Compelling Phone First
Maybe they should first deliver something that can compete with King Steve's products. Then think about technicalities.
Nokia has been asleep at the wheel for the last four years.
Nokia has been making itself pretty for developers – launching a new SDK for Qt applications, dropping the cost of Ovi listing to €50 and signing applications for free. Not only that, but the Finns reckon they can get the average signing time for applications down to two weeks, along with making the whole process a lot cheaper …
Yea, yea. We know. Every time someone buys a non-iPhone a fairy dies now please quit trolling.
Look the iPhone isn't and never has been the best phone out there (copy and paste/only just getting a 5Mp camera as others roll-out 12/unable to make calls if you are touching it - http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/06/24/iphone_antenna/ ?), it's just the one with the best marketing.
The iPhone only really had two features that differentiated it from the rest, an intuitive touch UI and an application store that was easy for people to develop for and purchase from.
Android isn't doing too badly on this front and this is Nokia's latest attempt to catch up with Ovi, dropping the barriers to developers in order to increase the number/range of products 'on the shelf'.
..is what users use to interface with the phone. And if they seriously need pictures, they will buy a camera from Canon.
Apple innovated enormously while Nokia was dreaming some dreams of hunting and eating Moose, I suppose. And it seems they don't have a clue what to do about that.
If they had one, they would innovate themselves. Using Linux and Qt is an innovation 99% of end users could not care less. What they want is an easy-to-use UI and great applications and services.