"I always had simple mobiles, until Nokia made me realize that smartphones are pocket computers"
Quim Gil is a technology veteran who has always known how to connect with both users on the street and techfanatics. It’s now been almost a decade since he headed for Finland to work with Nokia and is currently the firebrand leader of development communities at Maemo, their open-source operating system. Quim was the "life & soul of the fiesta" during the long 4 th – 6th december when artisans of the code from all around the invaded Citilab in order to exchange knowledge and “join non-virtual hands”.
The strategy to synchronize Symbian with Maemo - was it addressed to different types of users and applications?
Maemo is a platform that comes out of the world of Linux and therefore has all of its potential. It’s more of a computer paradigm than a mobile-phone one, that’s why it’s a very powerful plataform. And not only in terms of pure capacity, which it certainly has, but also because all of its references are the usual ones for programming computers. You have to bear in mind effects like a small screen, but even though it has these dimensions it’s similar to what we all had on our computers not so long ago. What we have on our hands, then, is a series of elements that are much more common on a small computer than on a much more voluminous mobile. That’s why they are very attractive types of devices for the sort of people who like all of that which is coming out now.
I am a good example. To be honest with you, i had never been interested in smartphones. My mobile was always the smallest and cheapest that there was in the shop. But I went to work at Nokia and I started to see these types of products and they are certainly different. It really is your portable computer in your pocket and I like them, and that, alot. Once you see what it is that the majority of people like, what people habitually do is in the end easier for platforms like Symbian, for example, analyzing these cases and tidying them up even more. Including these features on more ecconomical mobiles, or more specialized for certain uses. And from here on, go to bigger markets, which is what Nokia does better than anybody.
There is talk that Maemo could substitute Symbian on the Nseries mobiles by 2012...
I couldn’t confirm anything regarding Nokia‘s future plans for the Nseries, but I can say that Maemo is focussed on the typical types of the Nseries devices, that is to say, the most powerful, the “High end”, the highest end of the economical range. Because that is precisely what this platform is for, to get the most out of the most powerful programme. If that implies what will happen to Symbian then that’s a different story, personally I think that all of the elements are there to decide it.
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At a level of developers’ community, what aret he main arguments for working with Maemo as opposed to other options?
Developers work with computers and normally developers like their computers. That’s why it’s not so dificult for them to get attracted by a mobile like this one, for example like the N900. The developers also, generally as engineers, are not interested much by politics or economics. Therefore an open platform slots in very nicely for them. They understand very well that you can do more or less things, that your basis is on your abilities and own merits as a good programmer, but that the limitation may not be in what you have to pay or have to sign a paper or have to be given access to a concrete place if you want more, we’ll have to talk of another level. The Maemo platform is open and, again, technically it’s Linux, quite standard. Therefore, it’s an environment which, even for developers that have never done anything specifically for Maemo, they quickly find their way around and see the north, south, east and west. If we contrast that with typical mobile platforms like vuerme that is very different: or rather the access is not as simple or hasn’t been specífically developed for one particular platform. Then the criteria are of a more commercial type, that’s to say, if you see that you will do this job for this platform and that will potentially give you some revenue... well fine. Then you’ll do it, but there isn’t necessarily that emotional bond that you can have with a plataform like this one.
What Maemo has demonstrated up to now, not only with this product, because it’s been here for a few years now, is that Linux, and the standards of free programming end up very attractive for a concrete type of developer. In fact, the differences between this development environment and a computer with Linux are minimal. There are very many components in common, exactly the same components. The difference now that marks the N900, is that it has been well accepted and has aroused a lot of interest. Nokia is also very clear where Maemo is to be placed in their strategy and therefore that grabs the attention also of commercial developers. Well, now we’ll see how all of that goes. Very soon we’ll be opening Ovi, which is an official distribution channel for Nokia applications. We’ll open it for Maemo and see what the response is.
What is the main contribution of Maemo 6?
There is a key technical feature to Maemo 6, and that is that it will support what we call Multi Touch, interfaces that can be manipulated by more than one finger and that implies some profound technological changes. Another element is that there is a new development environment based on Qt, a common technology with Symbian. That is to say that the developers won’t have to be based on Maemo or on Symbian, they could consider that they develop for all of this platform and if that’s the case, and they want to make this much more optimal in this environment, they can carry out this extra work.
This is much more directed to an audience such as what we have here in Cornellà, a more advanced type of developer or user. To the people in the street the difference will be that they didn’t know that this existed and now they’l discover it because the Nokia machinery is in the end much more powerful in terms of production, distribution, etc. Not only in places like Catalunya, but it will also be distributed to countries where as things stand there is no possibility of this.
Some will find these novelties therein and will say: "I want that". As things stand it’s not a very clear mrket for this kind of aparatus, in fact Nokia don’t even try to sell this product directly there.
For others, the difference will be what the vicepresident of the N series descibed this morning as: "this device is very good, but the one that omes after will really be a beauty". I agree with that. I’m convinced that this new object will be very interesting for for many people, and also its use, not only will be “what am I doing with this one”, but “what role does it play in my life”.
To what extent does Nokia involve the user in the design process?
Complicated in a market like this one. If only Nokia existed and a community that buys these devices this could be done without problems. But Nokia lives in a marketplace with competitors for whom it is very interesting to share information it’s also very useful for them to advance in the market without sharing anything of theirs. At Nokia we always assume that information that is shared with external collaborators in fact becomes public unless you have signed a contract. And this type of information about future products that you can still find on the market is, very, very, valuable. Who wouldn’t want to know what is being prepared by Google, Apple or Microsoft for the next year?... Of course, who wouldn’t want to know what Nokia are doing next year?
We DO have channels with the outside, and for example this weekend is a good example of this. Here we are not only sharing what existed on the market but we are also putting out there knowledge about what is to come shortly for all to see. And we ask that they give us feedback and all of that, but we always have to keep a balance between the things that interest us and that we can explain and those things that, even if we wanted to explain, our competition would also want it. Despite everything I think that we’ve found a good balance, I’m not totally satisfied, but I believe that we’re doing well enough.
Can we talk about a genuine co-design in and around Nokia?
Not only with regard to developers but also at the user level we co-design..., what I don’t know is if it’s the right word, because not everyone is a designer either, but at least we create concepts and test them... We take user groups and spend a day with them, and we let them see some concepts, but we don’t tell them what they are or if they’re from Nokia or not. We listen to their comments and based on this we make better products. These are practices that are very common in our industry. But the interesting part that Maemo brings, and again, this is due to the Linux tradition in Open source, is the level of co-operation established. We advance rapidly and issue releases not only when we have the final version so that everyone can install it and begin to develop it, but a long time before, in the design stage..., In this way people look, comment, tell us what they find good or bad, and based on that we try to improve on it.