Oh Nokia, won’t you make me a nice mobile phone
23 Jun 2004
I’ve never had a mobile phone that was not a Nokia. I started out with a 5110 back in ’98 and two 3210’s and a 6210 later, I now own a 5510, the Qwerty monster you see at the left here. Why stick with Nokia: habit (and reusing my power supplies).
Some lessons I learned in the past: WAP at 9600 baud sucks, never buy an expensive phone (my + €400 Nokia 6210 broke down on me after 6 months) and don’t expect a phone to last more than 2 years.
Now, my 5510 is getting rusty and I would just like the following: a nice Nokia phone between €200 and €300, polyphonic ring tones, colour screen, Bluetooth (for the handsfree set), GPRS and if possible, an MP3 player and a camera. There is a SonyEriccson T630, so it’s not impossible.
So what can Nokia offer me:
- 3650: not really easy on the eyes
- 7650: no Bluetooth
- 6600: no Bluetooth
- 6820: no GPRS, original keyboard but robust?
- N-Gage: ain’t I a bit too old for that?
And all of them, expect for the N-Gage are more like €400. You see me running around with a N-Gage? Where do I speak?
Nokia, I represent a €3000 customer over the next 10 years, and there must be a pack of people like me. Is it that hard to make an affordable nice phone with the features above? Bluetooth is mainstream now, and GPRS is not exotic. Your competitors are doing it! Even Russell Beattie, who’s a notorious Nokia fan, is waiting for you to get your design and marketing right. I’ll give it another month and see what new stuff comes out and how your 25% price drop is doing.
