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What are the Use Cases for Business Use ?

asked 2017-11-25 21:16:59 +0300

melg01 gravatar image

updated 2017-11-25 21:34:33 +0300

Trying to change the view on Sailfish - it's not about technology, but about using it...

Many of us think that part of the issues Jolla/Sailfish has, including the almost nonexistant market share, derives from an incomplete analysis of the possible target users and their needs. Even as tech savy people we need a reliable phone with basic functionality working just at fingers tip out of the box. In daily life, while busy and working, I don't want to deal with command line or with broken functions. Too many questions on this forum ask just for this, a reliable working phone with nowadays standard functionality. Some of the reported issues are really small things and are waiting here since years to be solved.

But this time I don't want to re-post those issues or rant, and i'm still commited to supporting Jolla. But maybe Jolla doesn't get it right, how we use our Sailfish phones in daily business life, or doesn't know what the real business cases are or how to prioritize them. So I thought that instead of re-posting for the n-th time the same old technical detail problems we all sigh or rant about, I would set up a scheme for my/your/our daily (business) use of Sailfish (no matter which device).

I think we can skip the minimal basic usage, as it's already working (even if sometimes not at the level we might wish). So I hereby define as "Standard Usage" the basic functionality like: lock/unlock, handle phone calls and SMS, connect to WLAN and 4G networks, basic Mail and Internetbrowser app, and little more. Furthermore I think it would help to optionally give 2-3 cues about the context of usage. So, here go my daily life business use cases:

  • Context: working in higher education in middle management, traveling regularly
  • Typical use case 1: my Sailfish Clock/Alarm wakes me up wiht my preferred tune (too loud atm) and still in bed i throw a glance at my todays calendar. Before leaving home, I quickly check weather and the timetable for possible train delays. I usually have good 4G connection and use tethering for working with my laptop during my travel by train. On my laptop I use a virtual desktop on my home university or I connect through VPN. In both cases I need one of the very few android apps I'm forced to use: a specific two factor authentication android app (kind of proprietary OTP).
  • Typical use case 2: once arrived I open a native maps application to find my destination and walk there or take a public transportation. During the meeting I connect trough eduroam (WPA-2) and I may take some pictures of the presentation or whiteboard, store them on my dropbox account, and send them to a colleague in my office by e-mail through Sailfish. I may get some E-Mail with an attachment back, which I directly forward to someone else. Realizing it was and outdated attachment, I connect with my Sailfish through VPN to my office and can get the right file from a smb/cifs-share there. A coworker of mine calls me during the meeting and I want to activate my loudspeaker so he can participate for a few minutes. I also may use the calculator for some quick controlling of numbers presented. Sadly I can't pay my lunch with some NFC app.
  • Typical use case 3: traveling back home and relaxing, I don't want to open my laptop again, and just check my e-mails and the next day calendar on the Sailfish phone, using both imap/caldav or ggogle accounts for private and MS Exchange for business. I then whatsapp (my second android app) for a while with my family and call a friend by phone (contact synced with carddav) and an SMS to a third one. I quickly write down a note for things to remember and then lean back listening to music from the music player or internet radio through my bluetooth headphones. And maybe I play a few minutes a (native) sudoku before dozing away, knowing that the clock alarm will wake me up 10 minutes before arrival.

Well, that was my journey, a typical one, where I'd have the Jolla/Sailfish phone all the time with me. As you can see, besides the "Standard usage" I need a lots of functionality wich may work or not, some being broken since the last version, and others never did work correctly. Oh, and I forget to tell, that during coffe break I would gladly tell other people, that I own and use an almost unknown mobile ecosystem which is secure, fast, flexible, smart, independent, and fullfills all my requirements.

And what's your story...? :-)

@Jolla: yes, dear sailors, you also develop for those kind of people like me!

