Forum Nokia Champion - Elected for the fifth time

I've just been informed by Nokia that I had got re-elected for the fourth time as a Forum Nokia Champion for 2010, thus it's my 5th year in succession from the launch of this program. It's definitely worth looking back what has happened in the past 4 years.

I started as a keen contributor to NewLC Symbian forum back in 2004. I had been programming for Symbian for 4 years by then when I "opened my eyes" to see that there were quite many independent developers eagerly looking for help on Symbian programming. I was fortunate enough to be "close to the fire" as I had been contributing to S60 platform development and as such had good resources to learn from. With the wish of helping others, I was an active contributor of the afore-mentioned forum.

Then came 2006 when Nokia kicked-off Forum Nokia Champion program to reward those people who had voluntarily helped the community and spread the word. People who were not only developers: one of the best examples is Anina, "an international model with a passion for technology". The word? Yeah, mobile development in general and those technologies in particular that had to do with Nokia. Like Symbian, Java, Flash, etc.

The good things offered to FNCs (our short name), among others, are:

• Welcome device (one per year), I just voted for an N900 this year
• Semiannual Forum Nokia Champion Day held at various places
• Market yourself as a FNC backed by Nokia's brand, which is not only valuable when you're an individual, but your company is also authorized to use the FNC logo
• Early access to new hardware, documentation.

Thanks to this program I met such people that I would never have done and learned about the use of mobile in medicine, developing countries in Africa, heard how people at universities get in touch with mobile, how an RC car can be controlled with a mobile, etc. I made friendships, took part in writing a book, got to know fellow Hungarians whom I would have never met otherwise. Met friendly Indians, heard about inventive people from the Orient and was proud when one of my workmates got also nominated as an FNC.

We created our informal e-mail group that is an inexhaustible source of mobile development knowledge, are available on LinkedIn (closed group, sorry), share ideas, job ads, etc among ourselves, and ultimately form a loose network of trustworthy people that we can always turn to with our problems.

I've also been rewarded by numerous small and not so small gifts during the years of my membership, being the biggest is the opportunity that I could travel around the world for the sake of meeting my fellow champions: I've been in Singapore, Las Vegas where I didn't lose a dime, London where I was one of the presenters and Budapest my home town at the time.

And even though my main focus has turned from being a "plain" Symbian developer long ago to sharing opinion on blogs and other forums as well as actively helping Nokia do their business, the point is still the same: it IS worth being a Forum Nokia Champion.

Who else has remained from the original founding members?

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Transforming mobile industry

I read the following quote from Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, Nokia CEO, in InformationWeek:

"The industry as whole is in the middle of a transformation, and it's a very exciting time," said Kallasvuo. "It's moving from a device industry to an experience industry, and we're making a conscious long-term effort to capitalize on that."

It is so true that it inspired me to write a summary on how things have changed in the "smarter" segment of mobile sector (read: smartphones) lately. Let me recap what was the situation in the near past and then talk about how things are changing recently.

In the classic device manufacturer - network operator - user triangle the roles were as follows (simplified version): user purchases mobile phone from network operator (or elsewhere) and uses those services that are primarily provided by the network operator. The manufacturer never gets any money after purchase and the user  is often unhappy with the content/quality of provided (value-added) services.

This is now about to change. The two most important changes (as I see it) are that 1: the above triangle is "rectangularized" by an old/new member of the value chain, a separate content/service provider and 2: that device manufacturers such as Nokia and Apple OR operating system vendors such as Microsoft and Google want to get money after sales, too: they'd like to enter services business. As to point #1, not as if content providers hadn't been present so far, however, the means to access content and the capabilities of devices have not been ideal so far to say the least. As for point #2, there are two reasons why manufacturers would like to enter services business (take it over from operators?): first, there's a great demand from users to consume content that operators have not been good at providing and second, there's great money in it. Apple and Google are very good at providing services now they'd like to be involved in adding new means (i.e. phones) to accessing their services. Whereas Nokia and Microsoft are both in a strong position in smartphone market and naturally they'd like to get more money out of the whole business.

Another aspect in the new business model is whether or not shall mobile OS vendors require license fee for their software to be included in shipping devices. I'm talking about free and open-source mobile OSes, like mobile Linux. Although mobile Linux stacks have not gained so much popularity in the past years, they still do attract manufacturers wishing to lower their bill-of-materials (BOM). Google Android and the new Symbian (Foundation) OS are another two good examples for "license-fee-free software stacks" and Windows Mobile is for fee-based. iPhone's Mac OS X cannot be mentioned here, since Apple doesn't allow anyone to license their software stack, but make everything on their own.

