 Today I was offered an invitation to sit in on an informal Q&A with the Nokia Email Service (Beta) Management Team. Via Tangler, we bombarded the team with questions for an hour. We learned a number of things about NES today including that we should look for a "predictable" price point for the service rolling out in 20 countries to start - the focus of the NES dev team: scanning inbox/reading/deleting/reply/composing email.
Q: the email app is indeed still in Beta correct? Has it been a closed Beta and roughly how many users have been involved. Also, roughly when will the Beta end?
A: it's an open beta, we're still in beta, and we didn't invite anyone specific, it's open to everyone and we haven't announced any end date for the beta.
Q: On the Nokia Email site - within the FAQ - it states 'There is no charge for using Nokia Email service during the beta trial.'. Just to clarify, will Nokia Email eventually become a 'paid for' application and if this is the case, what costs will consumers face once the BETA ends?
A: We haven't announced pricing, but we're working directly with operators to make the costs bundled as part of the data plan.
Q: Where will the email service be rolled out in how many countries are you working with operators??
A: we're taking a phased approach, starting with a small group of countries (less than 20), with more waves after that.
Q: ideally though you need your carrier to have the devices in the shop - here in the US if I go into T-mobile they have no nice N series or E series devices - they don't even know what they are! I pulled out an E71 and N95 8GB and the clerks drool and ask me about them!
A: I also live in the United States, and we need to do better in this country.
Q: Is it possible to sync more than 3 Days of Data?
A: On the Nokia Email server, we store the past three days of email. When you first get your email set up, you received these three days’ worth of messages. The “Remove older than” settings allows you to decide how much email to store on your phone. These messages are stored on your device and consume memory.
When you first sync the phone - it goes back the last three days.... and then the next day, you have four days mail, then five, then six, etc.... the "remove older than" setting determines how far back it goes.
Q: Will the servers be managed locally or centrally?
A: The servers are located in Nokia network operating center.
Q: are we likely to see exchange support in the nokia email client effectively replacing the one preloaded on devices at the moment. I think with html email support as well this will provide a better overall experience?
A: As for Exchange support, Nokia Email service is very much a consumer email offering. We are not including corporate email as part of the service.
When the user signs up for NES, s/he will get email pushed to the phone. That's the basic and key benefit.
Most users spend most of their time scanning through the inbox. We have a number of things in the client that make such scanning very easy.
Q: If you were to summarize in five words why NES, what would you say?
A" "The main reason is because".... oh shoot, that's my five words. Discoverable, easy setup, predictable price
Q: Since data operators charge a fee for accessing the internet, have you used any kind of compression to shorten the amount of data being sent and received?
What about encryption?
A: We have very good compression. so the data traffic itself is optimized.
But, even so, there is a more 'sledge hammer' approach to this that also works very well. We truncate all massages at 2k of data. When you scroll down to the bottom of a message, there is an indicator that the message has been truncated. If you scroll just a little bit more, the app automatically fetches the rest. Our research shows us that most people only read the first screen or two of any particular email message, so we think 2k is a good compromise
Q: Is this application going to be supported on the other S60 ('Non Nokia) products in the future?(Samsung INNOV8, etc...) and S40 devices?
A: NES is for Nokia devices only.
Q: what will be the price?
A: the price will be 'predictable' -- that is, it will be part of the monthly data plan a consumer pays to the operator.
We have not announced a specific price.
Q: Can we expect full HTML email to be implemented within both the Nokia Email and integrated email clients soon?
A: we know a lot of people want this, we're actively working on it, and this is one of the "haven't announced specifically when it arrives".
Q: How quick is the so-called process of pushing emails? That is, if an email message reaches my Gmail inbox, how long does it take for the message to reach me via Nokia's central server and the Nokia Email app?
A: By push, they meant that every 15 minutes the email service would poll the ISP, and fetch whatever email was on the ISP server, and then push that to the phone.
So, I want to be clear how I use the word push, and where it applies and where it doesn't.
