The Inquisitr » nokia

Nokia N900 Gets “In-Store” Sales Delay After Strong Pre-Order Numbers

James Allen Johnson — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 00:24:45 +0000

Nokia has recently experienced a problem most companies would love to have, they’ve become a victim of their own success. Their newest phone, the Maemo 5 supported Nokia N900 has been delayed for in store sales until December 4th after pre-orders ate up the companies supply of available devices.

Pre-order customers will start receiving their devices today and the company has promised those orders will be filled on a “first come, fire serve” basis.

The Nokia N900 is priced at £499 in the UK with VAT included in that pricing. Nokia has promised that eager customers can expect their devices to start shipping in approximately the next week and a half. If you live in the UK and simply can’t wait you can always head over to your local friendly Nokia store and play with their demo models. [SlashGear]

Nokia X6 Arrives This Week, But Only In Finland And UK

James Allen Johnson — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 14:00:36 +0000

Nokia has confirmed that their newest handset, the Nokia X6 will start shipping this week, but only to customers in Finland and UK, with other countries to follow sometime in the future.

The X6 features a 3.2 inch capacitive touchscreen display, while pushing a 5MP camera and 32GB internal memory which should satiate most mobile and video lovers looking for a nice compact way to tote around their multimedia.

The X6 also features the Symbian S60 5th Edition mobile operating system and will hit stores on Friday for a starting cost of £449 ( $742 USD) with no type of cellular contract requirement needed. Sorry but no word at this time on a U.S. release, heck the original UK release was November 12th so any date we provided would probably be wrong anyways. [Engadget]

Nokia 5330 Mobile TV Edition Gets Official Release Announcement

James Allen Johnson — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:11:03 +0000

Nokia today announced their newest multimedia phone, the Nokia 5330 Mobile TV Edition, a handset that places its focus on mobile broadcast (DVB-H), social networking capabilities, music and gaming.

The Nokia 5330 also features a 3G Slider design with a 2.4 inch QVGA display, an included 3.5mm headphone jack and a 3.2MP camera with an LED Flash and live broadcast abilities that can be accessed with one one simple click of the phone.

The phones TV option can pick up all available channels and according to Nokia users can set notifications for when their favorite shows are available for broadcasting through the Nokia Electronic Program Guide (EPG).

If you’re worried about battery life sapping TV broadcasts, don’t be, the phone can support up to three full football games or six hours of regular TV watching before a recharge is required. [SlipperyBrick]

Free Rihanna Concert Today Sponsored By Nokia

Dennis Bjørn Petersen — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 12:52:53 +0000

To promote Nokia’s latest attempt at beating the iPhone music mobile, the X6, Nokia’s Ovi Store and Nokia Music Store , the Finnish company are hosting streaming a live and free Rihanna concert today/night. The concert takes place at a secret London location and is supposedly streamed using a X6.

The concert is a part of the “Nokia Play 2010″ campaign which will focus on the touchscreen Nokia X6, which the company is promoting as an entertainment device ideal for playing music and video, as well as its pay-per-track Nokia Music Stores and unlimited Comes With Music service. Now where have I heard that before?!

Nokia has thought the social aspect of the happening through. The Rihanna concert will be broadcast across Nokia mobile music, video and online at www.nokia.com/rihanna. Nokia will also stream videos that concert attendees take with their X6 phones. To further enhance the concert experience you can share your thoughts on Twitter and Facebook.

It must be a coincidence that Rihanna latest album “Rated R” is released in a couple of days too. What could she possibly get out of singing “Russian Roulette” in front of millions of potential buyers? Not to mention the tweets with #rihannalive.

All you have to do to enjoy the Rihanna concert is sign up at Nowplaying.nokia.com (it’s free) and wait some 7 hours.

(Yeah it took me two hours to get that screen dump. I missed it when it hit 9 hours by 2 seconds. Yes I’m a perfectionist.)

Apple Passes Nokia To Become Most “Profitable” Phone Manufacturer In U.S. Market

James Allen Johnson — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:38:43 +0000

Apple in just three short years has went from their first ever Smartphone to the most profitable seller of phones in the U.S.