How do mobile OS vendors pamper their developers?

• Of course, with a free SDK to develop on. Most of them can be used only on Windows (except iPhone on Mac OS X), true emulation is available on Windows Mobile and iPhone, where development is done on the same platform as the target platform,
• Free tools for development. Unfortunately not everything can be done with these tools, but you have to pay for their fee-based version should you need to use more advanced features (e.g. on-device debugging in Carbide.C++),
• Signing your own installation package is mandatory for both iPhone and Nokia S60 phones, but not on Windows Mobile and Android. Latter advocates that the user is always capable of making proper decisions on security-related questions and it does not restrict the availability of 3rd-party applications by requiring signature. As Symbian's David Wood put it: let's see what operators will say on it.
• As to developer support, old players are in the best position here: there's a great community support for Windows Mobile developers as well as materials to train themselves. The same is true for people who are developing for Nokia phones. Whereas the first non-beta Android SDK has just been introduced (you can imagine the level of support Google provides at such an early stage), not to mention Apple who wanted developers to sign an NDA that essentially prevents free information flow, writing books on development, etc. This has changed recently, since Apple finally scrapped their iPhone NDA and promised a new contract with less restrictions. Note: if Apple hadn't made this step they would have lost the majority of their developers.
  
• Developers reward programs (MVP from Microsoft, Forum Nokia Champion program from Nokia), fee-based support for ISVs willing to pay for advanced services, webinars, trainings, books, etc.
• Stores to capitalize on applications, themes, etc.

As to the stores mentioned above,

• Apple's (in)famous App Store acts as a central distribution channel for 3rd-party applications. Unfortunately, Apple keeps this place under such a strict control that bitters lots of developers' life who simply don't understand why their programs can't be sold just because they're similar to the built-in applications. On the other hand, Apple keeps only 30% of revenue making App Store more compelling than lots of rival portals, such as Handango.
  
• Having introduced T-Mobile G1 a few weeks ago, Google has also thought that it was a wise idea to create their own Android Market, a market place for downloading Android applications. What is surprising, though, is that Google is not planning to capitalize on sold applications, but expects mainly freebies to populate this place. It wouldn't be Handango if they didn't make the best out of this situation: why not use Handango to get some money for your Android app? It's also worth noting that Google, similarly to Apple, will be able to remove any 3rd-party applications (downloaded from Android Market) from Android-powered handsets if those applications turn out to violate developer distribution agreement.
• Nokia already has their Software Market, however, things might change with the start of Symbian Foundation next year: as Antony Edwards from Symbian put it "[they're]  pushing hard for a ensuring a zero, or a close as possible to zero, cost to the software vendor: so no cut of revenue for the Foundation".
• Finally, Microsoft hasn't maintained their own single portal that ISVs could use for selling their 3rd-party applications, but people had to (and still have to!) use other providers. This article shows what one can conclude from job postings: with the coming of new devices based on Windows Mobile 7 a new portal, SkyMarket will also come in Q1 2009.

Nokia is very keen on transforming from being a device manufacturer to an "internet company". Their Ovi and Mosh are two examples of already launched services, which they just want to further improve with Instant Messaging (by buying OZ Communications) and Comes with Music. On the other hand, whilst strengthening their services portfolio they restructure their businesses so that they focus less on own product development (selling Nokia IntelliSync). Sometimes lowering the prices raises the revenue - wonder how the recent price cut will work out. It's especially important that since  more and more people own Nokia devices, it increases after-sales revenue, too.

I've been already thinking on what Microsoft's reaction will be to open source and then found the answer: Steve Ballmer doesn't understand what's good in open source for Symbian and Google and anyway they won't get into handset business as long as they can make a lot of money from software only.

What they've started to work on lately, which you might have already heard of in the news, is 'Windows Cloud' OS. This idea is not new at all, however, it might affect the way how people use their mobile phones today: all you need is a portable device with a tiny display, some computing power and a good browser (you can call it 'smartphone') plus a good connection to the "cloud". Data, business logic, resource intensive heavy computation - all done on remote server(s) and you get only the result to your handset. I wrote 'this idea' was not new, however, what is new is Microsoft's patent on sharing device resources. Now this one is really new, but I don't know how much I can expect from it in real life - what it shows you, though, that it would be too early to write Microsoft off. Side-note: let me recommend you Ajit Jaokar's thought-provoking blog on how network operators could make use of cloud computing.

