Posts Tagged 'israel'

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Nokia E72 – Day 1

Published January 6, 2010 Uncategorized 5 Comments
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Last month I attended Globes Conference at Tel Aviv, and saw Nokia E72 for the first time in Israel, at the Nokia Israel booth. It took just 2.5 weeks (Kudos to Eurocom Nokia) for the E72 to arrive at my door step earlier today, for a review. As I stated before, although it’s easy to get hyped by a phone, one must review it under day-to-day activities, meaning at least 2 weeks, even 3. I will have the Nokia E72 for a month – just hope I won’t fall in love with it during the process.. 😉

Nokia E72 unboxing

It’s predecessor, the E71, is a huge success in Israel, receiving high scores in any review, and the E72 is entering the local market at an interesting time: iPhone was launched last month, Bold is holding its ground, and the E71 is the best selling Smartphone in Israel, second only to the N95 (150,000 units).

  • Will E71 users rush for an upgrade?
  • Will it take the crown of ‘Best Smartphone in Israel’ from its younger brother, the E71?
  • Will N-Series users looking for a business device opt for the E72 over the iPhone or BB Bold?

A full review will be posted early February, both here and over at newsgeek.co.il (Hebrew), but I will post short updates, like this one, as the month progresses.

If you have any questions about the Nokia E72 that you’d like to ask or suggest, drop me a line here or on twitter and I’ll do my best to accommodate.

Nokia E72 spotted in Israel

Published December 14, 2009 Uncategorized 1 Comment
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The phone I’ve been waiting for has arrived.
Today at Globes Conference (thanks Dori and Eliav for setting me up with an invite) I got this innocent coupon from Nokia Israel, inviting attendees to stop by the booth, join OVI and get a chance to win a Nokia E72. Needless to say that was my first stop. And I pretty much stayed at the Nokia booth for a good portion of the day, playing with the E72.

[photo from GSMArena.com]

First off, it’s a sexy phone, in dark blue, with an executive look and feel. The central nav-button got an upgrade, with an optical navigation, similar to the Blackberry – an interesting addition that takes some getting used to. But I like it. The E72 has some large shoes to fill – its predecessor, the E71, is considered a huge success, and was crowned The Best Smartphone in Israel, twice. The E72 boosts roughly the same features as the E71, with 2 important upgrades: a decent camera (5MP, Auto-focus, Flash) and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Another major improvement, which I noticed later, is under the hood – a powerful ARM 11 Processor, running at 600MHz – impressive. Finally someone is paying attention to what I say…

Hopefully the guys over at Nokia Israel will do me a solid and let me have it for an official review. Been waiting for it since June, think I deserve it.. You know what, on second thought – just let me win it in the lottery, for Hanukah/Christmas – whatever works for you.. 😉

iPhone is coming

Published December 6, 2009 Uncategorized 3 Comments
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Pack you sleeping bags people – the iPhone will be launched in Israel Thursday at 00:01 hours (night between Wed. and Thu.), in a massive sales operation, with stores open the entire day (Thursday). As you might recall, Apple decided, finally, that the Israeli market is important enough to add us to its worldwide distribution.

Will Tel Aviv act like NYC at midnight Thursday? [picture from ars technica]

All 3 cellular providers in Israel have jumped the iPhone wagon of course, and rumors say that each committed to selling 100,000 units a year – meaning 300,000 combined. Now, Israel cellular penetration is about 106% right now, which means that Cellcom, Orange and Pelephone will have to offer lucrative programs and trade-in deals so consumers will give us their current 3G phone and buy a new iPhone 3GS.

The companies are keeping the tight ‘no-comment’ policy, probably governed by Apple, and refusing to release any information about the iPhone – prices, programs, marketing, etc – but that hasn’t stopped the local eco-system from working hard over the past 3-4 months, developing apps for anything from news, bulletin boards, finance, radio, GPS and more.

I for one, am curious to see how the 3 providers will differentiate their iPhone operations, and how the market will behave. Although the iPhone officially hits Israel in 3 days, there are some 60,000 devices here, jail-broken of course, with Hebrew support – which pretty much cover the early adopters and gadgets lovers. Selling 300,000 devices a year is a tough task, and one thing is for sure: it’s gonna be an interesting year.

It’s raining men

Published November 3, 2009 Uncategorized Closed
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Started another army reserve duty this week, and I have to ‘thank’ technology for keeping me updated with the world. My DELL XPS and Cellcom HSPA USB Modem are keeping me connected about once a day, with quick ‘refresh’ intervals on my Nokia N95 – I have both my private and work email, as well as twitter, all hooked up in a single device. I’ve written before why the N95 is one of the best smart-phones available today, even without the touchscreen.. still holds.

In any case, I have lots of stuff to do, and little time to complete them, so I’ll leave you with this Geri Halliwell song – fits the current weather conditions we’re experiencing here. Enjoy!

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Talking Innovation and Technology /w IBM Research

Published October 27, 2009 Uncategorized Closed
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Just returned from a very unique gathering, held by IBM HRL (Haifa Research Labs) and IBM GTU (Global Technology Unit). The 2 divisions teamed up and invited local bloggers (~25) to an evening of technology and innovation, coupled with food & wine of course. The purpose of the event was to expose some of the work HRL researchers are doing at the various locations in Israel and what applications and services have been deployed internally, towards a future IBM Product or Service.

Coming from Big Blue I was no stranger to the innovative thinking and the endless possibilities HRL researchers posses. No wonder IBM invests $6B annually in R&D. The presentations were more like short pitches, 10-15min each, covering 3 topics:

  • Do smarter people make smarter search engines?
  • Is it all about context?
  • Shouldn’t non-techies be able to create online applications?

The crowd was very involved in the pitch, questioning possible applications and services, how metadata is gathered and filtered, and more. As a research facility, HRL are quite lucky to have a testing population of some 350,000 employees – which definitely helps shorten development cycles.Obviously I felt a strong connection to the 1st topic, being an advocate for corporate collaboration and knowledge management (E2.0). I think my 1,000+ social bookmarks are still part of IBM’s internal knowledge base (Dogear), available at the company’s intranet (w3).

In short, great event, interesting discussions and awesome people to brainstorm with.

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Mobile & Media Consultant. I help startup companies launch products to the consumer market. Reach out: dvir.reznik [at] gmail.com
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This is my personal blog. The postings here do not represent the thoughts, intentions, plans or strategies of my past employers or of my clients. It is solely my opinion.