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A friend of mine, Surj Patel, told a while back me he thinks the next big thing in mobile application interfaces will be multi-modal input.  That is, we have buttons that allow us to interact with the phone and the fantastic iPhone allows us to use touch.  For more of my perspective on touch interfaces, check out a previous post of mine on GigaOm.

Multi-modal interfaces are those that allow us to use multiple mediums to utilize the mobile handset.  That is, being able to use touch and voice simulatiously.  Google Maps for Mobile just announced anew way of using Google Maps.  When conducting a search on the BlackBerry Pearl’s GMM application, you can speak in your search query.  Imagine how much time and frustration this will save when trying to interact with Google Maps for Mobile.

Think of how revolutionary this is.  Touch interfaces is changing the way we use and look at our mobile handsets, and being able to combine this with voice or other input methods is monumental.  As another example, Nokia phones (and some others) feature a hardware accelerometer and some forward-thinking applications are utilizing the accelerometer to do many common functions.  For example, if your phone is sitting on a table and it rings, imagine being able to simply turn it over if you want to dismiss the call, rather than having to push a button.

I think Surj is right about multi-modal interfaces.

Nokia Opens Their Platform And Causes Industry Change

Today’s news about Nokia and Sybian joining forces is starting to sink in and people are beginning to question what it means for the mobile platform.

In one fell swoop, Nokia has achieved what Google can only hope Android will be in 3-4 years.  That is, Nokia has gained a widely adopted open source mobile operating system that has profound market share.  To add to this, there is already a plethora of fantastic mobile applications written for Symbian as application developers have flocked to the platform over the past 10 years.  The numbers vary widely depending on where you look, but as TechCrunchIT points out, Symbian currently carries roughly 60% of smartphone market share worldwide.

This, combined with the fact that industry heavyweights are behind the Symbian Foundation including carriers such as AT&T, NTT DoCoMo, Orange, T-Mobile, and Vodafone.  Also, handset makers LG, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson are on board as well.  This is a wide ranging array of mobile bellweather companies, making Nokia and Sybian a force to be reckoned with.

However, in today’s mobile environment it doesn’t matter who supports what - platform success revolves around which mobile applications are most successful.  Which platform will mobile application developers flock to?  There are currently 4 main choices: Symbian, iPhone, RIM’s BlackBerry, and Windows Mobile.  Symbian has some gravity based on their market share, but will it be enough to effectively woo inspired developers creating the next great application?

The iPhone has been a game changer and will continue to be with the pending release of third-party applications and the Apple App Store.  With the iPhone having an initial cost of $199, many new consumers will be adopting smartphones and expecting fun apps to enhance their experience.

My suggestion to Nokia would be to make their applications more available to consumers.  Apple will make adding new applications to the iPhone easy with the app store, much like iTunes changed the music buying experience.  Nokia needs to respond with a similar unified way of finding and consuming mobile software - with ease-of-use at the forefront of this effort.

How will Google respond to the Nokia acquisition?  In what way will they make Android the application platform of choice?  I believe they will use their Google mobile services as a magnet.  On the other hand,  Google has embraced the Symbian market also with native applications such as Google Search and Google Maps for Mobile.  Will they continue to pump out applications for a competitive mobile OS?  Om Malik thinks the move is aimed at Linux on Mobile, but I believe it’s also aimed squarely at Google’s Android, as well is LiMo.

The mobile industry is one that is primed for competition and excitement.

Nokia Answers Back

A compelling reason I enjoy Nokia smart phones is their use of the Symbian operating system.  This mobile OS is found on many phones including Nokia, Sony Ericcson, Panasonic, and a few others.  Up until now, Symbian has operated as a separate entity that created an environment that was very inviting to mobile phone application developers.

Tonight, in a huge announcement, Nokia has announced that they are acquiring Symbian Limited and are open sourcing the Symbian mobile operating system under a new entity called the Symbian Foundation.  Nokia has long been a large stakeholder in Symbian, and announced today they are acquiring all the shares of Symbian Limited it doesn’t already own for approximately 264 million Euros.

According to Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Pallasvuo, Nokia’s intent is to create “the most attractive platform for mobile innovation and drive the development of new and compelling web-enabled applications”.