One more point to add to why M$ is not to enter the handset business today: HTC, designer & manufacturer of feature-rich phones, says that although they can see the potential in Android devices they do belive that Android and Windows Mobile complements each other.

As to Android, it's amazing to read about the ambitious plan to reach 4% US market share by the end of 2008. If that's so easy with a single device, a not perfect software and hardware AND suppose that they will achieve it - may I ask how on Earth Nokia could not do the same?

Anyway, I found a great analysis over at Telco 2.0 on the strategic impact of Google's first handset on the mobile industry. I especially liked the statements, such as "increasingly intense competition with new entrants who are willing to change the rules" and "the world in which handset manufacturers crammed the latest technology into devices simply for the sake of having the best specification sheet and operators flogged them to consumers on the basis of megapixels and memory is changing" and finally "it has been fascinating to watch ‘old school’ industry commentators pick apart the technicalities of the G1 spec sheet and Android platform, all the while forgeting to look at this announcement through the customer’s eyes".

Finally, some words about other members of the mobile industry whom we don't hear much about (well, at least I haven't lately).

• Sony Ericsson has rationalised their R&D investment recently. This move, however, didn't prevent them from announcing a new run-time environment, called Capuchin, mixing Java ME and Adobe Flash Lite technologies. SE is eyed-up on Android, too, not only Windows Mobile (Xperia X1) and Symbian so this along with Capuchin will make their way to follow Nokia's approach by offering lots of alternatives for mobile software development.
• Motorola is also interested in Android, so much that they are building-up a team of 350 people to develop on Android.
• Samsung is not interested in anything else but manufacturing. This will not make their position stronger in today's competing market.
  

That's all for now about mobile industry news, thanks for reading so far!

All comments are welcome,

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Symbian development - An alternative to embedding applications

I usually don't write articles about actual Symbian development issues, but this time I think I make an exception, if you don't mind. If you don't speak "Symbianish" or simply are not interested, then please skip the rest of my post. Nevertheless, I hope that the majority of you will just keep on.

I was in London on last Sunday for Nokia Developer Day. I was invited, because I'm a Forum Nokia Champion. There was an interesting presentation about Location Based Services and some technical details were revealed as to what Nokia would come out with as part of their upcoming SDK, namely S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2. It's not secret that they're going publish Map and Navigation API and an important feature of that API is the ability of launching Maps application stand-alone or embedded.

If you speak Symbianish, then you should know what launching an application in embedded mode means: your application loses focus and hands it over to the embedded application so that you have no control over it as long as that application owns the focus. It's worth noting, though, that albeit your application has lost focus it's still the main (hosting in other words) application that just makes use of services provided by another application. This can be seen by having a look at the list of currently running applications, where it's the name of your application that is in the list and not the one you have embedded.

The advantage of launching an application embedded in your application is that you don't have to bother with how it works internally, you just start it up and basically rely on that it works properly. On the other hand, this way of using other applications' services has disadvantages, too: one is that you have no influence on the menu structure of the embedded application.

Why is that important? Well, a real use case that we had to implement recently is that an application 1: shall be able to show some points-of-interest (POIs) on a map and 2:
shall have its own menu structure. We were happy to hear that Map and Navigation API would be available for public use, however, launching Maps application to satisfy our first requirement would mean that we would not be able to satisfy the second.

Then I started wondering how it could be done. Since I was deeply involved in the development of S60 Browser application some time ago, I know quite a lot about the application and the ecosystem around it. For example, I knew that a new approach had been introduced as part of the "Browser-offering" ~2 years ago that allows an application developer to use a (CCoeControl-based) control in her application. That control is called Browser Control (its API is BrowserControl API) and basically it is capable of showing & handling a web page just as the built-in Browser application does. So essentially your application can have its own menu structure, whilst also being able to show a web page. It gives you more flexibility and freedom if you use this API in favor of launching Browser in embedded mode, however, it's also more complex - sometimes unnecessarily.

Finally, we reached the point of my article: wouldn't it make more sense for applications that can be embedded (since not each application can be embedded) to offer such a (CCoe)control-based solution as well? For example, if the newly announced Maps and Navigation framework published such a service, then I shouldn't be worried about how to solve my problem. But this question is more general than to narrow it down to this special use case. I think, if some architects and/or lead designers from Nokia read my article, then I suggest them to think about it.

