With Nokia World just around the corner, it is a pertinent time for some of us commentators to divvy up some opinions and talking points on how far Nokia have come, and where they are headed.

If you write for a mobile based site or blog, why not join me in making some predictions?  It’s always good to shoot wide of the mark sometimes.  Who knows.

The keynote address from OPK this year is going to be particularly important.  Not only for his own personal role at the helm of the Finnish giant, but for the stock market value of the company as a whole.  The main focus of OPK’s strategy of Nokia has been one of realignment.  To move the company to a more diverse standpoint of being a services company,  rather than the sole hardware company of the past.  Sure, we are going to get the obligatory roundup of the success of services such as Ovi Maps, but maybe the markets will demand something slightly more extravagant than a mere notice of additional content hosts to the platform.  It is the overall performance of Nokia (and Symbian for that matter) when compared to their rivals which is where OPK is going to have to tread carefully.

There is a huge amount of pressure for Nokia to come up with something that will rival iOS and Android, and Nokia have staked their claim, along with Intel, in MeeGo.  That is all well and good, but now is the time to start seeing some fruit falling from the MeeGo tree, or at the very least ripening on the branches.  For this to not happen is unimaginable.  Some evidence of a cold, hard MeeGo device, being almost market ready is where Nokia needs to be.  Nothing less.

A few PowerPoint slides showing the interface is not going to cut it.

The Ovi Store could do with a refresh, and I am confident that there will be at least some announcement in this area.  We reported last week that Nokia were now offering to make the road to the Ovi Store both free and more speedy, and I’m sure Nokia will want to tell us about that, and any analysis of numbers.

We must also not forget the corporate and enterprise users that are shifting to the iPhone in their droves.  Nokia could really steal a march here as companies look to replace their ageing Nokia E71 fleet with something new and different, but not radical.  Maybe incorporating something along the lines of the ‘touch and type’ scenario with the highly popular form factor of the E71/72 would turn out to be a very successful product line.

One market that could really have an effect on Nokia’s future going forward is in the US.  For many reasons, Nokia has never done very well in North America, so any change in policy is likely to have any detrimental impact on their success.  Expect some more news on operator tie in’s, along the lines of the Nokia E73 Mode for T-Mobile.  I think T-Mobile is going to be the main operator of choice for Nokia,  as they have the expertise to overcome some of T-Mobile’s coverage problems with the UMA technology.

Whatever the outcome of Nokia World, I’m sure Nokia will treat us to a few surprises along the way.  Be sure to subscribe to our RSS FEED to keep up to date with all the Nokia news, and follow us on Twitter.

What do you think will be happening at Nokia World?  Care to make your own predictions?   Why not leave us a comment, or write your own blog post and I will update this post with a link to your thoughts.

Today the Symbian Foundation announced that they have finally made their entire Symbian operating system source code available to everyone, completely free of charge, under the EPL (Eclipse  Public License).

This release has been a cornerstone of the Symbian Foundation’s business strategy, and comes four months ahead of schedule.

It is hoped that by moving to an open source model, developers will get involved, inspire a community, and the speed of innovation around the Symbian ecosystem will increase proportionately.

So what will this mean to me as a consumer?  Well essentially it means that any hardware manufacturer can download the code, and build a Symbian device.  Chances are that this scenario won’t really come to fruition in the short term as many of the large scale manufacturers who were interested have already joined the foundation.

What you should see though, is a quicker development of the OS to bring it up to speed with it’s competitiors, as in some areas Symbian has fallen behind somewhat.

This release is no small mean feat by any standards, and there is lots of extra reading if you are so inclined.  The announcement is HERE, the press release is HERE and the relevant post on the Symbian Blog is HERE.  Or, if you are feeling really brave, the code is available for download HERE.

What do hope to see come out of this announcement?  Are you a developer interested in taking up arms?  Let us know in the comments, or shoot me an email steve@thenokianetwork.com

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This year, Nokia are not going to be attending Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on the 15th – 18th February 2010.

Nokia fans out there need not worry however, because Nokia will still be in Barcelona on the 15th and 16th February.  They will be holding their very own event just down the road at Once, which is the home of the Spanish National Organization for the Blind.

This is quite obviously a cost saving exercise, because of the enormous price they would have to pay in order to get a similar setup inside MWC.

Nokia have now put up their mini MWC event website, which details their press conference which will be held on 15th February at 11.30am CET sharp.  Following the press conference, there will be breakout presentations, and the opportunity to have a chat with senior management personnel.

