My son was home this past week for Spring break from Wartburg College. As I was evaluating the Nokia N810, and I knew Carl (my son) has two trips coming up which which will take him out of the country, I asked if he would like to play around with the Nokia N810 for the week. Like father, like son ... Carl was excited to play around with a new device. Given my son is part of the iPod generation, and owns an iTouch, I promised Carl he could post on my blog his analysis ... unedited by me (I did bold a few lines!).
Okay, Carl ... the floor is yours!
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Right after Christmas I purchased an IPod Touch, several months later I find myself wondering if I made a smart purchase. My father, as I am sure many of you know, thinks very highly of the Nokia Handheld product line. My father offered to let me try his Nokia n810 over my spring break and compare it with my IPod Touch.
The IPod Touch is an excellent device, and is considered extremely cool by most of my college colleagues. It is essentially the iPhone without the Phone. It has all the same features such as playing music, movies, showing pictures, a calendar, notes, wifi internet ability, and several other web-based programs. It also has 8 GB of storage space packed into its extremely small frame. What the IPod Touch does it does extremely well. Its Internet browser easily bests the Nokia, it is both easier to use and even more fun. In addition the IPod Touch utilizes special websites created for handheld devices while the Nokia does not. The operating software on the IPod is also extremely easy to use and never has any problems. The problem with the IPod Touch is that while it does several things really well, it only does “several” things. Apple has maintained a firm grip over what is allowed onto their IPod Touch. The device does not have blue tooth capabilities, or any other way to connect external devices. Internet phone services such as Skype are unavailable to users because there is no microphone as Apple tries to protect their iPhone.
Apple is in the process of releasing a new Software Development Kit that would allow 3rd parties to create applications for the IPod Touch. While this seems like an excellent idea the problem is that Apple will still maintain its strong control over the IPod Touch by insisting that all third party applications be distributed through itunes, giving apple complete control over what types of applications they want to be available. In addition Apple will be able to skim the profits of any company producing applications. This release is not what avid apple users were hoping for, instead of receiving an upgrade to allow hundreds of new free third party applications they receive limited increase in applications for a fee.
The Nokia n810 on the other hand is everything that the IPod Touch is not. It is completely open to third party applications. You can connect a variety of different devices via blue tooth to exponentially expand your devices capabilities. Skype offers free Internet calling and dirt-cheap rates for all other calls. GPS is also embedded and can be used with a wide array of map from all over the world. I could go on but I believe my Father has done a relatively good job of outlining the many excellent features of the Nokia n810 (see his Nokia tutorials and posts)
In Conclusion the IPod Touch could potentially be as good as the Nokia n810. The difference between the two devices comes down to how they have been managed. As long as Apple continues limit the ability of the IPod touch it will never be able to live up to its full potential. The final result is that the Nokia n810 offers consumers a far superior product based on the actual value as opposed to simply being “Cool”.
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