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Comments

6
  • I think the VPN situation has improved, but it still has a way to go.
    • Another source of trouble is the email client; accessing multiple accounts etc can be confusing.
    • The phone speaker is definitely a must; noise cancellation as well.
    • Bluetooth needs to work with everything
tortoisedoc ( 2017-11-25 21:23:46 +0300 )edit

Use cases again, huh? Making anything of the above happen without leaking is pretty hard.

vattuvarg ( 2017-11-25 22:27:11 +0300 )edit
9

@vattuvarg: hi... we already discussed similar items in other threads, I know. But the point is not that much on specific technical issues or requirements, but just illustrating how (differently) we use our mobiles in daily and specially in business life. The approach with use cases (of course they are not in a strict formal way, but rather "stories") is very easy: if I can't use my SailfishX in the above explained way, I will have to carry a second mobile device with me. Now guess what I would do with the Sailfish device: drop it, sooner than later. What I'm interested in - and Jolla should be as well - is how the users, well, use, their sailfish device. And if I'm going to be the only one having this kind of daily requirements, it's also OK: then I would apologize and withdraw myself, and just use Sailfish on weekends for hacking and fun.

melg01 ( 2017-11-25 22:41:31 +0300 )edit

All aspects of development are important for Sailfish OS. You do yours and I'll crawl back under my part of the quadrant.

vattuvarg ( 2017-11-25 23:03:01 +0300 )edit

@vattuvarg: yes, in the end we're pulling in the same direction. High five! :-)

melg01 ( 2017-11-25 23:19:02 +0300 )edit

1 Answer

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answered 2018-05-26 20:38:45 +0300

lolek gravatar image

Let me add my two cents.

The current situation is that Sailfish works in very very limited area. It's more like a futurephone currently. So we have the very bare minimum like making phone calls, sms, clock, alarm, calendar. But this is not what we want from the smartphone. One of the most important things currently is security. Encryption doesn't exists, so anyway that have physical access to our device can get the data stored on it. That's a fact and personally, until this won't be solved, Sailfish like Ubuntu Touch can't be taken seriously. Once this is done, the second thing is the way of unlocking the phone. Currently the pin isn't good as it can be easily spot by someone else so again our encryption is useless, so Sailfish needs something better. Imho fingerprint reader is not enough. It can be an option of course but we all leave our fingerprints everywhere so this also has to be solved.

After having the above we can move to the second important thing which is camera. And yes, I can't imagine a person currently that would like to have a phone without it. And seriously what we have now is just useless (at least on Xperia X). Someone said that it's better than what was in Jolla 1 so please I don't want to even think what was there - really!

Bluetooth connectivity is another thing. Especially when we're thinking about supporting HFP and A2DP in cars. Those two profiles is a must.

Later something like HD Voice or VoLTE should be added as the basic GSM codecs are dated and peoples would not want to use phones with lower call quality than their current phone.

Exchange support, caldav, maps etc. This can be handled by third party vendors but they won't come if there will be no support for paid apps in the harbor.

So as you can see from this list, there's a lot to be done. We know that this year encryption should be finally seen in Sailfish, but what with the rest? I understand that this post maybe not very welcome by some of you but this is how I see it. And I'd really really start using Sailfish as my daily phone but because of the above I just can't. My X is waiting to be used but in the current state I think I'll have to give up my current phone and start using Android which I really really don't want to but there's no other option as LineageOS is also Work In Progress and it's also Android :/

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What the hell is 'HD Voice'?

nthn ( 2018-05-27 01:32:14 +0300 )edit
3

HD Voice -> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wideband_audio

lolek ( 2018-05-27 11:59:11 +0300 )edit

I was so nervous when I first accessed thus blog because my thought is like how I’m going to learn about some tips for business use. But when I literally read this whole article offer my review here I was surprised because I never thought that I can see it like this. I must say bro you have did a massive research and prepared this article with great perfection.

Miky Dean ( 2019-05-23 13:51:52 +0300 )edit
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Asked: 2017-11-25 21:16:59 +0300

Seen: 1,248 times

Last updated: Mar 06 '19