Fan interviews: Ovi presents Sergejs (part 2)

As promised last week, today I’m going to publish the second part of Sergejs‘ novel fan interview…

In the first part we’ve got to know Sergejs, his cultural background, his occupation and how he spends his free time. This time we will know more about his relationship with Nokia and Ovi: be ready to read some juicy anecdotes!
And since all good things come in threes, you will have to wait next week to get the complete interview

-Pino (@haikus)

How did you find out about us? It’s really hard to overlook this blog when hearing about all kinds of Ovi related news on the web, you guys cover them thoroughly and, what’s also important, with great passion. I think my first serious contact with Ovi blog was back in February, when I and several other bloggers interviewed Robin Jewsbury, who’s the co-founder of Mippin and EyeMags. And by the way, that was a very fun and insightful Q&A session, I truly wish we had more of those…

How long have you been a Ovi/Nokia fan? To be honest, I haven’t been a Nokia fan right from the start. Shocker! But then again, I also wasn’t particularly into any sorts of mobile phones back then, when phones did only the very basic set of features like calling, texting and making those annoying, beeping noises that we proudly called ringtones. It was only with my first smartphone, N-Gage, I became deeply hooked on Nokia phones. Nokia 3230, the first smartphone for the masses, and Nokia N70, the harbinger of Nokia Nseries, soon followed.
But Ovi fan I’ve probably became around the end of 2008, when I was working on my first magazine article, and it happened to be about the Nokia Ovi services. There, I’ve explained what Ovi is all about and also written short guides on how to sync content with Ovi homepage like contacts, calendar notes, pictures and also map routes. At that time, it was something completely new for Nokia users, so I’m particularly proud for delivering that written piece.

What do you like most about Ovi/Nokia? Now that’s complicated, because it’s almost impossible to explain everything in just a few sentences. The simple answer would be that I grew up with Nokia, followed the steep road of mobile evolution it’s phones had to overcome in a relatively short time. It was really Nokia who first made smartphones more accessible for the simple folks. My interest in the industry was born with Nokia phones. You simply can’t forget things that had shaped the way you view and interact with mobile technology today. It’s what you are.
And I absolutely have to mention here the staggering amount of work the great people behind WOMWorld/Nokia have done to keep the community flame strong. It’s really uplifting to see such large a company as Nokia recognise the importance of keeping a more personal link with it’s fans worldwide.
And thanks WOMWorld/Nokia, I’ve also managed to be in some mind blowing places I could only dream about, like witnessing a Nokia N8 Tv ad being recorded in Barcelona long before the phone was officially announced, attending and live-blogging the Open Mobile Summit and, the culmination point of them all, visiting Nokia World 2010 in London. Needless to say, I’m extremely grateful for these opportunities, as it helped me get out of my shell, engage with like-minded people and also have a much closer look at how this industry works.

What was your very first Nokia device? My memory is a little fuzzy on that one as I had a few short term loans from my parents at first (including the Nokia 3210), but I believe my proper first phone was the legendary Nokia 3310 in 2001.
It was a surprisingly compact mobile phone at that time, and also very affordable for the features it offered, that coupled with the well known Finnish reliability and long battery life made it a smoking success in the market. This phone was also where I had my first taste of mobile gaming, and I remember playing tirelessly through Space Impact, a sci-fi shooter (or simply shmup) numerous times at school. Another really nice feature I remember having with that phone was custom logos. Of course, you really have put things into context to that time period – any sort of software personalization options like custom ringtones or screensavers was simply mind blowing back then.

Which device do you use right now? I can’t imagine my daily life without the online connectivity, multi-tasking and apps anymore, and these are the key points that only smartphones can offer to me, wherever I am. For me, smartphones were always about the exploration, about finding new apps that add something interesting to the basic functionality. And then it’s this magical feeling of sharing your finds with fellow mobile enthusiasts, and vice versa.
It’s now almost a year since I bought my Nokia N900, and I’m still enjoying it as much as I did on the day I bought it. And that’s actually saying something, because I’m known for changing my smartphones quite often.
To start with, I really love the sturdy built quality, the slider form factor and the compact yet very usable physical QWERTY keys of the Nokia N900. The built in 5 Mpix Carl Zeiss camera also surprised me with a solid performance, even though it’s definitely not the main focus of this sort of device. Above all that, I’m a huge fan of the Maemo 5 user interface, the way I can multi-task and customize the many homescreens available. The web browsing experience on the Nokia N900 is nothing short but amazing. And nowadays, if a smartphone can handle the web so well, it will rule them all, I say.
I’ve also recently acquired a Nokia 7650 in a very good condition, considering it was first released in 2002. Nokia 7650 was, in fact, way ahead of it’s time when it launched. First ever Symbian running smartphone, first Nokia with a built in camera – this elegant looking slider phone bears a lot of history and charisma, and I’m extremely proud to have it in my collection.
Speaking of my future devices, I’m excited to see something similar to Nokia N900 with the upcoming MeeGo phones from Nokia, but with more power under the hood, longer battery life and a slightly larger, capacitive touchscreen.