Today’s acquisition is undoubtedly an answer to Google’s open source Android operating system, which today was publicized to have been delayed because of issues with telcos.

Application developers will hopefully be able to help Symbian continue its mobile OS dominance as Symbian currently enjoys a favorable market share.  Now, app developers will have two major open source operating systems to chose from when developing their mobile offerings.

Note: I’ve posted further analysis in this post.

The notion behind social location based services is fantastic.  For example, depending where you are, an application that knows your location and the locations of your friends alerts you all to each other’s presence and good times ensue.  This is the idea behind Plazes, a German start-up that allows users to plan, record, and share their social activities.

There are two areas of concern I have with services like Plazes (along with Loopt and Whrrl).  I love the concept behind these services, however, who’s addressing the privacy concerns?  For example, I use Brightkite and have added a few friends, but I have declined the opportunity to advertise my Brightkite status on Twitter.  I don’t want everyone in my twitter stream to know my exact location for privacy reasons.

Also, before the Nokia acquisition, what revenue model did Plazes have?  My only guess is that after enough people signed up for Plazes, contextual ads could be served that are location-aware.

Nokia is the clear winner here, as they are adding 13 smart developers to their Services and Software unit.  Perhaps the new team can help add some social aspects to the useful Nokia Maps Application. Nokia has been delivering some great mobile applications that utilize location and GPS data as of late, so I’m very anxious to see how the Plazes team is positioned within the company and future offerings.

Maps is great for finding your way with basic GPS functions but could definintely use some social features.  Especially with a GPS-enabled iPhone coming out soon and all the applications that will utilize its new hardware stack.  Because, like I said on GigaOm a while back, feature-packed phones are useless unless they are tied into our daily lives with useful software and services.

Nokia, a Finnish mobile phone handset maker, has released a much anticipated updated to their popular E series of phones.  The current E61i is an amazing business-class phone with fantastic productivity-focused suite of applications and amazing build quality.  Today Nokia released the E71, an updated more stylish version that is skinnier, more attractive, and more functional than the E61i.

In the hardware department, Nokia has carried on their tradition of making their phones globe-trotting business tools with quad-band GSM (850/900/1800/1900MHz), dual band 3G connectivity operating on 850/1900MHz, 900/2100MHz, or 850/2100MHz (yes this means there will be a US 3G version), Wi-Fi, on-board GPS with A-GPS capabilities, a 2.4″ display, a full QWERTY keyboard, and a microSD card slot.  It’s smaller than the E61 and measures 4.5″ x 2.2″ x 0.4″.

Meanwhile, in the software department, the E71 enhances productivity by receiving needed updates to the Contacts and Calendar applications.  By the appearances of the screenshots, the home screen shows you messaging info including unread voicemails, emails, and SMS messages.  According to Symbian-Guru, the E71 has smart technology that offers auto-completion, auto-correction, and a utility that learns how you type to help fix your common errors.  Very cool.

The E71 features a 3.2 MP camera, which is fantastic for a business device.  The camera will allow for still photos and decent looking video to be taken as well.  Also in the multi-media department, the E71 will feature Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP for full stereo Bluetooth headset capability.

My Take

The E61i is an incredible device that means business.  Nokia, again, seems to have taken much of the feedback in the blogosphere to heart with the rollout of the E71.  The application updates look fantastic as do the plug-ins for the active standby mode (the modules that appear on the home screen.

Nokia is smart to include a US 3G version.  I believe this will help convince enterprises in the US to consider the E71 for their mobile workforce as 3G networks become more present across the US.

I will post more information when I get the E71 in hand and am able to do a full review on it.

So Apple came out with their new cell phone today - the iPhone 3G, as they’re calling it.  For those of you who don’t know, it has:

• 3G network access
• A new plastic-ey look
• built in GPS

All these features were known as of last week thanks to the blogosphere.  However, the amazing thing to me with the new iPhone is the battery life!  I’m hoping these numbers are close to reality: 300 hours of standby, 5 hours of 3G Talk, 8 hours of 2G (EDGE) talk time.  Outstanding!

