Nokia's new Questionable Decision?
You have to wonder what the marketing department at Nokia is smoking. QD is the name of the new N-Gage. It stands for something in Latin. Since no one is going to remember what that means, they're going to make up their own definition for what QD stands for. Next Gen? SP? I mean, these would've been fine. But QD? What a fiasco. This device is cursed, I swear.
I was just emailing Janne the other day about Nokia's penchant for over doing their market segmentation and it looks like they're continuing this. No camera? No MP3 player? In a world where converged devices are selling like hotcakes, and Nokia itself is pushing mobile imaging and media as the next great thing, this is absurd.
Maybe I'm just bitter because I bet that Nokia wouldn't even come out with this device. Damn, I hate being wrong! :-) I still stand by my prediction, however, that N-Gage will eventually become a brand that is added to all Series 60 phones. "N-Gage Enabled" will be a selling point for smart phones launched next year, and those phones will have add on keypads, as well (like the Samsung Mobile Gamepad for the A600). I just don't see this phone selling enough to justify it's existence as an independant device.
I'm happy as the next Symbian booster to see another Series 60 device on the market - and by selling the device through the carriers this time, the price will drop quite a bit with contract incentives. I'm all for lots of inexpensive S60 devices in the hands of consumers. But I'm very disappointed with the decisions Nokia made concerning the camera and MP3 player. If I had my druthers it would have had SD card support (backwards compatible with the original MMCs of course) and it would've had a camera. With SD card support and MP3 playback, it could've been an admirable competitor to the iPod Mini and obviously the camera is a must-have on any new phone. I just don't see how Nokia justified to itself not having one. Instead of being the perfect youth-phone (games, media, etc.) that the original N-Gage wanted to be, the QD has become just a "cheap" smart phone that plays games.
Is this a good thing? To be Quickly Determined, I'm sure.
-Russ