If only Nokia would drop the price of the N95-3 to below $500. If only.

I was able to unlock my N75 myself, change the firmware from the AT&T version to the OEM version, added A2DP, and now have Slingplayer on my phone. And it's a 3G phone. Best part is, Nokia doesn't brick their phones if you do all this.

ha that is the best ad ever!

YEAH I LOVE IT. GET EM. This is better than that real player "buffering" shot!

Zing!

'Course it's not just lack of support for 3rd party apps, it's also lack of support for phones that have had 3rd party apps installed on them.

I'll believe that it's a real ad when I see more.

it would be much more effective with less wrinkles ;)

And apparently they can only afford to pay bums to put up posters? What a freakin' mess!

I wanna see this ad on the 5th ave. apple store glass house... I'm sure someone can least photoshop it.

That is awesome! Of course it is a shot at Apple. The more shots the better. Who knows, maybe Steve-O will get the picture that iPhone users want 3rd party applications and he will provide a means for them to do so.

Finally some corporate anti-apple representation. I have waited a long time for this. Sorry, but i refuse to be a sheep. Nokia phone or not, take it apple.

Looks like they had a good idea, wanted to get it out the door fast, and didn't have any time to bother with, you know, making it look nice. Or maybe the graphics department was passed out drunk when they were really needed. Either way, it's a content-full, design-free ad.

Mac, on the other hand, is bursting with design consideration.

But Nokia require that applications are signed (or at least, applications that want to interact non-trivially with the phone).

If you want to distribute your application, you need to submit it for testing and signing to some third party company, at a cost of several hundred euros.

Each time you release a new version, re-signing is required - kerching! Several hundred euros again.

So, "open to anything"? Only to those who pay.

Gory details here: [www.symbiansigned.com]

will this encourage steve to see the light or piss him off and redouble his arrogant stubbornness?

@glibberthwix: that's your opinion. I like the ad. The design is simple and just superb, just like Apple's ad campaigns.

That's it? That's the Apple killing ad? Riiiiight. Keep dreaming.

W E A K

@James:

Um, how about the link to the online campaign on Nokia's own site?

[www.nseries.com]

phones don't need to be open to anything.. BUT for the price of both of these phones they do!

@jesusdiaz:
Agreed. Doesn't seem like a design disaster to me either.

Their graphics department was busy doing the web page mentioned in the ad.

I'm glad Nokia is bringing the fight to Apple (I've said repeatedly they are the most threatened by Apple's foray into the phone biz), but these ads remind me that Nokia's disadvantage is their lack of software experience. In comparisons I've read between Nokia products and Apple products, whenever the Apple product wins, it is due to a software advantage. Being open to anything is a selling point, but not when their software alone fails to compete.

@glibberthwix: Yeah, I'm not sure where the design department fell short on this one. Just because it doesn't involve a dancing silhouette, doesn't mean it's bad design.

If I needed another real to love Nokia, I have it now. :)

As much of an Apple fanboy as I am, this made me chuckle. They certainly have a point.

In fact, unless the iPhone unlock situation changes, my next phone will probably be an N95. I travel a lot, and I refuse to buy one phone for each country.

I don't think its a poster or sign. I think its one of those covers you put up in front of a store that is currently being built or under renovation. Imagine walking by a store on the street or in a mall and you see "This store coming soon." Still, I love Nokia and think they make the absolute best phones. I made the mistake once of buying a Motorola .. never again, never again.

Is it a bad design then because there are no (poorly dancing) silhouettes? *slaps forehead*. They aren't even out yet ...if you read the link closely, someone got a sneak peek of these flyers hence why they're not out & all over the place!

@acemonster...

I took the photo. It is a poster. Well, 4 posters (giz cropped 2 of them)

Take that Jobs! Kupow!

lol... well that only make me hate the N95 more~

I usually don't like Nokia... but hey, nice job!

I don't think this Ad really matters much to the majority of people who will want to buy an iPhone. Most people who have iPhones or are thinking of buying one are happy and will be happy with what it does out of the box.

How many non-techie users do you know who install 3rd party apps on their phones? I think this is Apple's take on this matter and hence the lack of an SDK thus far.

I love Nokia phones and was championing the N95 over the iPhone. I got their 7710, the first touch screen and its 3 years old and still going strong. TheN95 looks good but I'm gonna wait until the price drops... which might be a long, long long time from two years from now. My 7710? I bought used on ebay.

made me laugh...only thing funnier would be if this pic was taken w/ an iphone. Look I'm an apple fan, but that doesn't mean I don't enjoy good marketing strategies. Just like Apple's Mac vs. PC ads where they focus on security (vista's supposed weakness), these Nokia ads focus on iphone's weakness. I don't think they'll mention GUI.