These features are all great…they are ones I’ve been enjoying on my Nokia N95 and N82 for about a year now.  Geo-location on photos is awesome and I’m glad my iPhone brethren will finally be able to see where photos are taken and know exactly where they are on a map…rather than 1800 metres of accuracy granted by Google Maps ‘My Location’ triangulation - also known as poor man’s GPS.

As I was talking with Jason Grigsby yesterday, I think location based services are going to be hot. and iPhone’s inclusion of 3G will take LBS to a whole new level.  Take Apple’s Core Location - it tells you who on the contact list of your iPhone is within 10 miles of you.  This will be useful going forward and I am anxious to see what kind of apps devs can write with Core Location being able to be used throughout the iPhone OS.

Peter Ha over at TechCrunch is bitching about the iPhone requiring a 2-year contract.  Um, Peter…the iPhone ALWAYS required a 2-year AT&T service agreement…what’s so new about this?  Anyone who bought an iPhone last year in the US agreed to be contracted (I call it “By the Balls”) with AT&T.  If you know where Peter is coming from, please leave a comment.

The iPhone 3G will be available on July 11 at an opening price of $199 for an 8 GB model.  $299 for 16GB.

Thanks to the Nokia Blogger Relations Program, I received a Black N82. The N82 has much of the same features as the N95 including on-board GPS, WiFi capability, and a 5MP digital camera.  The wonderful thing is all this is in a candy bar type phone.  Personally, I’m partial to candy bar style versus the slider form factor that the N95 has.

In terms of initial impressions:

• The response time and general speediness of this device is fantastic
• Taking images is quick and responsive.
• Rock Solid - this device has great built quality
• Love the auto-screen rotation

I almost had a hernia from laughing so hard when I read this in my newsreader this morning.  According to Symbian Freak, Microsoft wants to attain 40% market share of the smartphone market by 2012.  I’m sorry Microsoft, but you’re a loser in the mobile field.  Between the Apple iPhone, Nokia s60 devices (which currently hold 40% worldwide market share), RIM BlackBerrys, and upcoming Google Android devices, Microsoft Windows Mobile is a clear outsider in this market.

Personally, I have tried each of these platforms and Windows Mobile is the slowest, buggiest, and unstable mobile phone operating system in the current market.  Windows also does not have an eye in making a cohesive user experience.  This is a space Apple is winning hands down, currently.

If you disagree, I look forward to a lively discussion in the comments 

T-Mobile customers have been waiting for what seems like years for the cell service provider to give us a 3G data network.  Verizon Wireless, Sprint, and AT&T have had 3G networks for quite some time, giving us mobile broadband access to the Internet.

T-Mobile has finally started the rollout of the 3G network, starting with New York City.  The new UMTS/HSDPA network will appear in other markets as the year goes on, hopefully in Portland where I could get access to it.  Currently, according to Om’s post, there are only 4 handsets available for T-Mobile’s 3G network.

However, thanks to the Nokia Blogger Relations program, I have a Nokia N81 8GB.  I would *love* to use this phone on a 3G network here in the States.  It won’t work on AT&T because they use a proprietary HSDPA network.  My hope was that T-Mobile’s network would be compatible with this Nokia phone.  Unfortunately, it’s not, because like AT&T, T-Mobile has chosen to “lock-in” customers by also employing their own proprietary 3G network.

This means that handset makers such as Sony/Ericsson, Nokia, and others who want to build a 3G handset are going to have to make 3 versions.  One for the Europe market, one for AT&T’s US network, and now one for T-Mobile’s 3G network.

This also means if I have a handset that works on the 3G network here in the States and I travel to Europe, I won’t have 3G access to the European network.  *Shrug*

Nokia, the world’s number one mobile phone manufacturer, has launched a new blog called Nokia Conversations.  While it’s taken a while for Nokia to engage the conversation, I’m happy with this new development.

A few of us in the Nokia Blogger Relations program were given early access to the new site and there’s some interesting content on the blog.  Nokia has a new Social Media person, Mark Squires, on board and I’m looking forward to see how else the Finnish company decides to engage with their user base.

When the new site is up, I’ll update this post so all of you can see what the new blog is all about.