Are you going to be in Barcelona?  Do you think Nokia will announce new devices or services?  Let us know in the comments.  Alternatively, send me an email steve@thenokianetwork.com

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Yes, you read the title correctly folks, I have the new version of Ovi Map, Version 3.03 installed on my Nokia N86 8MP.  After the press release and announcement event this morning, of the free navigation included with the new Ovi Maps, us N86 owners were left dejected after realising that our beloved devices had been left out in the cold by Nokia.

Well, I have some good news for you, I have just downloaded and installed the E52 version of Ovi Maps, available from http://maps.nokia.com/explore-services/ovi-maps and I can confirm it is working fine so far.  You will need to download the actual SIS file, and not get the text message download or else it won’t work.

You do need at least 20MB free of internal memory on the C: though, so a good way of freeing up some valuable space, is to clear the cache in your browser, and uninstall any applications that you don’t use anymore.

I’ll report back if I find any problems soon.

Of course, don’t do this if you are worried of the consequences of it possibly bricking your phone, and also make sure you do a backup beforehand.

Let us know any feedback in the comments.

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News has just filtered through this morning via Symbian-Guru and The Nokia Blog, that this morning’s Ovi announcement from Nokia will be them releasing a new version of their Ovi Maps software which now includes voice navigation for free in 74 countries around the world.

This is a potentially a big shot in the eye for Google, who currently, only have this kind of service available for American customers.

This is a very obvious announcement by Nokia to try and reassert themselves as the biggest player in the mobile market, instead of the popular choices of Apple and Google.

Also remember that the likes of TomTom and Garmin took a massive hit on the stock market when Google announced their version of free navigation a couple of months ago, so in theory, today should be an even worse day for them.

Crucially, how the markets react, will tell us if they think Nokia can still mix it up with the big boys, or is a wounded animal lashing out at it’s attackers.

As usual though, the announcement is not as simple as it could be. The way Nokia likes to do it.

Only 10 devices will have the new Ovi Maps available later today, the N97 Mini, E72, E52, E55, 5800, 5800NE, 6710Nav, 6730, 5230 and the new X6.

So where is the N97? Where is the N86? Both premium Nokia devices, but shunned from the nice shiny new goodies. The budget 5230 gets in on the action though, bizarrely.

Apparently, more devices will be added at a later date, but let’s hang fire on that, until it actually happens.

What do you think of this announcement?  Are you an N97 owner?

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So the great CES 2010 in Las Vegas is officially over.  So how did Nokia get on?  Well they had a keynote, and wheeled out the big guns like OPK onto the stage, but general opinion has been downbeat.

Right off the bat, no new handsets were announced.  This is always a disappointment when a massive company, such as Nokia, has literally nothing new to show off.

However, as Nokia are now trying to re-gig themselves into a services company, surely they had some new stuff to brag about in this arena?  Err, nope.

So what was their keynote about?

Well, it would seem that the keynote was about two things.  Firstly, how many Nokia devices they have shipped.  Nokia love bragging about this, because they are number one.  No other company in the world ships anyway near as many devices as them, and they love that fact.  Kudos to them, they deserve it.  I would say that self gratification is not, in my opinion, particularly interesting.  Just because Apple does it, doesn’t mean everyone should follow suit.

The other main item on the agenda was how Nokia is leading the industry of ways in which to help people in developing countries use mobile devices and services help with their life and businesses.  Ovi Mail is many peoples first viable access to an email account, Nokia Money is helping people transfer money who do not have viable access to a bank,  and how they are bringing location services to the masses not just by GPS but also by cell tower triangulation.

So that was the main crux of the Nokia keynote at CES, and there has been some very mixed reactions this.

If you want to see the live feed of the Nokia keynote at CES, Engadget has it in a great bullet format, with some good images HERE.

Now, we look forward to MWC, and what can we expect to see.

MWC (Mobile World Congress) is being held in Barcelona between the 15th and 18th February.  This is the big mobile show.

Now, I am blissfully aware that Nokia are not specifically going to be at MWC.  However, they are going to be just down the road.  Some people are predicting that Nokia will not announce anything in February because they are not going to MWC.  Whilst this fact is true in the minutest detail, the fact that they are in town, at the exact same time as MWC was no accident.  MWC would have charged Nokia an absolute fortune to host an event within the MWC realm, so a way of Nokia cutting costs is to hold their own party just down the road.

