Nokia N900 stands at a fascinating fork in the road. Let's consider the facts: first, and most unavoidably, the company is the largest manufacturer of cell-phones in the world by a truly sobering margin. At every end of the spectrum, in every market segment, Nokia is successfully pushing phones -- from the highest of the high-end to the lowest of the low. The kind of stark dominance Nokia has built over its competition certainly isn't toppled overnight, but what might be the company's biggest asset has turned out to be its biggest problem, too. In the past eight years, Nokia's bread-and-butter smart-phone platform has gone from a pioneer, to a staple, to an industry senior citizen while upstarts like Google and Apple have come from practically zero to hijack much of the vast mindshare Espoo once enjoyed.
Earlier in the week a minor update was released which brought two key changes. First was compatibility with Ova Store Beta so users can now download and install software directly to the device from the store. The second prepared the device’s application manager for over the air software updates. Any users who have installed the first update will automatically receive a notification that a new update is available for their device. Anyone updating using their PC will be able to upgrade directly from the original to the latest version–without the need to install the intermediate update released during the week. Of course, mindshare doesn't pay the bills, but in a business dominated by fickle consumerism perhaps more than any other, mindshare foreshadows market share-it's a leading indicator. Put simply, there are too many bright minds with brilliant ideas trying to get a piece of the wireless pie for even a goliath like NOKIA Mini N97to rest on its laurels for years on end.
Following quickly on the heels of the minor release earlier this week, this latest version of the software brings with it a range of improvements across the device. Read on to find out what’s in store. Mail for Exchange also sees an update which will it allow it to work with Microsoft Exchange Server 2003. This should bring the possibility of Exchange integration to a much broader group of users. Beyond these major changes come a range of smaller usability improvements which have been worked into the release and are based on the excellent user feedback the team has received. Today sees the release of the first major update for the Nokia N96i.
