Kirollos Fares, from The N95 Blog (soon-to-be NSeriesblog.com) has come up with a very interesting idea: paid upgrades for S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 (FP2) should be made available. Ricky Cadden, the Symbian Guru, is also pondering on this.
Here's my take (please read Kirollos' and Ricky's opinions before reading the rest of this post).
Deep down in my heart (!) I fully agree with Kirollos' points. A comparison with Windows Mobile quickly came to mind while reading his post. This has been something I've been thinking about for a very long time. Good thing when someone manages to post what's on many people's minds.
Anyway, I'm obviously a fan of his idea. The megapixel race seems to have come to a halt (there are lots of manufacturers who are yet to release 5 MP camera-packing phones), and generally the hardware in smartphones seems to have reached a point where further innovation isn't that obvious (except for, maybe, higher-resolution displays, Nokia!). Therefore, and also as a direct effect of the iPhone craze, the focus this year (at least) seems to be software, more than hardware.
Several-years-old Windows Mobile devices, released with the 5.0 version of the OS, are one by one getting updated to the current 6.0 variant. So why shouldn't S60 devices benefit from the same treatment?
Actually, they do. As much as I would like to have my N95 upgraded to FP2, I'm trying to remain realistic and therefore I honestly think this won't happen.
But look at the new features that FP2 brings. Some of them are available for FP1 devices (if not even for those running the original S60 3rd Edition) as standalone apps that upgrade FP1's functionality. Think Internet Radio, Maps 2.0, Search, Nokia Location Tagger, Print Online, Share Online 3.0. These were apps that were first released as Beta versions for FP1 devices, surely to test their functionality before integrating them into FP2, but the point is even the 'polished' (final versions) apps are or will be available for download for FP1 devices.
The missing things are:
- Access Point grouping (this one does hurt a lot)
- the "eye-candy" additions (the lack of which power users will most likely not feel)
- the new Active Standby (BUT if full customization of the Active Standby Plugins is still not implemented into FP2, this isn't such a big loss)
- the ability to set multiple pictures as wallpaper or screensaver (ehm...if anyone cares, this can also be done on older devices, via 3rd party apps nevertheless)
- timed ("expiring") Profiles (but the 3rd party apps for Profile timing are still well ahead, functionality-wise, than what will be included in FP2)
- RDS support in Visual Radio (not something I care much for)
- the new Photo app which replaces the Gallery (I find these two to be very similar, anyway)
- Remote Drive (sure, a great feature - but it's also available via a 3rd party app for FP1 devices)
- USB speed (this hurts as well)
- Full screen Caller ID (also available as a 3rd party app).
So, I must conclude that, in a way, paid upgrades for FP2 functionality are already here.
To enhance your FP1 (or older, in some cases) device's functionality to almost-FP2-level, you have to download a bunch of freely available apps from Nokia, and/or pay for the 3rd party apps that bring some of this functionality.
Please note that in the "missing things" list I linked to the 3rd party applications that I consider to be the best on the market in their respective fields. Naturally, competition does exist in the S60 developers' world, thus many more choices are available.
