Nokia 3650 - First Impressions

by Richard Bloor, March 3, 2003

The Nokia 3650 brings the Symbian OS and Nokia's Series 60 to a mass-market phone and is integral to Nokia's goal of selling 10 million Symbian based phones in 2003. WDN recently had the opportunity to take a look at a pre-commercial unit and ask whether, from a developer’s perspective, the Nokia 3650 was more than simply another Series 60 phone.


To date the Symbian OS has been used in phones that have been targeted largely at a professional market. While significant, this market does not have the volumes of the mainstream. The Nokia 3650 is the first phone using the Symbian OS and Series 60 for the large youth market (which Nokia classifies as ages 18-35).

The Nokia 3650 is different, the curricular keypad and slightly egg shaped design mark it out as such from the mainstream of little (or not so little) rectangular boxes. From a developer perspective, does this really mean anything? After all, it has the Series 60 user interface and runs Series 60 applications, something I have confirmed with several applications, all of which worked flawlessly. While the physical design of the phone may not directly affect the developer, the target market, the people to whom the design appeals, is something that the developer would do well to pay attention to.



So why is the Nokia 3650 breaking ground with such an unconventional design? According to Randy Roberts, Director, Imaging Devices for the Americas at Nokia “there were two main drivers to the design of the Nokia 3650, one is emotional, one is technical. Emotionally we wanted to create something that would be different and create an icon in terms of imaging phones. From a practical perspective it is designed to take advantage of Series 60, and that’s how the round keypad came about. As you know Series 60 is very much an application driven platform rather than a voice driven one. We wanted to make sure, particularly with the imaging features of the phone, the camera and video, that we made it really easy to snap a picture, to send a picture; really simple to get to the applications our customers would be using on Series 60. A traditional keypad is good for dialing phone calls but not so good when you want to send a multimedia message. So the whole design was driven to facilitate ease of use for these functions.”

So with these key factors in mind the Nokia engineers looked at how the control buttons and keypad could optimize the user experience of Series 60. They placed the application key, which is very much at the core of the UI, in the center of the keypad, below the 5-way scroll. This means that only a small thumb movement was needed to navigate between the current application and application grid, using the application key, to then find the next application from the grid using the scroll. For text entry the star and pound (or hash) keys perform central functions in providing a character menu and switching between case and predictive text modes so these were brought into the center also. Now having placed these key keys where the number-pad used to be the logical place for the number pad was round the outside.

Creating a new keyboard layout, however logical it may be, is not without drawbacks, the obvious one being that most people are familiar with the traditional rectangular keypad. This problem was something that did not escape Nokia and as a result they have undertaken a number of studies to gauge the reception of this new design. Randy notes that these studies had some interesting results; “there seems to be an age cut off where either people like the keypad and are willing to learn it really quickly or those who simply did not want to bother learning. This cut off is somewhere in the mid thirties.” However, as Nokia are targeting the youth market with this phone, this cut off is hardly an issue. Perhaps more of an issue is whether the keyboard is really usable. Now I have to admit that I have never really got to grips with the numeric keypad for entering text but I found the Nokia 3650’s keypad a lot easier to use, I suspect simply because the keys lay out the alphabet in a straight forward sequence. Of course Nokia have done some more controlled evaluation. “We have undertaken a lot of focus work on the keypad, both globally and also specifically within the US market.” commented Randy “This work has involved asking groups of people to enter a text string on their existing phone and then on the Nokia 3650. First time through the majority of people were slower on the Nokia 3650. We then asked them to do it again and this time 70% of the group were within just a few seconds of the time it had taken on their familiar keypad. However by the third attempt we were seeing a number of people who were faster on the Nokia 3650 than on a standard keyboard.”

So while the design obviously does not appeal to older customers it does to those in the target market and once these customers start using the phone they easily adapt to the new keyboard configuration. Randy also points out that the other key differentiater, not just for the Nokia 3650 but any Series 60 phone, is usability. “We know from various studies that every extra step, every extra click loses 10% of users. With the Nokia 3650 it is two clicks to snap and save a picture and just seven clicks to go from snapping to sending an MMS to an email address. Our closest competitor uses over twice the number of clicks to achieve the same tasks.”

For developers the first real difference with the Nokia 3650 is the fact that it targets the youth market, but the appeal of this phone goes further. Randy notes that in their market research Nokia have found that “the appeal of the Nokia 3650 skews a little bit towards a female purchaser in her early 20’s. They like the look and feel of the 3650; they like that it is different.” While there are certainly several examples of Series 60 software applications clearly targeted at a female audience, to date the majority of software for Series 60 has been either gender neutral or biased more to a male customer. Looking further, Nokia have also found that this female purchaser of the Nokia 3650 is also likely to be a very high user of email and instant messaging. So while the Nokia 3650 will create a larger market for Series 60 in general it also creates opportunities for the enterprising developer to create applications that recognize the change in buyer profile that this phone will bring to the Smartphone market. “Developers should consider the fact that the typical buyer of the Nokia 3650 likes real time communications.” said Randy “Coupled with the Nokia 3650’s picture and video abilities the possibilities are endless, maybe an application that allows the user to create a diary of their day and share it with friends, although I am sure the developer community will come up with far more creative ideas.”

From my all too short opportunity to take a look at the Nokia 3650, and the reaction of those who have seen the phone, it is clearly going to be popular. Obviously it will be positioned at the top end of the youth market but even so sales volumes are likely to be significant and increase the opportunities for software sales, particularly if careful consideration is given to the customer base.

The Nokia 3650 is already being shipped in Hong Kong and will become available worldwide this month (March).

About the WDN Symbian Editor, Richard Bloor:
Richard Bloor is a freelance writer and editor with 18 years experience in the IT industry as a developer, analyst and latterly Project Manager with a particularly focus on software testing. Richard has been involved with the Symbian OS since 1995 and has been writing about it for the last 3 years.

Richard is also an associate with System Architecture consultancy Equinox of Wellington, New Zealand.

Richard can be reached at symbian@wirelessdevnet.com.

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