According to current reports, Apple iPhone sales constitute 2.5 percent of market sales, however that share has generated a profit of $1.6 billion from this past summer alone, while Nokia reported an operating profit of $1.1 billion.

Electronista quoted analyst Alex Spektor in regards to Apples success:

“With strong volumes, high wholesale prices and tight cost controls, the PC vendor has successfully broken into the mobile phone market in just two years.”

Nokia, unlike Apple has focused largely on low and mid level phones which sell in large amounts, but typically at very small profits. Nokia also focuses much of their efforts outside of the U.S. or independent of carrier contracts which oftentimes leaves U.S. customers buying high end phones at ridiculously high prices.

iPhone kills N-Gage by proxy

Kim LaCapria — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 22:12:10 +0000

Nokia announced an and to the N-Gage mobile gaming service, with plans to roll the Nokia gaming service into the company’s app store.

Nokia launched N-Gage in August 2003 to lure gamers away from the Game Boy Advance. The original device was met with mixed reception due to it being “meh” on both the “as a phone” and “as a handheld gaming device” fronts. From 2005-2008, Nokia shifted the focus from a gaming device to a platform, and rolled out game-playing capabilities for smartphones.

If the concept had a hard time sticking before that, the iPhone seems to have killed off N-Gage for keeps. Nokia announced that the service is being retired in September of 2010, and while the Nokia gaming community will be open until the end of next year, N-Gage won’t be rolling out any new games. Starting next October (2010), Nokia users will be able to purchase games through the Nokia apps store, Ovi.

If you’re one of the five people using the N-Gage platform, Nokia posted a handy FAQ on their N-Gage blog about the switchover:

So, you might ask, what will happen to the current N-Gage platform?
N-Gage games can be purchased until the end of September 2010. While the N-Gage.com site together with the N-Gage Arena and other community features will remain in operation throughout 2010, the Ovi Store will be the new central place for all the mobile games that Nokia and other publishers offer from this point forward. We will no longer publish new games for the N-Gage platform.

What will happen to N-Gage Arena?
N-Gage Arena will remain in operation throughout 2010 and players can e.g. keep posting their high scores until then. We understand that people value the ability to manage their games and communicate about them, and we are working on offering such community elements through Ovi. Games publishers are free to use community features of their choosing in their apps, the feature set is not defined by Nokia. Social Networking applications are some of the most downloaded on Ovi Store, emphasing the power of connecting people.

What will happen to my games?
Your games are safe – all your purchased N-Gage games will continue to work on your N-Gage compatible mobile device and they’re yours to keep. However, community features of the games will not be functional after 2010.

Do you have plans to bring community elements to the Ovi Store gaming experience?
Yes, we understand how important community is to our gamers. You can already post reviews of games and other apps in the Ovi Store. We are actively working on offering more community elements through Ovi and we encourage developers to use community features in their applications. Stay tuned – there’s more to come on this.

Why doesn’t Nokia keep N-Gage as a separate gaming platform?
As mobile gaming evolves and begins to encompass social gaming, we want to offer one store front with an even broader portfolio of games – games for everyone. It’s much more convenient to have one place to get all your mobile games, and this it what Ovi Store https://store.ovi.com/games provides. Mobile gaming is one of the most popular activities in the Ovi Store, with games being the #2 most downloaded category for premium content. And besides having all mobile games in one place, people can access other services like Mail, Maps, Music and many more via www.ovi.com.

What will happen to N-Gage.com?
The N-Gage.com site will remain in operation throughout 2010, with the exception of the N-Gage Store which will remain open until the end of September 2010. However, we recommend people to visit Ovi Store to play the latest games – many familiar games and so much more.

Will you stop shipping devices with the N-Gage application pre-installed?
We will continue to sell devices with N-Gage application pre-installed for some time, however we will no longer ship new devices with the application pre-installed.

Games will be available through the Ovi Store which is already supported by 100 Nokia device models and growing. Ovi Store will be pre-installed on most new compatible Nokia devices including Symbian S60 & Series 40 from Q4 2009.

