The PC Software for mobile devices, love ‘em or hate ‘em, are still here and perhaps for quite a while. Despite the fact that Nokia constantly declares their devices “mobile computers”, there are many task that can only be done or are facilitated by the PC software. Just think of reinstalling the latest firmware, editing many contacts or managing your files using the file manager on a much larger screen. PC Suite, Nokia’s software interface between the mobile and PC was replaced by the bloated, media-oriented OVI Suite, but Now that Nokia is dropping the OVI brand, what should happen to their PC software?
1.Return to a task oriented interface
PC Suite’s interface was simple and based on specific tasks: if you wanted to edit contacts you would choose the contacts icon. There was a on-screen calendar and it even showed the amount of charge left. A specific icon for the file manager, images and backup. The same can be said about other commonly used tasks. Not only was the UI simple, but it was useful.
In comparison OVI Suite fills almost half of the available space with suggested apps and good chunk is taken up by massive icons showing media, contacts or files on your computer. While other task are almost hidden behind tiny icons. There’s nothing wrong with media, but dedicating almost the entire available space to media, not only makes it less useful, but it almost seems to almost suggest that those other hidden tasks are not as important.
Such a media-centric interface might look and might be useful if you only use your device for media consumption, but that’s rarely useful in the real world where you can to have instant access to feature like back or know that on Monday there’s soccer practice. That’s exactly what PC Suite managed just fine.
