband Service Plan

• ZMBlast (24 hours for 30 days): N15,000

Pay As You Browse (Pay B) Options

• Pay B 1,000 (10 hours across 5 days): N1,000
• Pay B 3,000 (40 hours across 18 days): N3,000
• Pay B 5,000 (100 hours across 30 days): N5,000
• Pay B 10,000 (300 hours across 60 days): N10,000

This is my opinion, but it is an informed opinion. I will also keep it short.

Palm pulled a miracle with WebOS and the Pre, but where they blew it was releasing a CDMA version first. In effect, they fixed their attention on one tiny chunk of the mobile market – the very small US market.

Palm is the only manufacturer of WebOS phones. Palm has only two such phones in the market. Those two phones are primarilly CDMA devices. Those two phones are available on a single US operator. Those two phones have a limited release on overseas carriers. Sounds like a not-so-winning formula, especially with the limitations that taking the CDMA route imposes.

A GSM version released first and followed later by a CDMA version, in my opinion, would have done much better. Think of the huge and vibrant Nigerian market. Think of South Africa, Europe and Asia – all drooling for WebOS and the Pre.

Availability to a wider market will also create a demand for more applications. Why would any developers want to invest so much in creating apps for a device or platform that has such limited availability and circulation? It is no wonder that the WebOS application catalogue is still very lean.

While Apple took a similar route with the iPhone, pushing a GSM device gave it an edge. before we knew it, iPhones were all over the place (officially or unofficially). And believe me when I say that the unofficial market is a strong one. Of course, because of network locks, the iPhone is still a bit limited. Now consider that the Pre has been largely CDMA (bad enough) and locked to a network too (double bad), and you get the picture, surely.

Palm relegated the major mobile markets to second class status. Absurd. In my opinion, Palm does not seem set to hit it big – unless they execute another u-turn. Want a wider mobile reach? Push GSM. Africa, Europe, and Asia are where mobile phones are selling like hot cake – and on these continents, GSM rules.

Related Item: Can Palm and WebOS make it through 2010?

Symbian. Windows Mobile. Palm. Blackberry. OSX. Android. Maemo.

These are all mobile operating systems (OS). Some have been around longer than others. The new kids on the block are OSX and Android, and they are having their day. While Palm is an old platform, the complete revamp that has been executed on the OS has transformed its hitherto dated interface into something hip and up-to-date, just as obtains on the newer kids.

Symbian, the world’s most widely used mobile OS, has also undergone a revamp with the S60 5th Edition, but with not quite an elegant result as Palm. I have been “Symbian Inside” for the most of my mobile life, having used S80 (Nokia 9500), UIQ (P990, P1i) and S60 (E61, E61i, E90, E75) devices for years.

I have not hidden my position that Symbian as it currently is needs a serious facelift of its user interface to get up-to-date with current fads in the industry. I have even held that position strongly. But there seem to be those who think that Symbian is actually going to die off. I seriously doubt that. At least not anytime soon.

If what Nokia has pulled off on the N900 tablet-phone is anything to go by, those who have prophesied Symbian’s death because of what seemed Nokia’s inability to implement a fancy user interface can start recanting. Nokia has shown that they are capable.

We must note that the current fancy user interfaces are touchscreen based. Unfortunately, unless there is a massive change in the general direction of mobile users, the statistics till date shows that the majority of users prefer regular type phones with a physical keypad. In this field, Nokia still holds the fort.

I submit that Symbian is likely to remain the dominant mobile OS for a long time. Current trends suggest that Android will take the 2nd place quickly.

One of the advantages that Symbian has is what will help Android achieve this feat. Both Symbian and Android are licenced by numerous manufacturers, some of which are adding layers of services, functionality and usabilty to the underlying operatiing systems.

Already, we have multiple Android devices from HTC, Motorola, and Samsung respectively on the ground. More are on the way from Acer, Sony Ericsson, LG and others.

The other operating systems are generally mono-products – the iPhone which runs OSX is manufactured by only Apple; Blackberries are manufactured by only RIM, and Palm devices by only Palm.

The only other widely licensed mobile OS is Windows Mobile. The recently launched Windows Mobile 6.5 is a good upgrade, but leaves much to be desired. Hopefully, version 7 will bring this venerable OS up-to-speed and then we can see how things go from there.

One thing that is unarguable, however, is that exciting times are ahead in the mobile OS field. Whatever operating system you root for, the months and years ahead promise much.

A Smartphone Satisfaction Survey conducted by the CFI Group reveals that many Windows Mobile and Symbian phone users have no idea of what Operating System runs on their phones, compared to Android, Pre and iPhone users.

Here are a few nuggets from the survey:

While Android users know they have phone on the Android platform, most Windows Mobile or Symbian users have no idea what operating system is running their phone. This lack of branding and awareness can only hurt the generic smartphone. [Page 18]

With Windows Mobile and Symbian classified as “generic” or “anonymous” smartphones because of the lack of brand awareness, CFI further states the following about such devices:

1. There’s clearly no love for the ‘anonymous’ smartphone
2. CSI is 66, and Likelihood to Recommend is 63, by far the lowest across phone types
3. On feature after feature, the scores are the lowest – the generic ‘Other’ smartphone does nothing particularly well
4. While, like with BlackBerry, owners of newer ‘Other’ smartphones have a higher CSI (69 for those who got their phone in the past 6 months), the low customer satisfaction engendered by these phones is not good news for the Symbian or Windows Mobile platform, or the providers who emphasize these phones

[Page 18]

The statement that generic smartphones like Windows Mobile and Symbian do nothing particularly well is a low blow. And it is not necesarilly true. For example, Symbian smartphones still have the best cameras in the smartphone world. Windows Mobile has the best phone-PC synchronisation too.

