Symbian missing the PIM Target

Nokia NSeries with each new release becomes more and more a multimedia experience unto itself however Symbian keeps missing one vital function where every computer should excel. PIMs (Personal Information Managers) have long been a staple of PDAs yet Symbian has updated the PIM very little. Contacts, Calendar, Tasks and Notes are essentially the same today as they were in the Nokia 7650. It would be convenient to blame Nokia for this short coming as the principle manufacturer of S60 devices however it is actually Symbian that develops the actual OS.

While at the Mobile World Congress this past week I had the opportunity to visit Symbian's booth where they were displaying some of their latest developments in the works; S60 touch, SQL Lite and multi-core processing being the main focus. I'd be the first to admit that advancement is important to the platform but so are the core applications. Multimedia, multi-core processing, databases are all worthy efforts but I beg you Symbian get back to the core applications everyone uses everyday. PalmOS and Windows Mobile both have this distinct advantage over Symbian.

All this said, Nokia cannot be held blameless either. Nokia has a great deal of influence over Symbian's development and their own efforts are anything but focused at the core that still lacks in some of the most basic ways. Take the calendar for example where only the most basic of repetitive entries is offered or To-Do (Tasks) which still lacks this ability all together. We know from such applications as Papyrus and Epocware's HandyCalendar that this data is there just waiting to be tapped. Even if one of these applications is installed neither can be set as the default calendar.

Nokia's PC Suite further exacerbates the problem by teasing users with synchronization with Microsoft's Outlook. Outlook offers many powerful PIM options from categories to linking between Contacts, Calendar, Tasks and Notes. Symbian has been around since 1998 a time when Palm ruled the roost as the best PDA on the market. Arguably Palm's success was partly due to its robust PIM functions. PalmOS today has also changed little since those days but still beats Symbian in PIM function.

If you could go back to the drawing board in this area what would you add (or leave out)?

Comments

[Al]

Feature Pack 2 solves one problem I see a lot of people complain about: full screen caller ID

The fix I want to see is HTML e-mail.

[mike]

the most important thing for a PIMis good sync between desktop & device (for me at least!).
Palm was really good at this, espically figuring out that is something had been altered at both sides, it should ask what to do.

As i see it there are three players in the desktop market - Outlook, Lotus notes and Mac. Notes in the corporate world and both outlook & Mac exisitng both at home and in the corportate world.

One killer feature for me would be showing a merged view of multiple calendars but keeping/knowing which calendar owns the event. My thinking for this is things like; work & home, other memebers of the family, other memebers of the department etc.

[Maciek]

Darla,

In my opinion one thing is a HIGHLY sought after feature. I was playing with my friend's SE K750. I'm talking about auto syncML (scheduled updates). It's beyond me that Symbian has not implemented this feature. These days there's more than Outlook (although I still love the program) I mostly use my N95 AND Google calendar but it's a pain in the neck to go to Sync Menu each time to initialize the synchronization manually and then on top of that it doesn't sync in the background but instead has the "obnoxious" indicator. Series 60 should evolve and use mini icons (such as Bluetooth, Alarm indicators" instead of all those "Updating" dialogs. It would be nice if S60 had the web server built in by default (not having to download it from Beta labs)...that way we could update our calendars and pims from other places...and the secretaries all over the world would rejoice..they could update their boss' devices with one click :-)

[Ove Nordström]

I agree, it is the same problem with Nokia's internet table N810 (maemo instead of S60) but it is worse, there is no calendar included in N810.

I am using Google calendar for integration with different devices.

I have solved by download gpe-calendar and I have also install Erming (to be able to sync with google calendar).
On my PC, I also have to install gSyncit, this software sync outlook calendar with google calendar, I also of course have to install Nokia PC suite on my PC to be able to sync my Nokia E51.
This was my solution for my PC, Nokia N51 and Nokia N810.

[Furie]

The first thing I'd do with the S60 OS if I were in charge of design is to set up a user changable preferred applications list. Using this list people would be able to set up which of their downloaded and default applications would be used as the main one.

I'd also implement a full graphical interface with everything available in portrait or landscape mode (both left and right handed).

I'd add more customisation to the active standby screen. The ability to have messages come up straight on the screen and be read from there (perhaps in conjunction with the Conversation app), multiple lines of shortcuts, etc etc all with the option to be turned off or on.

I'd also bring the basic features of the S40 OS into the S60 one so that people who buy an S60 phone but don't have a PC or a decent data package can start with a good device anyway.

Finally I'd standardise the Download application between devices, with a section for device specific software. As it stands at the moment I had to go to getjar to add a zip manager to my 6120 but it was there on the Download app for my N81 8gb.

On the subject of the Download application, the phones should come with basic applications with advanced ones available over the Download app. Using my music edition phone I can download music in WMA format, but can't send that via bluetooth to a none music edition phone as they don't recognise the files and try to play them in the basic player. Being able to download the advanced music software capabilities straight out of the box would be great.

[A.T.]

My opinion is that you have to fire a fair amount of middle level management at Nokia before it happens - PDA market has strong aura of overly competitive, low margin, often-failure and doomed in bottom line market. Now, try to persuade at least one of them to do that PIM... Got it? They will push down your throat what they want to (yes, that /beeeeep/ multimedia) and they couldn't care less than Henry Ford when he had chosen the only color for his first car. You want another color - then you have to choose one from available: black. Period.

[SK]

The email client on the handset for me really needs addressing.

Receiving email that may have links etc (html formatted mail)within is just a plain nightmare as it makes the mail almost unreadable when you try and pick out what is the core content from all the html.

I used for a while an SE P600 and this had the option to switch on xhtml which at least formatted the mail correctly and made it readable.

I know applications like profimail can do this but I also use an e61 with the blackberry service so have to use the inbuilt client and it's a real pain

This is a must for handsets in the future (even though it should be now)

[ColoradoTK]

Can't agree more with you Darla. The most important function besides the phone itself to me is PIM functionality (simply because I want to reduce the number of devices to carry around). It would be nice if those components of N Series Smartphone’s would be brought up to the state of the art of other devices, so a serious business user can actually replace any other PIM device with the phone. My main areas of suggested improvements include a standardized desk charging cradle, multiple interface options to a desktop (Bluetooth, WiFi, wired USB), a more user-friendly synchronization feature as well as improvements in usability on the phone itself. I have in mind, response time of phone book start up, faster search ability especially when contacts are more than a couple of hundred entries, advanced search capabilities, compatibility to certain outlook, lotus, Mac features such as categories, multiple calendars (private, business) etc. While new hardware features are always making big waves when a new phone is being introduced it is equally important in my mind to always improve the software of such basic but for the user very important applications. A topic which Nokia/Symbian did not focused enough on in the recent past.
TK

[cj]

Very good point, I would really like to see some improvement in the S60 PIM.
Specifically the Calendar application.

Small points like gmail syncronisation and other coloured tabs indicating busy days in month view. At the moment I just see a sea of small red triangles. Different colours for leisure, recurring meetings, travel etc would be an easy improvement.

[thomas]

pim is hot stuff on mobile devices, but the nokia/symbian calendar on s60 devices suck. it would be interesting if chandler was compatible with nokia somehow, with seamless syncing through the chandler hub.

[Martin]

I have a N95, and I am satisfied with that device and the synchronizing function with Outlook. Only the calender/reminder function is not ok. I need the same reminder functionality as Outlook has. Setting reminding time in my estimation. A minute later or two hours or a week later. My work around is deactivating the reminding sound and ignore that function. That is not what I expect, when I by that device.