For GMail, we have a relationship with the provider, and we have a true push implementation. The delivery is near real-time.
Q: Maybe a little off topic... but how are you going to address the govt. concerns of being able to monitor the emails?
A: NES will comply with any governmental regulations in a particular country.
Other Comments from the Nokia Team during the discussion:
- At Nokia we believe, even though mobile email has been available for years, the amount of users who use mobile email has been dissapointgly low
- Nokia is shifting into being an internet company, and email is a top priority for Nokia, and at this time our focus is on the S60 platform.
- When a consumer walks into a phone store, and asks to see all the email phones, the clerk pulls out seven qwerty keyboard devices... three blackberries, two nokias, two other phones. today, chances are, the blackberry gets picked quite often... they have a nice email solution with nice phones.
but, most people come into a phone and say "show me your best camera phone"
or your best music phone
or the phone with the longest battery life
or phones for active lifestyle
or phones with GPS navigation
or phones under $100
Chances are for those categories, there's more Nokia's in those categories than any of our competitors.
Nokia will win its generous share of these phones... and once they choose the Nokia, the operator has the opportunity to sell the consumer email on their phone.
Based on feedback, it's clear people want some shorter options for polling and not as many longer ones (for instance, 2 months is an option right now).. we're looking into this.
The home screen behavior on N-Series devices for displayed email is a function of the phone series (N-Series/E-Series), we're supporting what the phone supports.
Through our research, our design is focused on the five mail things: scanning inbox/reading/deleting/reply/composing email. We're spending our resources optimizing those core mobile email functions.
IMAP -- we have heard loud and clear that support for IMAP folders is very important to a sizable minority. We are working towards IMAP folder support.
Re Beta 3 bugs, we will have a post on BetaLabs in the next day or so documenting the important things we're working on based on the feedback we've seen.
"Through our research, we have found that there are three main obstacles to the adoption of mobile email"
1. discoverability - people don't even know that their phones can get email, even though it's been on the phone for years"
2. those who discover email on the phone have a very difficult time getting it setup and functioning.
3. Unpredictability of cost - users don't have control over how many emails they receive, worry about receiving large bill at the end of the month".
Nokia's strategy is to solve these three problems and to become a leader in the mobile email space. To solve the discoverability problem, our intention is to include email on the phone (preinstalled on the phone, to answer earlier question)., and make it readily apparent on the home screen / initial startup that the phone supports email.
"Our strategy is making email easy to say "yes to" and opposed to the reason someone buys a phone." This feedback is valuable in helping us to get a vision of what we can expect from this service down the road - thanks Nokia for taking part in this.
END Q&A Notes
More about Nokia Email Service...
Beta3 brings with it wider support for devices, more localization options, better mailbox management, true synchronization, support for multiple email addresses and more. Additionally, we're told by Nokia that no more randomly re-appearing emails you’re sure you deleted. The beta stage of trialling Nokia Email Service is totally free and users will be notified when the free period ends!
Available for most E series devices and high-end N series units (like the N95, N82 etc...) Simply run through the email setup screens, enter your email account parameters (mail server, port, username etc...) you may need help from your ISP to get this if you aren't familiar with how to do this, then voilla... you're ready to receive your email while on the road... best of all it works and its free!
I ran this service (the initial Beta email) on the Nokia E71 while on a recent trip to Finland and it was a breeze and enabled me to easily stay in the know about what was happening at the office while I was away... see http://email.nokia.com
Note: as always, be aware of data charges if you are roaming or don't have all u can eat data plan!
Nokia E71 - the ideal device for business and personal use. Nokia Email Service is a perfect complement to this device!
Accessing my email on the Nokia E71
Register online for the Beta service (check device compatibility first) Once the SMS comes through you are ready to download, install, then setup...
 Once downloaded the installation is fast and painless. The check your application folder, enter your password in the setup module then check your email!
 Fire up your new mobile email app to view your messages and send email
 Viewing my first mobile email from Nokia email (Beta)
Check it out at for yourself at http://email.nokia.com
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