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10 days ago, I came back to Lebanon to spend the Christmas holidays with my friends and family, and I have been enjoying my time so much, I took a break from blogging. But something has caught my eye ever since I set foot on the Lebanese territory, that I had to get out of my hiding, and blog about it: people here are going all gaga over the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic.

By saying “ever since I set foot on the Lebanese territory”, I literally mean that. The International Airport in Beirut had advertisements of the 5800XM all over the place, I almost thought I was in a phone shop and not in an airport. An acquaintance who works there met me inside the airport before I took my luggage, and handed me his phone so I can speak to my parents and tell them that there has been a delay in the luggage delivery, his phone was a 5800XM. I came home and our neighbor who knows how much of a phone geek I am, asked me to come over to show me the handset he had just bought his wife, and you guessed it, it was a 5800XM. My cousin came for a visit, and he was carrying two handsets, an E71 and a 5800XM. My friend was looking into buying one, and another friend pinged me over Facebook and told me he just bought it. And if all that wasn’t enough, each time I turn the radio on while driving, I hear a 5800XM advertisement!

The 5800XM was available for booking before it was released, and the first shipment to Lebanon was sold out instantly at the official Nokia shops and at the Virgin Megastore. The second batch arrived a few days later and got the same treatment. The device even hit the black market, with some extravagant prices of over 750$. It’s now almost impossible to find outside of the black market, as all phone shops and official Nokia shops are out of stock.

I had to take a deep breath and step away from the whole 5800XM craze. I have lived in this country my whole life, ie. 23 years, and I have never seen any phone generate as much anticipation and eagerness as the 5800XM, not the 6600, not the N70, not the N95, just none at all. It’s part due to the amazing marketing campaign, part due to the launch time just before Christmas, part due to the price (it’s being sold for 400$ with an official warranty, whereas the N95 for example was available for >1200$ when it first launched here). The most important reason though remains the “demand” for a touchscreen that the iPhone created but didn’t “supply”, and the local loyalty from the Lebanese towards the Nokia brand.

All I can do is stand by and applaud Nokia for the marketing efforts and for finally releasing a product that even average users drool upon and rush to buy.

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