Addressing your comments on Nokia Messaging for Social Networks Beta
Tue, 2010-08-31 19:11We knew that announcing the closure of Nokia Messaging for Social Networks Beta would not be easy news to break…and your comments from the past week made it clear.
This is the unfortunate nature of the work we do in Beta Labs. Sometimes the products we create do not make it to commercial release. It’s the nature of the test environment.
While we are in no way “getting out” of the mobile social networking business by focusing on the N8 and some great functionality that is coming, we do understand that you may have an N97, or a 5800, or other Nokia device. Our only answer is to refer you to the Facebook client and invite you to continue to follow our evolution in this space.
Please understand that the reason we cannot continue free services such as the previous Social Networks client is because our strategy needs to adapt to the changing landscape. We need to concentrate our engineering efforts on the high-quality core services that our consumers want. Sometimes we cannot maintain momentum on some services, even when they are hugely popular, out of the need to maximize our own resources and deliver something even better further down the line. Ramping down the previous Nokia Messaging for Social client isn’t a reflection of our dissatisfaction with the service, it’s a learning experience that helps us focus on future critical offerings.
Changing the way people connect and innovating with mobile social experiences are what we do. We invite you to continue to be a part of it, and your comments and insight will continue to make it better.
Nokia Messaging Team
Download Ovi Store Facebook client:
http://apps.store.ovi.com/r/No
http://apps.store.ovi.com/r/No
Comments
if something is in beta, it means that it's in the development phase before final release. If you plan it to close it, it's not a beta, it's a trial (if quality is good enough) or pilot. you define this in the about page (graduate vs archived) and that's it but I would argue that this is a major consumer expectation and should be managed better (include trial or pilot in app name, etc).
I would like to compare your post with some news on Lindsay Lohan's ex-girlfriend, when her bulldog Cadillac killed a defenseless Maltese from next doors:
"There is absolutely nothing I can say that will alter one minute of today, nothing," saMAN Tweeted. "I feel incredibly sad and wish I could offer more than condolences, unfortunately there are no words to describe how sorry I am."
ref: http://perezhilton.com/2010-08-31-saman-ronson-speaks-about-dog-incident
don't get me wrong, I still love my nokia devices and I'm also still willing to continue helping beta-testing new ideas / software, but I can only say that as much as I appreciate this response, I still feel completely left away: I moved to Symbian^1 from my n95s (mine and my wife's) because we were missing a lot of new things, or so it seemed at the moment. Fact is, there's not much new that's Symbian^1 dependent, and from now on, I see no new developments considering Symbian^1 are to come - If the one and only focus os Nokia will be Symbian^3 and then ^4 and ^5 and maybe meego during a couple of months, then I'll have to use facebook and twitter only in my macbook and my iPod Touch - I'm fond of my nokia devices, but can't respond for average joe, who will find it's easier to complete the move to the iPhone than to keep waiting for actual social networks support from nokia for their (not even that cheap as to crash them in the floor) Symbian^1 devices.
I hope there's a solution soon for us Symbian^1 and s60r3fp1 devices. I won't be able to continue arguing against people that already moved to BB or iPhone if I can only say you still need to pay for another n97 or even higher just to get social networks form nokia (*if* the n8 ever reaches chile) - Looks like I'm the only one still using 3g-videocall for calling my wife in the middle of the day, too, so most people will not even miss it if they move to the iPhone.
Once again, I *really* still hope Nokia will wake up and give us Symbian^1 users a decent social networks client. Maybe I'm too naive: the n97mini's firmware 12.2.110 doesn't hang less than 11.0.045.
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N97 mini / 0585508 / FW 12.2.110
5800 Xpressmusic / 0561618 / FW 51.2.007
N95-3 / 0551733 / FW 35.2.001
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MacBook Unibody - OSX 10.6 - iLife '09
It seems the facebook client is not available for C6-00, What do I do now?
