Today, Nokia announced that it had shipped 1 million of its 5800 XpressMusic smartphones. Yes, Ben Smith, it’s a smartphone. The touchscreen smartphone officially went on sale in the U.K. early this morning, with over 150 people lined up outside the Regent Street flagship store to purchase their 5800 XpressMusic. Before that, the phone was launched in Russia and India, and even, *gasp*, in the United States! Yeah, that’s right, Americans got a cool Nokia before most Europeans. That in-of-itself is a feat, though granted, it’s not the NAM variant, so we still get a little kick to the shins.
When I first saw the 5800 XpressMusic, then called the Tube, I was pretty skeptical. When it showed up in The Dark Knight, but then didn’t launch for another 6 months, I was embarrassed for Nokia. I mean, that’s quite possibly the biggest product placement achievement in a long while, and yet it was completely wasted. It’s still wasted, cause the phone didn’t come with a Dark Knight theme or anything else.
In any case, they’ve shipped 1 million units, in roughly 30 days. Considering the vast majority of those purchases were for unlocked, SIM-free units, the number especially stands out. I had originally said that I wanted one, but only because it’s a benchmark, of sorts. It’s the first touchscreen S60-powered smartphone, so it’s kind of a milestone for the company, and while I can’t stand to use mine right now (the built-in email client is a dealbreaker), I really enjoyed it more than I expected to.
Right now, the platform is weak, with a handful of applications ported over to S60v5. However, with over 1 million of them in the wild now, and the N97 coming within the next few months, that’s sure to change. So, world, for ~$350, you can get an unlocked, unbranded touchscreen smartphone with a 3.2 megapixel autofocus camera, video capture, microSD slot, copy/paste, true multitasking, and Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP support. Sure, there’s no app store, but other than that, the 5800 XpressMusic has the potential to really do some damage, I believe. Let’s hope Nokia kicks that into high gear, specifically with the NAM unit.
Nokia, you’ve taken a phone that was poised to be a laughingstock, and done well with it. Don’t stop. Let’s see some of your cool beta apps ported over, and let’s see 2 more firmware updates – one with that onscreen S60 menu key and built-in geotagging, and one with the N97′s cool floaty-widget homescreen, once the N97 is out. Also, let’s light a fire under the NAM manufacturing line and get those out on the market, quick, fast, and in a hurry. Whaddya say?