[Information Week]

Nokia Records $834 Million Q3 Loss, Market Share Slips By 6%

James Allen Johnson — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 14:37:05 +0000

Nokia has seen happier times, the world’s largest cell phone manufacturer posted a loss today of approx. $834 million (559 million euro) for the companies Q3 earnings report.

It’s the first time the electronics firm has lost money in more than a decade and comes at a time when sales have dropped by 20% alongside 1.17 billion euros in company write-downs. Investors can thank that write-down to impairment charges incurred by the Nokia Siemens Network.

Nokia’s market share was also severely damaged by Apple, Research In Motion and Palm Devices which took the company from a 41% market share to a 35% level.

With Nokia announcing their new Nokia Booklet 3G netbook it should be interesting to see how sales rebound or expenses increase in the coming quarters. In either respect the company that started as a paper, rubber and cables company has always showed the ability to evolve to changing times, now we just have to wait and see if that evolution occurs once again for the electronics firm.[Engadget]

Super Limited “RAOUL” Edition Nokia N97 Mini Launches At Singapore Nokia

James Allen Johnson — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 17:30:28 +0000

Nokia Singapore has just announced their newest designer phone from fashion house RAOUL. The Nokia N97 Mini Raoul edition comes equipped with a leather equipped pack that features the N97 mini with a “moccha” color scheme with an emblazoned back cover with RAOUL signature stripes, a cal-skin leather pouch and a leather dangler.

Production is limited to 1000 units, which makes the rather tiny 400 Euro ($589 USD) a rather small price to pay for such a limited edition Smartphone.

The devices are up for pre-order now and they’ll probably disappear soon so we suggest ordering your unit ASAP, but only if you can figure how to get it delivered to your country from Singapore. (GSMArena)

AT&T Stops Nokia Mural Sales Amid 3G Fault

James Allen Johnson — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 03:13:55 +0000

AT&T has halted the sale of the Nokia Mural after it was determined that the device was not delivering 3G connectivity as promised. The error was revealed by AT&T memo screen capture and is being blamed on a Nokia manufacturing facility.

Most of the remaining devices have already been sent back to Nokia for a re-flash, while AT&T has until Sept. 25th to send any outstanding devices back to Nokia according to an AT&T representative.

Users can choose to wait for a newly flashed 3G unit to be sent back to them or for those who would prefer a different device one can be request from AT&T customer service.

Currently Mural users are able to receive 2G data services on devices which have not been re-flashed. [Via Electronista]

Nokia N97 Mini Goes On Sale In October With $640 Price Point

James Allen Johnson — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 01:07:09 +0000

The Nokia N97 Mini was officially announced for an October release date today at Nokia World 2009. The pint sized version of the N97, which was released only several months ago, will arrive with a $640 price tag.

Nokia also announced that the Mini will be offered by “many, many carriers” worldwide free of charge…with a contract of course. They’ve also started calling the N97 Mini the world’s “slimmest travel companion” thanks to the built-in Lonely Planet guidebooks and Assisted GPS (A-GPS).

The N97 Mini features quad-band GSM connectivity with 3G capabilities, a 3.2 inch display and it offers a sliding qwerty keyboard. It’s also stocked full of standard N97 features including a 5MP camera, Bluetooth, WiFi and much more.

No word on the exact release date in October.

Nokia N900 With Maemo 5 Support Gets Official Announcement

James Allen Johnson — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 13:04:09 +0000

Nokia has officially announced their newest internet tablet the Nokia N900, a tablet that features an ARM Cortex-A8 Processor, 1GB RAM and 32GB on-board storage.

The tablet also features Maemo 5, a critically lauded light weight operating system. Here’s what Nokia had to say about it:

Running on the new Maemo 5 software, the Nokia N900 empowers users to have dozens of application windows open and running simultaneously while taking full advantage of the cellular features, touch screen and QWERTY keyboard.

The N900 will also offer crisp video and photo playback on it’s 3.5 inch WVGA resistive touchscreen, while offering the new Nokia Messaging “cloud” UI.

Adding to the excitement is the included slide-out Qwerty keyboard, full Adobe Flash 9.4 support, access to the OpenGL ES 2.0 graphics accelerator and a microSD card slot which allows users to extend overall memory capabilities to 48GB.