I just want to say I appreciate what you guys do.
Not all beta's become public releases. This is the life of TEST software. At the end of the day beta labs is here to test out apps and concepts which may be built into future Nokia devices. Just because a beta is available for a specific Nokia device does not mean it is intended to be used on that device in final build. Testing on current devices help sculpt applications for future devices. That's what beta testing is all about.
mbrett
N97 RM-505 (Product Code: 0585262 (Vodafone UK)) FW 21.0.045
N95 8Gb (Product Code: 0558787 (UK)) FW 31.0.015
http:///www.twitter.com/MartynBrett
http://www.n97geeks.com
If you find a post helpful give it a thumbs up.
God, Nokia is already so far behind the curve we were already forced to use beta software to do the most basic things that any iPhone and Android can do, like integrated social networking. Now you're taking that away, saying to hell with everyone who paid a lot of money for a Nokia phone, use our crappy old Facebook app and forget about twitter or anything unless you want to fork over another 500 bucks for an N8, if and when it ever becomes available.
Well guess what? To hell with Nokia. I've had it with you guys dragging your feet on platform development and then sticking it to customers who have patiently waited for you to roll things out. There's no reason a 5800 or n97 owner should be held hostage to buying an N8 to get decent integrated social networking when you've already demonstrated that it's possible to put it into the current OS. Is that how you repay customer loyalty?
what danstark said. So my *flagship* lmao N97 is just a £400+ nokia experiment?
"We need to concentrate our engineering efforts on the high-quality core services that our consumers want."
Like Social Networking on their existing phones? This software was looking pretty good in that respect.
"Sometimes we cannot maintain momentum on some services, even when they are hugely popular, out of the need to maximize our own resources and deliver something even better further down the line."
Yes, something better is always nice. But this software was actually in pretty good shape. Why not just quickly polish it off, call it the "final" version, and then be done with it, rather than just making it disappear into nothing?
Oh, and the official Facebook client you linked to is decent, but what about Twitter? I also liked having both in one program.
Facebook client is outdated... just compare it with other phone's manufacturer facebook oficial app (i.e. facebook for BlackBerry) and no oficial FREE Twitter app and now... no more nokia messaging 4 social network... PLEASE NOKIA understand, launching a new device is not the way to correct your mistakes, is providing your old customers apps to social network AND Instant messaging... so we still with nokia phones...but this really dissapoint me, already sold my N97 RM-507... sorry
Well, I had a flagship nokia phone (N96) and have already dropped nokia. I'm on android now, and only came here as my wife kept the N96 - she always liked nokia phones, uses it mostly for phone calls, not even GPS navigation, as the 30.x firmwares are so buggy that it will reboot the phone if you try to use any GPS application.
She was almost convinced to use the N96 for facebook/twitter, but now I'll be looking for a cheap android phone for her.
With the buggy firmware (and no bugfix releases in more than one year), and disappearing functionality for previously top of range phones, nokia has now lost two customers.
Platform interface and apps are the soul of a smartphone. These need to be part of every standard device and not just as features of new handsets to be launched in the future.
Back porting for apps and platform upgrades for OS makes the customer feel important.
For example Microsoft Word 2010 works on Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7. Andriod upgrades you to the latest OS version.
Symbian is the best for mobile phone OS but its evolution makes the hardware it is running on outdated.
Nokia has solid devices – low SAR, very good network and gps reception, superb imaging, long lasting battery, fine speakers, voice guided navigation, music store, spacious memory cards.
Smart phones are ultimately cultural – smart phone OS platform trends and apps are built on user needs.
Can we please have a twitter app with home screen notifications for the Symbian ^1 S60 5 edition devices (X6 16 GB)?
I am sorry to see that Nokia Messaging is taken out for future development and the recommendation to use the OLD Facebook client is really devastating!
