Nothing beats the chirp of conversations from a battery of bloggers and journalists huddled in a room. Speaking of latest trends on issues ranging from traffic jam to emerging technology developments, it’s always tempting to listen in among groups, for fear of missing out on details of what’s the hottest tech thing in the market.
So when Dorothy Ooko, Nokia’s Head of Communications for East and Southern Africa, called the Ovi Happy Hour gathering at Sierra to order, it seemed like many were cut short. But they didn’t know that what lay in store was bound to lighten the chilly evening-significantly.
The night for the Ovi Happy Hour was aptly themed “Success Redefined” the tag-line associated with Nokia’s latest business smart phone, the E7. Seeing the E7 though the eyes of those who have already used it was an experience in itself. Hailed as the all-in-one business smartphone, the Nokia E7 is the new-age Communicator. Boasting a Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync support alongside 4-inch AMOLED touchscreen display and a slide out four-row QWERTY keyboard, the E7 hit the Kenyan market during the last week of April.
First off was Tim Njiru, making an interesting pitch of the Nokia E7’s 8-megapixel camera. Tim wowed the crowd with clear, if cheeky photos he’d a couple of kids “in my rounds.” And he’d more serious photos, this time from a South Africa Airways plane before take-off. Here he had exploited the full-screen 16:9 viewfinder with its easy-to-use touch screen parameters pretty well.
Clearly in love with the apps and the Nokia maps, Tim did not hide his inclination for WhatsApp, cross-platform mobile messaging app which allows you to exchange messages without having to pay for SMS and a messenger too. Next was Gravity, a full-featured Twitter Client with a gorgeous, highly praised user interface. Tim made good of his five-minute pitch to talk about how Gravity supports multiple Twitter accounts, image-uploading TwitPic and TwitGoo, multiple Twitter-searches.
Running short of time, Tim spoke of the Nokia Maps, explaining how useful the maps can get especially to strangers in new places. And in keeping with the week’s happenings, Tim even had a screen-grab he took the previous evening from the cable-news channel CNN as Michael Holmes captured events leading to the Royal Wedding. What a close to make.
Moses Kemibaro, a renowned IT consultant and blogger took to the floor next and called the E7 “a fantastic work-horse phone for business people.” Picking out the phones capabilities-to integrate office with social media tools, Kemibaro said the fact that the phone had a combination of touch-screen and QWERTY keyboard made it a cool thing to have for everyone.
Not to be outdone, Dorothy Ooko stepped forward and spoke of the of Nokia’s keenness in making user-friendly devices. Dorothy was fast to speak of her affinity to the N8 but she added that the E7 had that added advantage of the flip which would help enhance ease of use especially for business people.
Perhaps presenting one of most core benefits of the E7 on this afternoon, Dorothy demonstrated to an eager crowd in the room, how easy it is to draft and edit documents from the E7 even sending a dud document to her boss from the phone. She went further to show how to use the Microsoft Communicator on the phone. Gripping stuff.
In the process of updating the crowd on whether he’d ‘received’ the demo document from Dorothy a few minute before, Ken Oyolla, Nokia’s General Manager for East and Southern Africa got into the team of presenters on the evening. But he spoke of the E7’s entertainment front, a relevant element for any business person who travels often. So Ken took time to speak of travel apps such as the World Traveler, which he said was “a must have free and premium services for travelers.”
“The app has an amazing in-built virtual ‘flight assistant’, which many will find handy for searching flight schedules of major and low cost airlines as well as real-time alerts regarding delays, cancellations and gate changes,” said Oyolla.
He captured the need of the app well, especially for travellers who inevitably get confused about the time difference while abroad. Ken spoke of how useful World Traveller is on info regarding weather, currencies.
It’s unbelievable that such qualities would be wrapped in a single device, the Nokia E7. Listening all round, it appeared there are a few other things would so suitably redefine success. No wonder, then, that everyone wanted to stick around for a word or two with the Nokia team, or have a beer to go with the fun at the event.
