Wouldn’t You Rather Carry Them All In One Hand?
That sentence was written on the box in front of me today. I was sitting at the Nseries launch event, excited like a 3yr old waiting for his favorite candy, looking at the box and wondering what the hell that sentence meant. Then they started, and asked us to open the box. Inside? A disposable Kodak camera, an address book, a couple of CDs, 2 movie vouchers, a HUGE map of Lebanon and a cube. And it suddenly made sense, that was Nokia’s way of introducing the 3 new Nseries to local reporters from Lebanon and Jordan. All of these gadgets, and a lot more, in one hand: an appealing thought to everyone. [Click on the images for full versions, images were taken with my N82]
We were then shown a few snippets of the international products video launch that you can still find over here. I share Ewan’s opinion on this online launch: Nokia found a way that suits the company and fits the way they think, but most importantly they found a way that meats the usual Finnish simple and modest character: going on a huge stage and bragging is so unlike them.
After a speech on convergence and the role of Ovi in integrating every aspect of our online life, we were introduced to the handsets. For once, it wasn’t about bulleted lists of specifications, it was more about demonstrating what these handsets can do. The N96 was used as the tool, and was hooked to a projector to throw its own launch video on a white screen, then also through the same projector, a demonstration of Snake Subsonic was made, as well as how to send an image to a printer and have it printed out. The N85 had its music power demo’ed by hooking it to some stereo speakers.
Throughout the whole event, I kept an eye on fellow reporters in the room. They came from Lebanon and Jordan, and most of them represent the general consumer out there: although they carry E71s and N95s, most of them haven’t fully used their handsets the way we _ insert “geek” synonym of your choice_ use them. The N96’s features got a lot of attention, especially the 16GB of internal memory plus expandable storage. TV-out and the kick-stand were also some of the winning points along with auto-rotation. The N85 didn’t get a lot of attention besides its OLED/battery promise, I guess it’s because it was the last one to be introduced and they were getting tired and distracted. But the one thing I was waiting to see was the reaction to the Xpress-On covers on the N79, and I wasn’t disappointed: there were “wow” and “amazing” fusing around the room. The N79 will take the women and mid-tier market by storm, no freaking doubt.
This is only the introduction to my reports back from the Nseries event launch in Lebanon. Be sure to tune in during the following days, as I have tons of material to show you, from hands-on pictures and videos, to comparisons, interviews, and coverage you won’t find anywhere else. I have 6 days worth of posts, so that should explain a little how much reporters around me were impressed with the way I worked, and why I got a couple of job offers in a few hours. Oh damn me for being a pharmacist!
Rita, looks like Nokia heard you the first time around! you got Maps working in Lebanon… now the only thing remaining is the time zone bit!
Wish you luck… i hope you give a review of the new N series soon!
haha.
its funny how big a deal phone looks are to people.
just yesterday my friend was buying a new phone, so i went and gave her her options(all s60, of course).
it was narrowed down between the 6210 navigator and the n95 and she finally decided on the 6210 since she liked the color.
the next day she went to the store and 6210 was only available in black, so she chose the n92 BECAUSE they had a plum version of it.
*correction.
n95 not n92.
and the haha was for -
“But the one thing I was waiting to see was the reaction to the Xpress-On covers on the N79, and I wasn’t disappointed: there were “wow” and “amazing” fusing around the room. The N79 will take the women and mid-tier market by storm, no freaking doubt.”
Well Aatif,
This is one of the aspects that people care a lot about. A phone is perceived as an extension to someone’s style and personality, and this is why people care about ringtones, wallpapers, themes, covers, design…
Aditya,
Well you got it a bit wrong, hehe. The maps pic was a demo running, there are currently no maps here but they are working on them. But the E66 and E71 had Lebanon in the time zone. The N96, N85, N79 don’t unfortunately
Yes, color is a big influencer. Just look at the color laptop lids nowadays. When I worked for a PC manufacture years ago, color was just starting to become the big thing and getting the website to present them accurately as configurations were part of the “personalization” aspect.
Lots of colors, lots and lots of colors.
As soon as the N95-4 NAM came out (in Piano black of course), I just had to have the black one. My silver N95-1 was looking too..hm…out of date.
Yes, the ladies dig the colors. All the women in my life (wife, mom and sisters) all have colorful devices.
Yikes…. i guess the world moves in a different direction over at Nokia… oh well i hope what is missing comes to you soon on the series you want!. Till then i guess its google maps… and egypt right?
Honestly tell me what kind of a consumer will buy this? especially with the N85 and N79 coming pretty close or surpassing the experience delivered by the N96?
Will there be a bigger battery? will it also have OLED?
Perhaps a N96-24gb with a increased battery capacity and a VGA OLED screen (3 inch), micro-usb charging, in a totally new colour combo, with multiple colour keypad backlight, an updated web browser, wimax, HD quality playback… Sigh!
It’s true that both colours and the look of a phone plays an incredible role in choosing a handset.
However in my opinion generally speaking Nokia phones are not that bad looking. Just take a look at the for instance the N-gage, 3650, 6600, 7600, 7610 or the 7280.
None of them are in fact very ugly when it comes to color or design.
(However many of them were not practical to use, to useless)
The design code that Nokia is using now is quite understandable as long as they keep this inside a range of their phones.
(And don’t fall into the same trap as SE with phones from W and K-series looking the same)
The use of colours on display and keylights can be more anonymous in my opinion, as I don’t exactly want a living disco whenever I’m talking on my phone / receiving a message.
(Here we have Nokia 1100, if I’m not wrong)
Anyway looking forward for more posts in the upcoming days.
Have a nice weekend
Rita,
I was curious about the maps as well. I remember you saying (here or at your own blog) that Lebanon was not available in Nokia Maps. So, it’s not available yet, huh?
You should have said “Hey, I WOULD indeed like to carry all this in one hand!”, holding the maps in one hand and your N82 in another.
good post. i still think n96 will be a big big hit. going by the specifications of n 85, its hardly a rational statement but then, we all own fords and dream of ferrari. There are people who own Vertu despite its being very basic on features. Its probably because of the aspirational factor which n96 has got and not n85.
One thing is clear, nokia probably have segmented the market and then came out with n85. They do not perhaps, intend the n96 to be a mass phone…
Hi Rita ,
This is the first time i am reading your articles and its great … and about Maps , Nokia tend to ignore everyone in Asia … Consider India … For a Country this huge the maps is just 22mb
and hope they come up with a good news for both of us 
Keep the Good Work .
@Rita…lol love tone of your posts! so are you really a pharmacist? looking forward to more stuff…wish they had done the same for the N95 and the N82, my two beauties…
VinuMSV and Anup,
Glad you like the post. And yes Anup, I am a pharmacist, I just graduated this year, and it’s because of Pharmacy that I fell in love with the S60 platform. I might write this story one day
Aug 30th, 2008 at 5:00 am
[...] 3 handsets introduced yesterday during the Nseries Launch Event in Lebanon sport a similarity beyond design: they all have a dual-led flash that accompanies the camera. Many [...]
Sep 5th, 2008 at 9:01 am
[...] Wouldn’t you rather carry them all in one hand? [...]