The client is not stable and functionality cannot be compared with competitor's client. A decent social networking integration is really required for S60 and Symbian^1 users! Isn't social networking integration being mentioned in the sales materials?! That is cheating, Nokia! The only option for social update is via the RSS feed for your contacts. There is no RSS available for Facebook activities.
As for the recommended client, it was once available for Nokia X6 and it is now gone!! In fact, several other social networking client is not available for X6 model including Windows Live, Facebook and Nokia Communities.
How are you going to satisfy X6 users? The phone is basically the same as 5800. And the client was initially pre-installed with the phone. Why is it not available for X6?
I am a loyal user of Nokia, I have been with Nokia since my first mobile. Looking at the recent development, Nokia is really far left behind. I have serious doubt if my next phone will still be Nokia or not.
3310-N80-N82-5800XM-X6
I agree with every comment made and I believe wherever there has been a discussion about Facebook/Twitter for Nokia I have put in my two cents about the existing Facebook client being rubbish and outdated.
It doesn't even show one of the primary features of Facebook...Notifications!
I beg of you to please support existing devices, especially in this field. Otherwise, like others who have posted, I promise you I'll be moving away from Nokia altogether.
@ MBrett,
I am not sure if the definition of Beta-testing varies from company to company or country to country.
In my company, internal beta-testing is for an application that is supposed to be released for the product on which it is beta-tested.
So, if i beta-test an application on Nokia 5800, then that application is meant for release for 5800 and may be other devices, but we do not do beta-test on 5800 to release that app for N8.
(This was just an example, my company is not in mobile business, but i think concepts generally should apply everywhere).
Also, one more thing, it seems that your own internal testing team is not capable enough to test your products. So you want free work done by public to test your applications. We risk our phones and spend time for free for the work that is supposed to be done effectively by your internal testing team(who are ofcz not capable enough) and then we expect nothing in return and consider it as a bonus, if finally some applications do make it to our handsets.
My suggestion: If you are not sure, if you want to release a particular app or not, then do a private beta-testing or pilot or internal testing and then only if you decide that you are going to release that product for a particular handset, then only release it here for public beta-testing. Else don't expect too many friends here.
Another option: Give some kind of good incentive to people who do beta-testing here for you to make them interested in continuing this.
what did the n97 ad say?
A phone you will enjoy and will be added features to for a long time... Well so far much haven't been added and if you count a mobile lifecycle around 18 months it isn't much time left.. That aside
i think the shocker here is the fact you already elevated this app to the ovi store, and even ships phones with it or with a link to it, this alone would indicate that it's a product that should be about ready for launch, may i also remind you that the current symbian platform is the reason nokia still owns the smartphone marked (except for in the us and japan), so not developing it further is not a vice idea...
So you have to shift resources and focus on the future, are you telling the developers out there that developing products for both s60 ed 5, and symbian ^3 is so hard and demanding that a fortune 500 company like yourself only can do one thing?
Can't offer free what?
Social media is a so elementary part of people's daily life that it's like saying this phone comes without sms.. I wonder how you can afford not to...
The facebook app you refer to is free and made by who? I know it says facebook, but that is not entirely true is it? And it lacks some of the useability of social... And it's slow at times.
Anyway moving on, there's apps to test
--- N95 31.0.0.17 | N97 21.0.045 --- http://hi.im/iivo
THESE ARE ALL EXCUSES TO NOT PROVIDE NEW FEATURES IN THE OLDER PHONES...
IF THEY DO THAT, WHY WILL PEOPLE BUY THEIR NEWER MODELS... WE NEED TO UNDERSTAND THIS THING...
NOKIA HAS DONE IT BEFORE, IS DOING IT NOW AND WILL CONTINUE DOING IT... THIS IS A TYPICAL NOKIA PATTERN...
TO SELL NEW PRODUCTS, LIMIT FUNCTIONALITY IN THE OLDER ONES EVEN THOUGH THEY ARE CAPABLE OF PERFORMING THE TASKS PERFORMED IN THE NEW PHONES...