@glibberthwix: I disagree, from the perspective of a graphic designer, this design has all the context of a classic reductionist VW Bug or Apple advert. Simple image, simple message, simple colors, "Swiss cheese" text block on the bottom. Simple and beautiful...

I dig it. If I really wanted to tweak Apple more specifically, I might have made the body of the lock more like the iPhone silhouette though, without sacrificing the graphic simplicity. :)

....c'mon - isn't about time someone did a "hello I'm an iphone and I'm a nokia parody vid" ?

@media_lush: Poor Helio, under appreciated, yet a nice little platform. Kudos to Nokia for touting an open platform. I love the iPhone (or more preciseley it's potential...) but a cheaper N95 would be a nice change of pace. The 7710 was always something I drooled over - a sweet piece of tech.

If this is a true ad, and Nokia is serious about this, they need to talk to the Cellular Providers who refuse to remove locks on their phones and remove features in order to sell data contracts...

People like AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, etc., who apparently don't share all the sentiments that this poster preaches.

@media_lush: Yes. Something along the lines of "So I can make calls in other countries for local prices. What about you?" or "I can run other programs offline. What about you?"

Welp - here we go again.

This isn't so much to 'get' something, like with the refund petition, but more to give people someplace to vent about Apple bricking phones with 3rd party apps. I think it was just a vindictive move on their part.

[www.ipetitions.com]

Word to the wise - if you 'sign' the petition with a comment like "all you iphone users should (insert brainless comment here)", you're still 'signing' the petition (which means you agree with it). Just FYI.

"Phones should be open to anything."

So, this means Nokia won't sell any phones for use with Verizon?

I happen to think nokia does a really good job of integrating design and function both in the handsets and the GUI, I think its a testament to them that no matter what language the OS is in, i can pick it up and use it.

Nokia make some absolutely fantastic apps, but there are even better 3rd party apps, i remember getting one that made my 6600 into a universal remote control over the infra red. You can get gps apps, photo manipulation, divx, whatever you could want.

How long did it take apple to come up with that brushed metal effect for itunes, with the cheap bevel effect on the buttons.

Neither company is the bastion of all things beautiful, and they both have their stinkers. What it boils down to is, what device does what you want.

If its the slick looking iPhone, perfect.. If its a slick looking nokia, perfect, buy yer poison and be done with it..

OKAY GUYS HERE YOU GO. I Photoshopped it onto the Apple Store in Manhattan.

Nokia Poster on Apple Store

Am I missing something? Nokia phones sold through AT&T are locked from having 3rd party apps, and have to be hacked. Are they advertising the fact that they look the other way?

No, it means when you unlock them, they won't be bricked. Of course, there's two ways to do this - never release a firmware update, or actively work around the hacks.

Most cellphones (save the iPhone) fall into the former - you may get the odd firmware update bugfix, but effectively, you don't apply it because you don't update it.

Of course, the idiots who were warned by Apple that the update may brick their phones and still did it anyways... (remember, you don't have to apply the update - iTunes asks if you want to update!).

Enough of the iPhone update whining - when a company goes out of its way to tell people to not update lest bad things happen, and you do said optional update. You had to push the button to update your phone, you had to push your button through the update process (which also warned of the possibility)...

Well thank goodness someone is courting that one percent of the cell phone buying demographic who gives a shit.

No, seriously. One percent of the market is a lot of money and if Nokia can get that business, good for them.

@InfoMofo: most nokia smartphones are unlocked to begin with. You have to buy them outside of a provider.

The problem with this ad is that while Nokia is Open, it's also unsupported. What complier do you use to develop applications? What language do you program in? I'm sure the questions have answers, but most users already have the answers for a Linux platform.

Admit it, everyone wants this ad campaign to put a little pain on Apple just so you can get back to hacking your iphones.

:)

Apple doesn't want open development on iPhones for several reasons:

1) AT&T doesn't want open development on iPhones, because AT&T charges for multiple-tier SMS messaging. If someone develops a good IM or alternative SMS offering then the multi-tier SMS plan goes out the window.

2) Apple's in the same boat, since I believe at some time they're going to offer iChat capabilities to push more .Mac sales. Alternative applications would torpedo that effort.

3) Not to mention iPod-style games for the iPhone, ALSO to be sold through iTunes. Freeware or shareware games would diminish those potential sales as well.

Nokia: If you're going to take on Apple don't make your device as fuggly and expensive as the N95. Good ad, though.

1) The iPhone is a much more robust platform for developers. Period.

2) Sorry, but Nokia phones, well, aren't "open to anything." They're open to those who can afford to have their apps tested by a team of Nokia engineers, who then digitally sign the application as "safe." Applications that aren't marked as safe will not run.

It's worth noting, however, that Steve Jobs has stated that Nokia, in semi-closing their phones, made a "step in the right direction," and that he wishes to carry the iPhone development in this way. Go figure.