As a last thought, you might be wondering how I'm gonna work out this problem eventually. Well, there happened to be another presentation on that very day (i.e. Sunday) about Web Widget development on S60. I'm just thinking about writing an S60 widget that makes use of Google Maps API so that everyone is happy. :)

Any comments are welcome!

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Being featured by Nokia

I am honoured to be the featured Forum Nokia Champion this month. However, to be honest I was not prepared for the increased interest about me and my work and surprised to see the flood of e-mails day by day asking me for help regarding this and that problem. I try to answer these e-mails as thoroughly as I can, however, I'm afraid I can't give perfect answers to all of them.

Nevertheless, e-mails are only one thing. People are asking me to let them join my LinkedIn network, too. Although the way they're asking it varies case by case, I'm afraid I have to refuse these requests all. You know, my biggest concern is that I wouldn't like to acknowledge that I know someone with whom I've never met. And since giving referral of someone is one of the core features of this networking site, it simply doesn't make any sense for me to do so.

But the last thing that happened to me just the other day is that I got an e-mail from Sargam Bansal. Yes, right from him (her?). I don't know where he took my e-mail address from or if it has anything to do with me being featured by Nokia, but it doesn't matter at all: he found me. Let me cite his e-mail in its entirety:

to: my e-mail address
cc: Olli-Pekka.Kallasvuo@nokia.com

Dear Sir,

I ve been using Nokia for past 5-6 years.
I had submitted my Phone NOKIA 3250 at Nokia Care Centre Sector 3 Noida(JOB SHEET NO:-1200196776 ; Serial No :- 357933005291399) for the problem it used to hang when music was on & some call used to come.

I got my cell after 15 days & after that the phone's condition was horrible. Itwas completely damaged , not even it was able to switch on. The Phone was submitted again. It been over one month & on each visit they are delaying the date.Not only me many people coming there are totally frustrated for the service being provided by Nokia care centres .

I emailed over a week ago and I have not received any reply. Similarly, when people email Nokia's Customer Support they are getting no response, which is surely unacceptable.
Due to such irresponsible behaviour, there has grown immense dissatisfaction among us, the users of NOKIA & also it makes me doubted about the name NOKIA have had in the past years. Now it has became a difficult question to answer.. Can we really trust NOKIA now???

I am sure you will be concerned about this matter and I would respectfully ask for your assistance in arranging for Customers to better informed and to receive prompt responses to complaints and enquiries.I hope you can agree that this should not be too much to ask nor beyond the capability of Nokia.
Thank you. I look forward to hearing from you.

Thanks & regards,

Sargam Bansal

Regardless of the seriousness of this e-mail, it's quite obvious that I can't help. Other than publishing this e-mail so that other (more competent) people can also read it and possibly react on it. However, there is one thing that I hope you have also noticed: who was cc:-d in this e-mail? Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, Nokia's CEO and not other. You know, I've never dreamt of being in the same e-mail group than him, but now that I have achieved it, I think I'll make an exception with Olli-Pekka: I'm ready to accept his invitation on LinkedIn. :-)

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Forum Nokia Champion Day in Singapore

Hmm, I've already wanted to write a blog about this event, but it seems Naresh was faster. :) Anyway, I can add my thoughts, too.

So, one of the great benefits of being a Forum Nokia Champion (or FNC) is that we can attend the FNC Day held twice a year at various locations. The first was in San Francisco, which I unfortunately couldn't attend. The second was held in London just one day before Smartphone Show, 2006. That was great! First, I always like kind of networking with other people who are interested in the same area (i.e. mobility). Second, Nokia is a gallant company meaning that we couldn't have any complaints as to how we were treated during these events.

For example, let's take this event that took place in Singapore. Not only did Nokia pay for the accommodation in a 4-star hotel, but - for some of us - they also paid the airfare. Okay, we've got it as a reward for contributing to the successful launch of Forum Nokia Wiki, but still: let's say it was a fair deal. :)

By the way, I thought in the beginning that Singapore was not the best selection for the FNC Day. Not as if it wasn't a nice location, but it's too far away from most of us. But still, about 20 of us could make it and were there and it was fun to be there. I liked all the Indian guys (they were the nicest, the funniest:) and it was a pleasure for me to meet "TCB" Paul (I could never imagine that a 3rd-party software could get TCB capability), "FlashLite Master" Alessandro, "Medical Man" Arto, "Y-Browser" Jukka, Paul "My students can do everything" Coulton and "I evangelize Python for S60" Jurgen. It's by far not an exhaustive list of people who were there and I enjoyed staying with - I've just picked up some from my memories.