ITS OUR FAULT, NOKIA... WE FORGOT YOUR PATTERN OF DOING THINGS... WE WERE BLINDED BY THE FAITH WE HAD IN YOU...
SAD... :-(
You don't need to apologise to these fools... Selling my mini as well...to hell with nokia...the only way to really redeem themselves is to make symbian 3 backward compatible to n97 n its mini along with the x6 n whatever....they should be no trace of symbian 1....make current users happy in order to sell new products to them....more than half iphone 4 users had a 3gs before...think about that
Symbian = No OS upgrade
Android = OS upgrade but depend on manufacturer
iOS = OS upgrade but depend on device h/w
What do you thing about this?
tremenda app sobretodo la parte del face lo que le falta es que sea mas rapida, que se actulize automaticamente, indicaciones en la pantalla principal, cada app por separada osea el twitter en un lado y facebook en otra app para que sea mas rapido y funcional
no no es tremenda app, ERA, y no era tan tremenda, te recomiendo ir pensando en otra marca nokia se fue pa la mierda! jajaj están retrasadisimos!! ya no van a seguir haciendola la eliminaron!!!! jajajajaja nokieros se quedaron sin app social! (go android!)
I agree with hary536. We have spent our time and give you a lot of feedback. We have bought phones and try software that is not terminated. is going official, just not with the actual hardware offering you have.
This is not consistent with what has been done with Nokia messaging email that has become available for almost all nokia phones.
Well, even tough you tryed to apologize with your post, it is obvious that is not enough for us and it is basically considered as a lame excuse, or even for some users it is bordering a theft.
Do you remember symbian-guru?. Well, guru no more. What does he say?. Well, that you are so wrong that you are killing yourself. According to many of the posts here he will have a lot of people going android or blacberry that pay more atention to social networks and are in the hype.
If you kill the apps that can create hype, it has a price and those of us that got tired of waiting for the good stuff to come will not buy a N8 or another expensive phone until it really have the things we expect and worked for.
Of course having or not the app is not a big deal. I use socially, snaptu, tweets60, and many others that get the job done. The real issue here is what US as consumers (and fairly said, ambassadors) see you as a "Don't care about you company".
Go ahead with your decision. At least for me, your apology is not accepted.
Operator: Digitel
Phone Model: N97-3 - RM-507
Firmware Version: 20.2.019.C01.01
Vitaliano G.
omG Symbian guru closed... allaboutsymbian in the same way... good game nokia
LOOOL! and now your giving to us that crappy Facebook app that hasnt been receive an update ever since the world created! o god.. i am so piss off with nokia.. really.
furthermore if you read these posts there was/are people that are proud of their nokia, that actually put pride in their tweet & facebook updates saying "from nokia/ovi", that's a brand loyalty any manufacturer crave for, and you should take it seriously, a "just use another app" says we care less than you do.
I know the developers and community manager at betalabs must be frustated too, i hope you ask senior management & the pr department to spend a little time here, it might just be a good thing: for the brand, the company, the shareholders (incl. me), and ultimate the users (incl. all of us that commented, i think)
--- N95 31.0.0.17 | N97 21.0.045 --- http://hi.im/iivo
As you guys wrap up with the beta application, all I can say is we're wrapping up all Nokia devices and moving to iPhone or Andriod devices. You people just wasted our time in putting effort in beta apps, and end result closing it. Nokia seems to be funny phone now holding N97,mini 5800XM, with useless buggy facebook app. This will be our last phones , Goodbye Nokia.
I am great fan of...thanks to doveloper for these best soft..
sunny swami
I have owned loads of Nokia Smartphones from a N80 to N97mini. The strategy at Nokia is to sell hardware not software whilst at Apple and Google they sell backward compatible software first. Originally their technology was poor but the software and development potential very good. The problem for Nokia now is that their hardware has well and truely caught up. Quite simply Nokia WILL at some stage in the future have to use Android but only when their market share has dwindled. Do you know of anywhere taking bets on Nokia using Andriod within 3-5 years or perhaps sooner... BTY I wrote this on my N97 mini with ease although a spell chek application could be usefull.
