As you know I recently got hold of an N95 8GB Spiderman Edition handset. This was the first Nokia that I’ve gotten that was co-branded with a movie, though they’ve had several. You’ll recall the Godfather N73, the Mission Impossible 3 N93, Da Vinci Code N80, and Transformers N93i.
I wasn’t sure what to expect of this device, and frankly, I was really disappointed that Nokia didn’t take advantage of the branding opportunity more. First of all, I have been unable to find a place to actually purchase this edition of the handset. They’re not on Ebay, nor are they in the Flagship Stores, on Nseries.com, or any of the major online retailers. Big negative point there.
More importantly, however, let’s take a look at the out-of-box experience……
Here’s the video, and I’ll confess, it probably wasn’t fair for me to video the first time the phone was EVER turned on. Still. Notice in the video that the N95 8GB Spiderman 3 edition has the same theme as any other N95 8GB. With the cool customizations that can be done with themes on S60, you’d think they could have given a designer a few hours or so to whip up a decent Spiderman 3 theme, right?
I originally thought the handset didn’t come with anything other than the movie and some fancy boxes. However, it turns out, there’s a few wallpapers in the gallery (which aren’t activated by default, for some reason). I also found a Spiderman 3 ringtone and alert tone in the phone. Why in the world were these not active by default? Why did I have to find them?
Basically, the out-of-box experience for the movie edition is really poor, but could be made SO much easier with little work, really. Whip up a movie-related theme, activate those ringtones, and find SOME WAY to put that movie front and center. When I power on the phone, I should *instantly* be able to tell that this is a special handset, different from the others. Maybe the Spidey-symbol engraved on the back of the phone, or something.
I’ve been asked by a few readers why I think they chose Spiderman 3 for the movie. Honestly, I haven’t a clue. I’m not enough of a movie buff to know what else was released around the same time, but I would imagine it is because of the high level of action, and the N95 series (with 4 versions, I’d say it’s a series by now) is supposed to be an action-oriented handset. Also, obviously, the Venom part of the movie works well with the black housing on the N95 8GB.
I’ll save my verdict on the handset itself for a later post, but I would say that the branding of the Spiderman 3 Edition has so much potential, and just came up a bit short. Nokia, get back to the drawing board, and for heaven’s sake, let’s have a The Dark Knight edition of the N96 or something. Batman is easily the greatest of the superheros, and should be honored with his own Nokia.
