A lot of people would never have believed that one day they would read this headline. Less than a decade ago Nokia was one of the biggest mobile phone vendors in the world. After years of declining sales and shrinking market share the company sold its devices and services business to Microsoft. Nokia is no longer how we have always known it but the company still exists in a different form. Today it announced a launcher for Android smartphones.
There’s no shortage of Android launchers so its interesting to see how Nokia tries to set its offering apart. Called the Z Launcher, its built to enable users to access everything “in one second.”
Up top the launcher features a clock, the date and one upcoming event from the calendar. Tapping time will open the clock and the event will open calendar. There are five shortcuts at the bottom of the screen which leads users to the apps and services that they use often. Six shortcuts fill the screen which sort apps and services according to time of day. For example during the day it will display shortcuts to productivity apps whereas in the evening to social networks and music streaming services.
It learns constantly and evolves based on the usage pattern to ensure that users only see content that they’re most likely to use at any time. It comes with an innovative feature called Scribble which allows users to open any app by simply scribbling a letter anywhere on the launcher. So to launch Twitter a user only has to scribble the letter T. Users can even perform web searches by scribbling on the screen.
Compatible with most Android phones, Nokia Z Launcher is available as a free download today albeit in pre-release beta form. Initial reviews appear to be good and its only going to get better as it progresses into the final build.