Nokia's Open Studio debuts three megapixel N93; analysts ponder

On April 25 Nokia hosted an “Open Studio” event in Berlin where the company introduced new Nseries cellular phones — including a 3.2 megapixel camera/camcorder phone.

If you’re at all interested in what Nokia is up to — especially their new music– and camera/video-oriented cellular phones, check out the webcast on Open Studio page (that I’ve linked to above).

Nokia doesn’t want to refer to these high end Nseries handsets as “mobile phones.”  Instead, Nokia executives are calling them “multimedia computers,” of which voice is just one aspect.

Videos….a big deal?

While Nokia promotes multimedia — including videos taken with camera phones — as a very big deal, studies continue to surface that highlight how very few people are using cellular phones for high end applications, especially watching television.

I have written before and will continue to write that video — taking camcorder videos and watching video clips (including live and archived television program) will be a matter of course in a few years.

The naysayers about watching video on a “small screen” will be proven wrong.  The bottom line is we humans communicate in multimedia (we see, hear, speak, etc.) and it is natural for use to use wireless multimedia communications tools.

Nokia N93

I’m a member of the the Nokia “blogger relations program” and have been able to test two Nseries phones — N70 and N90.  Both offer two megapixel resolutions with Carl Zeiss lenses.

The N93 (see below), that’s slated to be available this summer, is a 3.2 megapixel CMOS handset with a 3x optical zoom, a Carl Zeiss autofocus lens (F/3.3 – 4.5 to f/12.4 and — according to Nokia — “DVD-like video capture,” according to the press release.

The N93 features MPEG-4 VGA videos at 30 frames per second and stereo sound capture.  The handset also has dedicated keys for the shutter, zoom and flash.

Video/software features

The handset also includes a video out port for viewing images on a television and WiFi for use with a home network.  In addition, the N93 is bundled with Adobe Premiere Elements 2.0. 

(I want to check out that software for my own camera phone videos.  I need software to edit the videos and Nokia recommended that software to me.)

I wonder how sophisticated the N93’s capabilities really compared to what I can do with a digital camera.  For example, I would like to be able to lock in a specific exposure, such as photographing a person who is standing in front of a bright window.

Cellular versus camcorders

For most camera phones I have found that a good digital camera with the equivalent resolution takes better photos than the phone. 

Although there are technical reasons why digital camera are typically superior (large components, more light entering the sensor, more advanced internal software, etc.), today’s high end camera phones, such as the N70 and N90, take photos that certainly are good enough and, sometimes “good.”

The videos aren’t bad either, although you wouldn’t mistake them for good camcorder videos.  (Check out the videos I’ve taken with the N70.)

Nokia’s vision

Nokia has sold some  five million of its Nseries “multimedia computers” since the series was introduced about a year ago.

Assi Vanjoki, the executive vice president and general manager for multimedia at Nokia, says some 100 million converged devices were sold worldwide in 2005 and 250 million are forecast to be sold in 2008.

The screen behind Vanjoki showed such devices as a digital camera, Sony PSP, television, RIM BlackBerry, telephone and iPod as examples of single-purpose devices that are combined in Nseries phones.

The new lifestyle

Vanjoki says the Nseries is designed for the 200 million technology leaders who help influence what other people will use.

Marko Ahtisaari, Nokia’s director of design strategy, discusses the social networking/multimedia lifestyle that Nokia’s handsets are attempting to capture. 

That’s one reason Nokia has teamed with the online photo album Flickr to make it easy for Nokia’s phone users to access Flickr, as the press release notes.

BBC Connection

Justin Dyche of the BBC spoke at Open Studio (that you may see in the webcast) and discussed the history of the BBC’s use of camera phones, including employing Nokia’s 3650. 

(I wrote about the BBC in 2004.  Yes, I know the formatting is screwed up; I’m checking it.)

Interestingly, Nokia initially didn’t provide video capabilities for the 3650 because it didn’t believe the handset was sufficiently powerful.  So the BBC developed its own application for recording.

BBC firsts

Camera phones — as video recorders — have provided the BBC with a way to scoop the competition.

Dyche says that when the video quality isn’t good, the story has to be sufficiently important to put the video on the air.  But with the development of much better camera phones with better videos, the BBC can justify airing just about any newsworthy event.

This also gives rise to citizen journalists.  The BBC has a “huge pool of unpaid stringers,” he says.  During the terrorist bus and subway bombings in London on July 7, 2005, the BBC received about 20,000 e-mails, 2,000 videos and still photos and 3,000 SMS.

Coping with information

A challenge for the BBC and other new organizations is both coping with the huge amount of information they receive from citizens as well as ensuring the information that’s broadcast is accurate.

“It is a real headache for all media organizations,” Dyche says.  Nokia says there are 500 million camera phones around the world today.  The United Arab Emirates newspaper has an article with more information about about Dyche’s comments (or you may view them yourself on the Nokia webcast).

Sure it’s difficult to separate the imaging wheat from the chaff, but that’s part of a journalist’s job.

I predict that by 2010, when most cellular phones have camera and video recording capabilities — and close to 1 billion people have these phones — the value of multimedia will be a non-issue.

Comments

[shaun]

Can you tell me when the N93 is due out on the Three network? if it is at all that is! its just that i am due for an upgrade and want that one but they wont tell me when they are due to get it released

[mohammad]

please send me an article about all nokia products special n93_n92 , ...

[shady]

I am realy interested in vedio camcorders

pleas can you attach one vedio taken by n93

[Tychocat]

Paper critique of the N93: My sole complaint is the apparent euro-centric frequency settings of 900, 1800, and 1900 mHz. I had a phone (Sony Ericsson T300) on those bands, and when I went to a 850, 1800, 1900 mHz. phone, my reception was hugely improved. If the N93 is supposed to be the current reigning tech flagship of the Nokia line, why wouldn't it come with a quad-band radio to moot this complaint?

It appears that in their rush to spin their "multimedia computer", Nokia has forgotten it's a cell phone company. That, or they're bundling features in each new model by picking them out of a barrel.