I think that S60 5th edition is so big failure as an environment that it's impossible to develop advanced applications for it in an acceptable period of time. The only bigger app that is frequently updated on 5th edition is Ovi maps these days. That's something that they just can't stop developing because so big promises are given out by top management.
So I somewhat understand that all the resources are developing S^3 and Meego apps because these platforms are properly supporting Qt and same apps are working on every device with very little efforts. You can't say same thing about 5th edition. You need to rewrite almost the complete code to make the app work also on 5th edition. And it even may need big customizations to make it work on another 5th edition device.
So I think that this is basically the reason but it's something that they just can't say aloud. 5th edition is just that bad that it makes sense to kill it after this short life cycle. I just feel so cheated about all the promo videos and interviews that laid a picture that this platform would be able to run decent apps with some eye candy and that it would be frequently updated with new features (like address book integrated skype etc.).
I feel Nokia hasn't but their all into making a smartphone experience worth while. And after reading this, I am cemented my decision. I am moving from Nokia to an Android device. It was a hard decision, but this release made it a lot easier.
My Nokia Messenger (Ovi Contacts) ID: Ikenleyfrancis@ovi.com
and we (5800, N97/mini) get dumped
i can't believe that it is sooo difficult to port that client for the n8 to the n97 or 5800. come on guys. work for your money and give us who paid a lot for the n97 what we deserve and really can expect for the money we invested! its a shame to refer us to that crappy client. every cheap cheap samsung phone has a better fb-client than nokia's flagship n97 - and yeah it still is, cuz n8 isnt released yet!
Why don't make the application open source and let us pick it up from there instead of killing it?
it was a short cut to the web browser bringing up the short cut bookmark to facebook no great loss
it was a short cut to the web browser bringing up the short cut bookmark to facebook no great loss
Shame on you nokia!
USED
If there's one word that describes how we all feel, this is it
You USED us (your faithful S60^3, S60^5, and other older Symbian software users) to solidify a product that you are hoping we will buy
I'll tell you this much. I like Nokia. There are a couple things about it that I missed on my other phones. But the biggest reason why I came back to you (after owning a KRZR for 3 years and a craptastic Samsung t619 before that) was I could get what I thought would be a decent phone (5230) while keeping my cheap data plan
All the other ones I looked at had Facebook integrated. Heck some of them have it integrated with notifications right on the home page
I hope something good comes from this. The Facebook app from the store is a joke. I can't go back farther than 27 updates? Where's the 'More' option?
I hate feeling USED. It's like you just left us at the altar
you think we gonna buy the n8? Lol u can kiss my ass nokia!! The reviews still suck... already got my iphone 4..my thoughts? Good ridens....karma is a bitch and u got a fat one coming your way... One day you will regret treatin your faithful as shit coz guess what?we are iphone o android faithfull now... I mean HAVE YOU SEEN THOSE PHONES? Lmao... I bet all your execs n major shareholders use android..nokia is crap... Your only success=s40's being sold to 3rd world countries..... pEACE BETA LABS,NOKIA AS A whole... I thought there was potential
How can you expect people who have recently just bought a phone to update to the Nokia N8 to get a client that obviously works on the N97's platform, as a lot of people here had it. This is the only reason its been taken away, cause you are scared people wont get sales numbers of N8's up. Well here's some news for you nokia, those people you let down by taking the social netwoks app away will be making up some Iphone4 numbers for you guys, as you treat your customers like shit. We are so far behind the rest of the phone world its not funny. The current facebook app is an absolute joke and I refuse to use it, having to deal with the crappy facebook touch websit einstead!