I was working with Nokia phones 2007-2009, and then later with Meego/Windows Phone/Android and there are few turning points I remember.
* Nokia App-Store stopped working.
- I had published my own stuff there, which I could not buy. The store was simply broken, and it seemed no one cared.
- There was no business in Nokia store to be done = no interested developers
* We got an Apple device as soon as it was possible.
- It was obvious that it was very simple to compared to what we were building in Nokia.
- That was the first turning point for me understanding the user experience vs number of features competition.
- Probably something people felt holding clam shell phones at the time, but much more powerful.
- The huge 'magical' difference was the capacitive screen.
- Everything was like 'yeah we have this already', but it's just so much cooler with this magical interface where you actually don't even have to touch
* 'Tube' was announced Nokia-internally
- There was auditorium full of people in the session I was in
- Only question asked was by the 2000 people or so was: 'is it resistant or capacitive?'
- Everyone who knew the difference realized we lost at least another year
* Still, there was a momentum of excitement
- I was thinking it the way like 'lets rework the UI, we will be ahead in stuff like phone call quality, and having stuff like GPS'
- They probably have the capacitive in the next model after Tube or so?
- I saw lot of great stuff been built, and talented people worked with stuff that would become Meego
* Sinking the Symbian
- I was no longer working with Nokia, instead doing own stuff.
- This was like 'WTF', instead of existing code base living for next five years, we would have to abandon it immediately
- This was the second time abandoning developers
* Announcing Windows Phone
- This was like 'ok, I can work with this'
- The problem was, it took too long to come to market
- Only options were in this time window to work with iPhone or Android
- This was no longer 'abandoning developers', it was simply no longer possible
- There were other early Windows Phones, but for reason or another, no serious commitment at any point
* Nokia Windows Phone entering the market
- Market had already been split by Android and iPhone
- It was already a challenger at that point
- I think everyone who tried it saw the potential, but it lost because of app stores in Android and iPhone already were full of stuff - and it was clear at this point already
- I was surprised that Microsoft bought Nokia phones, because it was so obvious what would happen, maybe it was something like 'were sorry about Elop, here's money for the doctor'
* Nokia App-Store stopped working. - I had published my own stuff there, which I could not buy. The store was simply broken, and it seemed no one cared. - There was no business in Nokia store to be done = no interested developers
* We got an Apple device as soon as it was possible. - It was obvious that it was very simple to compared to what we were building in Nokia. - That was the first turning point for me understanding the user experience vs number of features competition. - Probably something people felt holding clam shell phones at the time, but much more powerful. - The huge 'magical' difference was the capacitive screen. - Everything was like 'yeah we have this already', but it's just so much cooler with this magical interface where you actually don't even have to touch
* 'Tube' was announced Nokia-internally - There was auditorium full of people in the session I was in - Only question asked was by the 2000 people or so was: 'is it resistant or capacitive?' - Everyone who knew the difference realized we lost at least another year
* Still, there was a momentum of excitement - I was thinking it the way like 'lets rework the UI, we will be ahead in stuff like phone call quality, and having stuff like GPS' - They probably have the capacitive in the next model after Tube or so? - I saw lot of great stuff been built, and talented people worked with stuff that would become Meego
* Sinking the Symbian - I was no longer working with Nokia, instead doing own stuff. - This was like 'WTF', instead of existing code base living for next five years, we would have to abandon it immediately - This was the second time abandoning developers
* Announcing Windows Phone - This was like 'ok, I can work with this' - The problem was, it took too long to come to market - Only options were in this time window to work with iPhone or Android - This was no longer 'abandoning developers', it was simply no longer possible - There were other early Windows Phones, but for reason or another, no serious commitment at any point
* Nokia Windows Phone entering the market - Market had already been split by Android and iPhone - It was already a challenger at that point - I think everyone who tried it saw the potential, but it lost because of app stores in Android and iPhone already were full of stuff - and it was clear at this point already - I was surprised that Microsoft bought Nokia phones, because it was so obvious what would happen, maybe it was something like 'were sorry about Elop, here's money for the doctor'