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Comparing Nokia Backup and MobileMe

By Matt Radford on July 2, 2008

Nokia’s over-the-air synchronisation tool – Nokia Backup – has started to get some attention. Here’s a quick comparison to Apple’s announced OTA sync, MobileMe.

Nokia Backup MobileMe
Home page my.nokia.com me.com
Supported devices See this long list iPhone and iPod Touch
Cost (1) Free £59/year
Email (2) No Yes
Sync Type Manual Automatic

Sync Capability
Contacts Yes Yes
Calendars (3) Yes Yes
To-Dos Yes No
Notes Yes No
Bookmarks (4) No Yes
Photos (5) No Yes
Online Storage (5) No Yes

Notes:
Yes = synchronisation plus access via a web-based interface

  1. Data charges not included
  2. Nokia has just released Nokia Email (beta), which brings push email to your device using your existing POP or IMAP email. That’s pretty cool. It’s free right now but the release version may incur a monthly tariff. MobileMe only works (as far as we know) with .me email accounts.
  3. Nokia Backup cannot share calendars
  4. Web access is available with .Mac, but will not be with MobileMe
  5. MobileMe allows for upload and sharing

One caveat is that Nokia Backup is available today, whereas MobileMe is still an unreleased, unknown quantity (with the exception that .Mac’s capabilities are well-known).

Although it’s called Nokia Backup, it’s really a lightweight alternative/complement to Nokia’s bloated PC Suite. Some of the gaps in the Backup service are filled by Nokia’s Mobile Web Server (device access, calendar and photo sharing) and Ovi (sharing photos and more).

It seems to me that Nokia is bringing some great tools out which will reinforce loyalty to them as a manufactuer. But this needs to be done in a far more co-ordinated way to even get on the radar of the average consumer. Saying that, for all MobileMe’s features and polish, Nokia Backup is free.

—
Edit: I’ve replaced the link to the Nokia site with the correct, short URL of my.nokia.com. Thanks to Steve for the correction.

  • Hardeep Singh

    Nokia Backup doesn’t need a Photo Syncing or Online Storage, they already have Ovi.

  • http://www.allaboutiphone.net Matt Radford

    I did mention Ovi in the post, and it’s a great looking service. But as I said, Nokia’s services are fragmented, and IMHO the company needs a more consolidated approach.

  • roman

    So, does Nokia offers proper Push email, or IMAP/POP with check every (x-minutes)?

  • Stubbs

    For the online storage what about Nokia’s Ovi Files?

    https://files.ovi.com/

  • Dave

    @roman: Most Nokias have built in push email with IMAP-Idle. GMail pushes emails to my Nokia within seconds.

    Gonna give Ovi a go…

  • Tes

    I think Nokia has really shot themselves with all the fragmented services. I need separate logins for Ovi share, N-Gage, My Nokia and now the beta of Nokia Chat. If these were all offered as a single Nokia login into ONE site where all the services could be amdinistrated it would be a real competitor.

  • http://mobileindia.shop.tm/thoughts Hardeep Singh

    [quote]If these were all offered as a single Nokia login into ONE site where all the services could be amdinistrated it would be a real competitor.[/quote]

    Nokia knows about it, they already have the solution ready. Register here…
    https://account.nokia.com/acct/register

  • http://cubeover.aim.com Sergey Zak

    Sheesh! Yet another account! What are they smoking?

  • http://mobileindia.shop.tm/thoughts Hardeep Singh

    This isn’t another account, this is ‘the’ account that will bring all nokia services under one roof. This login came up a few days back and would soon support ALL nokia services, killing the need for multiple logins.
I guess after launching so many services like files sync, push email, nokia chat within the last few weeks, they felt the need for a single login and came up with this.

  • http://www.symbian-freak.com christexaport

    The reason for separate initial logins was that some of the services were and are free for all users, even bad photo posting iPhone users! Ovi Share is popular for image and video, and the built-in photo syncing function in S60 devices supports multiple photo services.

    Nokia’s services are very much converged. For instance, Nokia’s PC Suite has graduated into the new Ovi Suite, with built-in unified syncing, Maps management, on-demand firmware upgrading and reflashing, and the typical local storage and backup tools. And I wouldn’t describe Nokia’s PC Suite or Ovi Suite as bloated, but feature packed. It’s interface is simple enough for both my 13 year old niece and 53 year old mother, but all the features any tweaker and power user might want are still accessible.

    The new Nokia Email service is much better than IMAP idle. Ask Blackberry owners, true PUSH email is unbeatable for business users who know how important it is to save time and beat the clock.

    Nokia has indeed unleashed a true titan of a service umbrella, all under one roof with one login/passport.

    How can anyone not deny that from day one, Apple has been climbing uphill to keep up with Nokia and Symbian? The marketing, media, and business agreements have helped, but consumers are getting wiser, more tech savvy, and keen to features. This happened with PC’s in the 90’s, and now smartphones.

    (However, I don’t consider any phone that lacks multitasking a smartphone. What other smartphone on the market 4 years ago didn’t multitask? iPhone is merely an innovative feature phone.)

    And wait until Haptikos handsets come to market… Apples are pretty phones. Nseries phones are power phones. Hands down. I love whipping my N95 8gb out in front of iPhone users, and running 20 apps at once, while also hacking my phone without the need to plug to a PC. I play any video and audio format I find, unconverted, and use custom apps my buddies make online for free at http://www.symbian-freak.com using M, Python, or c++. Life’s good. Don’t believe the iPhone hype. Follow the real geeks!

    christexaport
    For info on the world’s best smartphones:
    http://www.symbian-freak.com

  • stephen

    agree that its only a matte rof time before they integrate all this in ovi – but i wish they’d include more syncing functionality: SMSs/etc; and why not a version fo lifeblog online?

  • MCO

    Another big difference is that Mobile Me works on Windows and OS X. I find this a curious omission.

    As an Apple user, I’d love to have all these desktop apps working on my OS too. The mishmash of iSync and Multimedia transfer, while they work OK, are hardly as seamless as PC Suite.

    –mco

  • http://www.allaboutiphone.net Matt Radford

    @mco
    That’s a fair point about Apple’s desktop sync mishmash. When I had my N70, I found it frustrating that I had to use iSync for some things, Nokia Multimedia Transfer for others. I can’t see Apple changing that anytime soon. Nokia and others could consider using the iSync engine (rather than the app) within their own sync apps (such as Multimedia Transfer) for the one-stop sync experience that PC Suite delivers under Windows.

  • http://wordpress.pocosin.com Counsel

    I am not sure that “unified” services are required. So long as the service is required, I am happy. Of course, it is quicker to set up if you require 1 service, but past setup, there should be no difference.

    if there is a difference, Nokia should make the difference as minimal as possible–I think they should be able to make it seem seemless…