While every other touchscreen mobile phone that comes to market today is tagged with the ‘iPhone Killer’ moniker, there is only one phone which I believe can truly live up to the higher expectations set by Apple’s iconic smartphone. That comes from the world’s largest smartphone maker Nokia, in the form of the 5800 XpressMusic phone. While the introduction of this phone did not set the internet on fire, the sales figures of 5800 after 6 months is going to surprise everyone.
Nokia 5800 XpressMusic
Why is it so? First of all, the pricing of this phone. The phone is all set to launch in India and a handful of other countries in a couple of weeks from now. At a price tag of only Rs 20000 (About 400 US dollars), the XpressMusic 5800 is a steal. This pricing is a sweet spot considering that other popular phones like Sony Ericsson’s K series and Nokia’s own entry level N series handsets start at this range. For most people who were disappointed with the high pricing of the iPhone in India, the 5800 is a relief, and is a better alternative in every sense. A friend in the mobile phone retail business reveals that there are already huge number of enquiries for this phone everyday. This phone will also be much more practical because of the availability of many local services, unlike the Apple iPhone. For example, Nokia Maps 2.0 will provide turn by turn directions with a highly detailed map for many cities in India, instead of the Google Maps on the iPhone whose use is pretty limited.
If pricing is clever, the positioning of this handset is an even a smarter move by Nokia. Even though feature by feature it matches everything on the iPhone and bettering it in many cases, Nokia still calls it a ‘mid range’ phone. This implies that there will be N series phone running the S60 touch, which will have much more features and functionalities, a better camera for example. Such handsets will pose real challenge to other mobile phone manufacturers. 2009 will be as interesting and exciting as 2008 in the mobile handset arena.
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Dave
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ANJAI