Why Nokia Will Die

Back in the old days I used to be a big fan of Ericsson phones.  They were not the most sexy to look at but they were solid and the sound and call quality was unsurpassed by anything.  Unfortunately "sexy" sell better than quality - so eventually Ericsson died and had to work with Sony to introduce "sexy" to their product line.  That was the end of the line for me - I absolutely hate Sony with a vengeance (since I bought a bloody expensive Vaio with world wide service only to find myself in Denmark with a broken charger and Sony Denmark refusing to have anything to do with it).  So after Ericsson died I pretty much switched to Nokia and with one exception I have always been reasonably happy with the hardware quality of Nokia products (and before you ask - the exception was the N73 with that silly joystick that broke off all the time).

While their hardware is still reasonable, software is quite a different ball game.  Symbian S40 (the operating system they use in their low end devices) might have been quite adequate and easy to use, but S60 (the OS they use in just about every high end device minus the N900) is quite simply silly compared to everything else - even Windows Mobile or whatever Microsoft call it these days - they change name more often than I change my underwear.

About 1 1/2 years ago I bought a Nokia 5800XM, which compared to the previous N73 was nice.  The software however has gone from horrible (the first version) to almost there (2-3 versions back) to totally broken (the last two versions).  For the first year or so - up until the 50.xxx.xx release, my 5800 was hanging randomly - typically when ending a call.  The whole phone would just freeze.  That problem was finally - after what must have been 4-5 updates before that - fixed in the 50.xxx.xx release.

While the 50.xxx.xx release fixed the random freezes, that release introduced two new bugs.  First of all the battery life went to hell.  Before this release I could charge my Nokia and it would run about 2-3 days (checking email every hour).  With the 50.xxx.xx release that went down to about 24 hours (and NO - I have checked with another battery - it IS a firmware problem!).  Also the OVI store stopped working and haven't worked since.

Now - at word about the OVI store.  Compared to Apple's iTunes and Android's - ahem - is it called Market Place, Nokia's OVI store is basic to say the least and while they do have a few goodies in there, most of the available software is quite useless.  But it is all they've got and if Nokia want to be a player in the high end smart phone market - they have GOT to make it work.

Starting OVI since the 50.xxx.xx firmware release, I have been met with the following screen:

The odd thing is that a a general update of the phone reports NO updates available.  This is the case both when trying the built-in update application or when connecting to a PC and checking the software there.  But OK - if OVI want to update - let it update, so I click update.  It finds an "update" and start the installer:

At this point it downloads the update file:

Which I confirm that I want to install.  The device now discovers that there is already an old version of Ovi Store installed and ask if I want to upgrade:

Excuse me - they are asking me if I want to REPLACE version 1.07(12) with - ahem - version 1.07(12).  Well, I have tried to Cancel which result in the same thing all over again, so I got no option but to choose OK and go on.

The installation itself seems to be in two parts - first it starts installing and that seems to go OK:

Then at this point it seems to start a second installation of something (no - it doesn't inform me what it is) and that always ends with the following:

And now it all starts over again.  If I enter the OVI Store application it insist that it needs an update, and ...............

Today, about an hour ago, I discovered that there was a new complete firmware update for my Nokia 5800.  I updated immediately and it went smooth.  The device now reports:

However - while this version is supposed to include a complete update of all the OVI applications, it's still the same.  In fact - since I already updated - all the above screen shots are made with this new version.

Now, Nokia have sold millions of the 5800 (in fact I believe it's their most popular device ever) and I am NOT the only one with this problem.  A Google search on "nokia 5800 ovi store update error" result in thousands of hits - many of those are directly on Nokia's support forum.  I haven't read a single reply from Nokia staff and I have not seen a single suggestion on how to fix this problem.  So, me and thousands of other Nokia 5800 users are unable to use the Ovi Store and Nokia does not seem to be interested in solving the problem at all.