In true Nokia Smartphone fashion the tablet also features a 5MP camera with Carl Zeiss Optics and a dual-LED flash. I would have liked to see a Xenon flash option, but given it’s an internet tablet I’m not complaining too much.

The N900 also features a GPS receiver for geotagging and comes in at a decent size of 110.9 x 59.8 x 18 mm with a weight of 181g, while also offering WiFi and 3G data connectivity options.

Nokia is still estimating the cost which they’ve put at €500 ($712) when it lands in October 2009. Although it will only be available in “select markets” at the time of launch.

Here’s a few videos featuring the N900:

Is Nokia Adding An Arm-Based Smartbook To Complement Their Booklet?

James Allen Johnson — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 23:48:22 +0000

On Monday our editor Duncan Riley reported that Nokia had created the Nokia Booklet 3G, the companies first netbook entry which also offers 3G connectivity. Now rumors are surfacing that the company has also created an Arm-based Smartbook to complement the Booklet.

A Digitimes insider is claiming that Nokia may contract out the smartbook to either Compal or Foxconn and that the device would fit Qualcomm’s specifications as a “smartbook.” If it’s going to be a true complement I’d put my money on Compal who is already in contract to build Nokia’s Booklet 3G units.

The Smartbook is expected to offer the same functionality as the Booklet 3G which will offer Windows 7, 3G, Bluetooth and WiFi standards, however thanks to the smaller processor it may be offered at a lower price point, although no official word has been given to that affect.

Unfortunately the earliest we’ll see the Smartbook is middle to late 2010 and there’s no word on even a possible price at this time. [via Electronista]

Nokia Money Coming To The United States. Make Payments From Your Mobile Phone

James Allen Johnson — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 14:06:07 +0000

The United States is one of the last frontiers when it comes to mobile payments. Europe, Japan and other regions all offer the ability to pay for items by simply sending a text message when shopping. Now it looks like U.S. customers will soon be able to take advantage of that same technology.

Known as Nokia Money, the cell phone manufacturer has announced that the program will be available starting in the U.S sometime next year. The program will allow customers to add more minutes to their prepaid phones, pay bills as they can with online bill pay and even pay merchants when your out shopping.

The program will require users to use a Nokia Money agent, which the company says it’s building out to include U.S. agencies. Nokia will be showing off the program this September with an “early 2010″ roll out date for the program. [via Slashgear]

Nokia to launch a Netbook, the Nokia Booklet 3G

Duncan Riley — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 16:44:43 +0000

Nokia is to enter the netbook space with the Booklet 3G, a smart looking new netbook with some impressive features.

The Nokia Booklet 3G runs Windows (Win 7 in the demo video), uses an Intel Atom processor and weighs 1.25 kilograms in an aluminium body that takes it design cue from Apple’s Macbook Pro range.

The netbook sports a 10-inch glass screen, an SD card reader, Bluetooth, GPS, 3G, HSDPA (3.5G), Wi-Fi, a HDMI port and a front facing camera. Nokia claims the Booklet offers 12 hours of battery life.

The netbook though is burdened with a range of Nokia services, including the Nokia Music Store and the Ovi Suite. However unless they’ve locked it down (unlikely) it wouldn’t be hard to install your own favorite services on it.

Further details (such as price) will be released at Nokia World September 2.

Nokia N97 hits, priced at $699- because crack is expensive!

Kim LaCapria — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 15:38:34 +0000

Nokia, is you high?

On the heels of the Apple’s new, more competitive iPhone pricing strategy and Saturday’s release of the Palm Pre, Nokia has launched the Nokia N97- priced at just under $700. The lowest-priced iPhone now runs about $99 and the Palm Pre can be had for about $199- with a contract.

Nokia N97s are not tied to any particular carrier and thusly are not subject to contract incentives. But still, Nokia- $700? Really?

Features include a 5-megapixel camera and video capture, 32GB of internal storage (upgradable to 48GB) and browser support for flash video. However, most consumers considering such a high-end phone will likely already have a decent digital camera and a computer for storage. While the same argument can be made for the ubiquitous iPhone, it doesn’t have to justify a $700 price tag. And my iPhone has a Magic 8-Ball in it. A Magic 8-Ball.