So, I'm pretty much satisfied and happy that I could be there, now I just need a few days (weeks?:) to relax and recover from the long flight. :) Thanks Anina, Hung and the whole FN Champion team to make it happen! I'm wondering, however, where the next event will be held. London, New York, Brazil? Why not?

Cheers,

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My new N95 - comments

I have received my new Nokia N95 device as a reward from Nokia for contributing to the launch of their new service, Forum Nokia Wiki. I was among the top 10 Forum Nokia Champion contributors, you know. We have received something else, too, but it's still too early to talk about it. I'm planning to get back about it in a month or so.

Well, I was very excited about this device, because I must admit it was my dream device. THE smartphone that I've always dreamed of. I have read couple of reviews on it by now (e.g. on AllAboutSymbian or Symbian Freak) and I was very convinced that the only issue that these reviews had found in common was the battery. The fact that it gets exhausted very easily, very fast. That's okay, I thought, I believe that's an issue that I can easily handle. I'm sure that Nokia is aware of this problem, too, and they're on it to fix it. Not necessarily with this phone, but with future phones.

However, I think I can tell you/them a few other hints they might want to pay attention to. Or maybe not, but at least I did not keep my comments secret on this great device. :-)

• Lack of memory card in the package. This is the third device from the N-series that I have got without any multimedia cards. First, an N90, second an N73, now it's an N95. Hey, it's a multimedia phone and I can hardly believe that the built-in storage is sufficient for multimedia purposes. And I can't believe it, either, that Nokia is to save some money on NOT including a memory card in their sales package, because the price of such a piece of hardware is so low. Then why is it not included?
• Battery. The topic that I have already mentioned. It's just right my second day, but it has already proved to be true that I need to charge the battery once a day. I was already recommended to get used to it, now I'm on that path. :-|
• GPS. This is the first GPS device of mine, so I don't know too much what to expect from it. I can see, though, that the built-in program is data-hungry and tries to get that data from the internet (without a network connection it doesn't really work, i.e. is not really useful). It's not a good sign for me, because I have decided not to spend too much money on using GPS, but try to keep my spending as low as possible. Perhaps the installation of additional maps will solve the problem, I don't know, I'm just hoping that.
• Connected to TV. There is an RCA jack included in the package with which we can attach the phone to the television so that you can see it real-time on your telly what you're doing on your phone. It's a pretty nice feature that can be used, among others, for demoing, showing your pictures/video/etc. to your family, browse the web in full screen on your tv, etc. However, for some reason, voice was not audible when I was e.g. playing a game. I'm unsure as to where the problem is - on my phone or with my TV, in any case, it's waiting to be fixed. Just tell me if you have experienced this and managed to get over with it.
• Localisation. You know, I'm from Hungary, Europe and although I'm pretty much happy with using English I've already got used to using T9 on my phone. It's such a brilliant feature that now I can hardly live without (at least in terms of short messaging:). The problem is that as I have forgotten to indicate my wish to have Hungarian language included on my phone I can't make use of (Hungarian) T9, either. Unless somebody smarter than me enlightens me how to fix this problem with the least pain.
  

That's it for now! By the way, before I forget: thanks, Ron and Forum Nokia, for this great device. It was really worth the effort of contributing to the Wiki. I wonder if others know that they can win an N95, too. :)

Cheers,

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Smartphone Show, London, 2006

The Smartphone Show in London. I have already heard lots of things about it, but never been there thus far, so I was glad to have the chance to visit it. I've decided to be there for both days (Tuesday and Wednesday) so that I would have enough time to talk to everybody, try out/listen to everything. I mean, everybody and everything I'm interested in.

My feelings? Mixed. The good thing is that everybody was there who really counts in the Symbian world. Okay, I mean those that I'm aware of. :) Symbian, Nokia, Sony Ericsson, SysOpen Digia, ARM, Wiley (Symbian Press), BlackBerry, etc. Hey first: sorry for not mentioning everybody, but it's most probably thanks to my limited memory. Second: I have not mentioned Google on purpose. They have not yet contributed to Symbian so significantly that I should mention them, imho. Nevertheless, their cookies (I mean, the real ones, not the digital) were good. :)

Why are my feelings mixed then? Well, even though I'm from Hungary, a small country, I've already seen a few big shows, let them be trade or technical ones. This one was not one of them, at least not in my opinion. To my disappointment, I could wander through the area of the show in the first half an hour and pick up those boots that I decided to pay my attention to. Then I spent the first day with visiting those boots, talking to people, listening to others talking, etc. I've even attended a few seminars on Tuesday. Briefly: it was smaller than I had originally expected.

