Belle on the E7 and some other thoughts on Nokia

Night

I don't know if anyone outside Finland is still following the story of Nokia, the company which dominated mobile phone industry until the iPhone came out.

Anyway, this week an update named "Belle" for Symbian came out for the Nokia E7 phone, and I have been pleased. And I wasn't even angry when the update wiped out some of the previous settings.

I got the E7 a bit less than a year ago, and then it sucked as a phone, and at most other things. But the updates have been coming, and this latest one was quite a step forward.

Using the E7 is almost a pleasure now. The phone responds faster, and works more consistently.

On the other hand, the E7 and other phones based on the old Symbian OS are a dying breed, as Nokia switched to using Windows Phone. The new CEO of Nokia, Stephen Elop, put out the so-called "burning platform" memo a year ago.

Ever since then Nokia has been going downhill. And there are a lot of critics, for example Tomi Ahonen, who deconstructs Elop's memo, reflecting on what has happened to Nokia.

I have no idea whether Elop's decision was the correct one, there is still time for Nokia to reappear. But the signs are not encouraging. What was once a brilliant company with products you really liked to use is now becoming a tired follower of other companies' innovations.

But anyway, having upgraded the E7 to Belle I once again have a phone which mostly works as it should. On the other hand, there are better phones available; I'm just too cheap to get one.