Nokia Announces New Mobile Devices
by Scott Raulinaitis, Editor - 10/30/2003 10:59am EST
At Nokia's Mobile Internet Conference in Nice, France on Tuesday, Nokia announced several new cell phones, but the rumored update to their Series 80 Communicator was not among them. One might think that the new Series 90 7700 "Media Device" might be the replacement for that model but, thankfully, Nokia reps hinted that an actual Communicator replacement is still in the works. While Microsoft and PalmSource licensees work feverishly to release yesterday's technology tomorrow, Nokia casually walks towards smartphone Nirvana at a leisurely pace. Nokia 7700 Media Device
Nokia 7700 Media Device
The Nokia 7700 is arguably the most intriguing of the new models. It doesn't look much like a phone at all, really. It features a gorgeously plus-sized 640x320 touch screen, 64MB of RAM, Bluetooth, VGA camera, FM radio, and presumably MP3 playback. It has "entertainment device" written all over it and looks to be optimized for web surfing, ebook reading, or watching movie trailers. But do people really want to watch movie trailers on the go? I might also fault Nokia for stubbornly sticking to the slower, lower-capacity MMC format, if not for the recent news of faster, higher capacity MMC cards coming to market soon. Perhaps that old dog isn't dead just yet. Still, it's tough for me to get too excited about a device which seems so perfect for web surfing which lacks a thumb keyboard. And do Developers really need yet another flavor of the Symbian OS to have to support? As is usually the case with Nokia, the Americans will have to wait to see their cutting edge stuff, as they've only announced shipments for Europe, Africa and Asia Pacific so far (slated for Q2 2004).
Nokia 6820 Messaging Device
Nokia 6820 Messaging Device
Then there are the new 6810 and 6820 "Media Devices." Because the 6810 isn't planned for US release, I'll focus my thoughts on the 6820. The Nokia 6820 is slated for release in Q1 2004, and is clearly aimed at the enterprise market. It's based on the existing 6800 model, already available in the US, but is smaller and now features an integrated VGA camera. It will feature Blackberry connectivity for email, allowing companies that have already invested in Blackberry devices to make a smooth transition. It appears to lack the 6800's FM radio and there's still no MP3 player, but my main criticism of it is that it's still based on the boring low-res Series 40 platform. Again, I ask, what's with all of these development platforms? Still, if it's priced right, it could very well have a good deal of success here.
There were other phones announced as well, but since they weren't as exciting as the 7700 and/or aren't planned for the US, you'll have to check the Nokia web site to find out more about them.
If nothing else, Nokia demonstrates that they can innovate and pump out several very unique phones with quality components within a relatively short timeframe. If they would just integrate all of their various "smartphone" pieces together (VGA camera, MP3 player, and thumbboard) into one Series 60 or 80 phone and put some energy and focus into the US market, they could probably become the dominant smartphone maker in a relatively short amount of time. Discuss this article