Other N97 specs include a full QWERTY keyboard, a tilting 3.5″ touch screen and a customizable home screen. Battery life is rated a 9 hours talk-time, 6.5 on 3G networks. Bargain hunters take note- the N97 has been spotted on Amazon for a mere $603.99.

Nokia Cuts 1,700 Jobs

JR — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 16:58:04 +0000

Nokia is laying off 1,700 workers worldwide — the latest in a string of cutbacks by the mobile phone maker.

Nokia Layoffs

The new round of Nokia layoffs will affect employees within the company’s devices and markets units, corporate development office, and global support functions department, published reports indicate. Nokia blames the current economic climate for the change.

Specific details are expected to be revealed once the affected employees have been notified.

Nokia’s fourth quarter profit saw a 70 percent drop in 2008. The company closed a full research center last month, at the same eliminating another 320 jobs and “temporarily” laying off another 2,500 workers. Nokia has also started a “voluntary resignation program” with which it hopes to cut another thousand jobs.

Nokia has also announced plans to increase unpaid leaves for its roughly 128,000 worldwide employees.

Nokia iPhone Competitor on the way?

Robert Scoble — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 05:45:11 +0000

We’ve arrived in Barcelona, Spain for Nokia World, a week where Nokia talks to its top customers.

When we got here a Nokia executive met me and bragged that the Internet has no clue what they will announce this week. I asked “what about the touch screen cell phone that I’ve seen rumors about?” He said that no one had gotten it right yet. The announcements are on Wednesday morning (it’s early Monday morning as I post this) so we’ll have to wait to see what they announce. He told me this is one of the only times he can remember when a big announcement has not leaked. He said that even internally only a handful of people have seen the new device they’ll be announcing on Wednesday. Does that tactic sound familiar? It should, and is only one of the reasons why this is Nokia’s touchiest week.

This is the week when Nokia either keeps its seat at the cell-phone-thought-leadership table or it will give up its spot to Apple and RIM alone.

Read the rest of this post on Scobleizer.com.

Part post syndicated by agreement with the author

Qik signs Nokia deal, to be preloaded on Nokia 5800

Duncan Riley — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 00:01:30 +0000

Live mobile streaming service Qik has signed a new deal with Nokia that will see the Qik client offered as standard on at least one Nokia phone.

The first Nokia phone to include Qik preloaded will be the Nokia 5800, Nokia’s newly launched iPhone competitor that also offers Nokia’s Comes With Music service. BusinessWeek has a review of the phone here, and VentureBeat has details of the music aspect here.

There was no word yet on whether other Nokia phones will offer Qik preinstalled, but certainly it’s a small boost for Qik in a competitive space. Now if only they could get an official iPhone application up on the iTunes store

(via Washington Post)

Qik

Nokia Shifts To Open Source

JR — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 14:44:52 +0000

Just a day after announcing its acquisition of location-based social network Plazes, Nokia has another new property under its belt.

The mobile maker has bought out cell phone software developer Symbian — a company of which it already had a 48 percent ownership. With Symbian fully in its control, Nokia has opted to switch its operating system over to open source. Symbian’s OS is currently used on a variety of phones, including Nokia’s S60. Nokia estimates about seven percent of all cell phones sold last year had the Symbian system in place.

The shift seems to be a clear sign of competition for Google’s upcoming Android open source platform, with Nokia’s CEO going as far as saying he wants to create “the most attractive platform for mobile innovation and drive the development of new and compelling web-enabled applications.” With word just yesterday that Android could be facing delays, the heat is definitely on — and this could be anyone’s game.

Google, for the record, insists everything is on-track with Android, despite strong reports indicating otherwise.

(Image via Wikipedia)

Nokia Nabs Location-Based Social Network

JR — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 14:24:50 +0000

Nokia has a new social networking tool under its belt.

The cell phone company has bought out Plazes, a start-up that uses GPS and other location-sensing protocols to let users share their activities and whereabouts with friends.

The Plazes team says it will continue to operate, along with new members from Nokia’s location-based service team, out of Berlin.

The amount paid for the acquisition isn’t being made public.