There has been lots of speculation that because Nokia didn’t announce anything at CES, there is going to be an onslaught of new devices showcased in Barcelona.

I would be wary about predicting too much, but I think we should be in line for at least one new device in E, X and N Series line ups.  Possibly even the N900′s Maemo successor, but that would be pushing the limits of reality a little too far.  I would predict that the E Series will be another S60 handset, with maybe the X Series moving to the new Symbian Foundation platform to test the waters for the N and E Series coming later in the year.  As the X Series brand is so new, a complete failure on Nokia’s part to implement the Symbian Foundation OS properly is not going to do too much damage to the venerable N and E Series monikers.

Aside from that, I’m sure we will see the next iteration of Ovi Maps, and possibly a move towards the mainstream of Nokia Money, with possible integration into a NFC (Near Field Communcations) device so that you can pay for items in high street stores using your mobile phone.  There is some speculation around that the next iPhone is going to have NFC capabilities, so Nokia getting there first will be a relatively big scalp for them.

So there we have it.  They are my predictions for MWC in Barcelona next month.  Do you disagree?  Let us know in the comments.

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It may seem like one of those knee-jerk reactions that have been reported lately such as “Symbian is Dead”, but it is actually true. Well sort of.

The Really Mobile Project went to the official Nokia N900 meet up in London last night, and are reporting that the Maemo guys have said that Symbian will not feature as the OS in N-Series devices from 2012 forwards.  Instead, a move to Maemo is favoured as the OS of choice for the top of the range devices.

A move of this kind has been on the cards for some time, with Symbian moving ever downwards into the cheaper handset base, and it struggling to keep up in terms of flashy eye candy with the likes of Apple and Android.

This may be seen by some, and somewhat of a kick in the teeth for the (relatively) newly formed Symbian Foundation.  Especially as the Symbian Foundation hasn’t really had the opportunity to showcase it’s new releases just yet.  But, herein may lie the problem, in the fact that the Symbian Foundation has been up and running for just over a year now, but we have still to see any devices come to market running the ‘new’ platform.

I see it more in the fact that Nokia hope to capture the imagination of the application developers with Maemo in a way they don’t seem to have ever been able to with Symbian.

What are your thoughts on this direction change for Nokia?  Let us know in the comments.

[Hat Tip to Ben Smith]

UPDATE: So Nokia have (rather sluggishly) attempted to play down these reports, in what I would say, an attempt to try and sort out the mess they have got themselves into with the Symbian Foundation.  Mark from over at The Nokia Blog has quoted the Nokia Corporate Communications team in that they claim this is all merely speculation on their future roadmap.  No hint of a denial, I hasten to add.  Head on over to the post to read it in full

Some of us are off to the Symbian Exchange and Exposition 2009 event next week, and the excitement surrounding the build up is starting to flourish.

Ivan from Symbian’s Technical Communications Team has developed a small widget to help you plan how you will spend your time a the event.  It includes things such as what is happening on the main stage at any one time, and also has a Twitter plug in, which, I presume, will be linked to the #SEE09 hashtag.

If you are off to SEE09, and have a Symbian device, this may well be a worthwhile download.

October is just around the corner, and that means the annual Symbian event in London, UK.  From memory, it’s gone by a couple of different names, and it’s all change this year with the advent of the new Symbian Foundation.  A title more in keeping with that theme, and maybe more of the willingness to show that the sails are up, and Symbian is sailing in a new direction.

This year then, the event goes by the name of The Symbian Exchange and Exposition, or SEE 2009 for short.  Now, whilst I’ll reserve judgement of the new naming convention for now, this years show looks to be a very exciting prospect.

With the meteoric rise of the mobile ‘Applications’ arena in the last 12 months or so, then it’s definitely odds on that this will be the main tour-de-force within this show.  Just a quick glance at the exhibitors list shows an overwhelming majority in favour of software vendors looking not only to pimp their wares, but also to get developer interaction and excitement brewing.  This will obviously be the focus of Symbian in the short term at least, to try and get the Ovi Store as jam packed  with cool apps as soon as is physically possible.

I’m hoping to be there, for one day at least, depending how my shifts at work lie, bringing you the news and views, and I’d really love to meet up with as many fellow like minded folks.

So, if you’re planning on attending, leave a comment below, ping me a tweet, or drop an email to steverowlands ‘at’ ovi ‘dot’ com