Okay then, what made me stay there for Wednesday? Well, besides the fact that I could have cancelled my hotel reservation and changed my flight schedule only for a horribly high amount of money, it was definetely the party that followed the first "working day". I mean, that was GREAT! Very good music (does anyone know the name of the band?), drink, food. The place had been a secret until we got transported there: it was called "The Container City", not too far away from ExCel London, where the show took place. At the end of the party, we got even taken near to the city center so that didn't have to think too much of how to go and where.

To my biggest surprise, there were even more people visiting the show on Wednesday. At least it seemed to me so. As I had already seen what I wanted to by that time, I decided to listen to keynote presentations in the morning and attend some technical seminars in the early afternoon (my plane left in the evening, so I had to leave early). It turned out to be a good plan and I could do what I had originally scheduled. For example, I was wondering what the heck BlackBerry could be looking for on the show, but after listening to their keynote speech (the lady was _very_ convincing) I could hardly stand to go to their boot and ask for a quote for my company. I was also interested in David Wood's speech, his vision of the next few years in mobile space was very impressive.

All in all, I'm so glad that I have visited the Smartphone Show. I've enjoyed it very much and I think I've gained much experience of it, too. Nevertheless, I might opt for a one-day trip in the future - that will be enough. Including the party, of course. :)

Migrated from Forum Nokia Blogs.

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Forum Nokia Champion Day, London, 2006

As a Forum Nokia Champion, I was invited to attend the aforementioned event on 16 October in London. In addition, Symbian arranged their annual Smartphone Show so that it took place on the upcoming days, Tuesday and Wednesday so that I could stay in London for a few more days. This posting is about the first day, Monday, but I'm going to write another one with my remarks about the show.

Here you are. I'm so grateful that I could attend this event and meet other fellow champions. We were accomodated in Hotel Le Meridien (wow!) for two nights, Sunday and Monday. After having an excellent breakfast, we walked across Regent Street to Cafe Royal, a venue perfectly fitted to host meetings and events - like ours. First, we all had a brief introduction of ourselves and I can tell you that it was very nice to meet all of you and associate the faces, voices with most of the names I've already read here and there. There came some technical seminars, where we were presented some insights about the new Carbide.C++ Dev & Pro versions, Python for S60, got some hints on documentation and S60 3rd Edition update, etc. By the way, we had a traditional English pub lunch at noon - it was excellent not only because the food was good, but we could get to know each other, have a chat with anybody.

After the seminars, we were invited to build the team (i.e. teambuilding :). It turned out that we were spies (I knew that Tom Cruise was kicked out from Mission Impossible, but was surprised to see that we're gonna replace him:) and we had to accomplish a spy mission. We were split into 5 teams, each had to do the same tasks: explore places nearby, answer tricky questions, scavenge items from various places in a fixed amount of time. Khhm, we were so much filled with empathy that we thought it would be nice to be the fifth among the five teams and let others feel a little bit better. None seemed to be effusive in their gratitude. :) By the way, the winner team got Nokia 9500 Communicators, one per each member.

Finally, the last event on Monday was a coctail party held in Albannach, UK's second biggest whisky bar (as I learned). It was not only us, FN Champions, who were invited, but PRO members were also there. It was good to see so many people filled with enthusiasm about mobility - unfortunately, the place was so small that it was basically overcrowded. Nevertheless, the food was excellent as well as the drinks so we (at least I) enjoyed the whole party.

In fact, the whole day! So I'd like to thank Sanna, Elina and the rest of the team who arranged the whole thing so that I was (and still am) both proud and grateful that I'm a champ. Besides that I'd like to encourage other fellows, you, mobile geeks, do your best in the mobile community and become a FN Champion. It's worth, believe me!

Migrated from Forum Nokia Blogs.

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Ps.: one of my colleagues has also flew to London to attend the Smartphone Show. As he is not a champion, he couldn't attend those events that I could, but what he could do, however, was that he went to the pub event arranged by Symbian on Monday evening. There was a draw during the event and he won an N93. Simply just because he was there. I'm so jealous. Everyone could win a mobile phone, except me? :)