Other Revelations from the Survey

Surfing the web is a much more positive experience among users of the
newer smartphones (iPhone, Android, and Pre all score in the 80’s; the other phones score 71 or below). [Page 17]

The survey may not be exactly totally accurate, as it involved just about a thousand respondents. Still, it is interesting read.

Download a PDF copy of the survey here.

This is not news to those of us who objectively assess phones. The iPhone is revolutionary in many ways, but if you need a phone you can actually work on, stay away!!

Engadget Editor, Joshua Topolsky, was recently away from the office and tried to get some work done on his iPhone 3GS, but ended up with a very frustrating experience.

His complaints include:

1. lack of multi-tasking
2. unreliability of on-screen keyboard for chatting
3. intrusive notification system for SMS, calendar events, and push IM messages

Joshua says:

Basic functionality, like calling people, email, and certainly document editing still feel inelegant and clunky due to the onscreen keyboard, and the lack of multitasking makes moving around through those typically important tasks difficult to say the least. The experience on an Android device, S60, the Pre, a BlackBerry, or even Windows Mobile just makes more sense. Let me say that again: those experiences make more sense. Now I’m not saying the execution of those experiences is better across platforms, but the philosophy of letting users multitask is more natural to us. The iPhone doesn’t even have a method for switching between recently used or favorite applications.

We don’t work like this on our computers — why does Apple think we want to work like this on our phones?

These issues are not just being discovered. They are established deal-breakers for people who work on the go (on their mobiles). They are the reasons an iPhone is a No-no for me. The iPhone is a sleek, friendly device if you are into media and do not necesarrilly need to work on your phone. The user interface is lovely. But try to work, and…

I know that ‘Dayo has been talking of buying an iPhone recently. Unless Apple delivers a multi-tasking, QWERTY keyboard version of the iPhone, something tells me that he is more likely to regret going that route. I know his work schedule! But then, I believe in miracles.

Read Joshua’s full account: Taking the iPhone 3GS off the job market.

There has been some measure of controversy surrounding the definition of a smartphone, especially since the arrival of the iPhone. In an AAS article about how the Nokia 5800 won a contest as “Best multimedia smartphone”, the question of whether or not the iPhone is a smartphone came up again.

The organisers of the contest left out the iPhone, among others, from the list of contenders, and I honestly am of the opinion that the contest was biased. It looks like those behind it wanted the 5800 to win. But then that is my opinion.

A couple of commenters there have laid the matter to rest, but to help readers of MobiNaija put this controversy to rest, here again is the definition of a smartphone:

“A smartphone is any phone that allows 3rd party applications to be written for, installed and run on its native OS (operating system)”

Nothing else matters. Following this definition, the iPhone qualifies as a smartphone. Some argue that the iPhone lacks true multi-tasking, but so did the various Palm OS versions in use over the years (to a different degree), but Palm devices were (and are) still accorded smartphone status.

Hopefully, it is settled. The iPhone has a native OS for which 3rd party applications are designed, and on which they are installed and run. The iPhone is a smartphone. Stop beefing

One of the beautiful things about the Symbian S60 OS (operating system) is that it is an open OS platform for mobile phones. By open OS platform, I mean that the OS allows for applications developed by a 3rd party to be run on the platform. These (third party) applications can now be installed onto a phone powered by the OS to either improve functionality or add a new function altogether to the phone running on the OS.

I must say here that the Symbian S60 OS is not the only open platform available. There are obviously others, like Windows Mobile, Android, etc. In order to install applications for any of these OS you must get applications that are compatible with them. Even within a particular OS community, there may exist different versions and care must be taken to ensure that the application being installed is compatible with the particular version of the OS in view.

As I mentioned in the second part of my review, the Nokia 5800 is powered by the Symbian s60 5th edition OS. Nokia says the 5th edition has backward compatibility with 3rd edition. In other words, applications that work on s60 3rd edition should also work on the 5th edition.

As such, after I got my 5800, I set out to install my favorite applications from the 3rd edition. It wasn’t long before I discovered that only a few of the applications developed for 3rd edition actually work on the 5th edition. In fact a majority of the applications that were really useful to me do not work. On launching such apps, the phone simply freezes and it has to be rebooted to get it working again. I hope this is not what Nokia meant by backwards compatibility.

It is not uhuru yet for Symbian s60 5th edition devices, so don’t go expecting all your old applications you used on the E71, E90 or N96 to work on your 5800 just yet.

Thankfully, a few developers are beginning to develop applications specifically for the 5800 and I hope that in the near future there will be more than enough applications for s60 5th edition.

At times, it is easy to forget the progress that has been made over a period of time. The mobile sector is particularly one in which innovations come by the day.

For me, it has been years of adventure in mobility, from my first phone, a very basic Motorola T2288 to my present, the Nokia E90 communicator. The T2288 had a WAP 1.1 browser, I used the browser only on a few occassions and that in the later part of its lifetime with me – and, was it limited or what?

And do you remember those horrible antennas that stick out at the top of most phones then?

In contrast, the E90 has a highly capable web browser (that matches Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 7 in some ways and is better in others), office editing tools, a capable e-mail client, instant messaging apps, and much more. I used to have a desktop at home and a laptop. I no longer do. My E90 fulfills their roles so well that i only use a PC at the office now. The present crop of devices outgun and out-everything mobile that was available then. They also outgun the PCs of the late 90s and early 2000s.