Nokia's NM850iG FOMA phone lands on DoCoMo
By Ryan Block 
posted Feb 15th 2006 9:31AM
posted Feb 15th 2006 9:31AM
[Via I4U]
posted Feb 15th 2006 9:31AM
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Looks like a FOMA version of the Nokia 6630 which Vodafone Japan carries as the 702NK. They also carry the Nokia 6680/1 as the 702NKII. Both are relatively high-end Nokia's that have graced Japan's shores for a while...no?
https://www.vodafone.jp/scripts/japanese/online_shop/products/productsList.jsp?cc_9138=#NOKIA
hmmm... i think calling this or any of those phones high-end in comparison to the other docomo j-phone's is a bit of a stretch. though, amazingly, series 60 is actually easy to use, only in comparison to most j-phones. so, i guess it has that going for it in japan.
you'd think with all of it's high-tech nseries phones, they'd target those here. those are actually comparable, if you're talking high end in japan. a docomo compatable n80 i would think would quite stand out from anything on the shelves here. all phones are qvga, and the n80 bests that. 3mp is high end. macro - check. bluetooth - a rare-ish plus here. nice new s60 v3 web browser. not to mention clean "european design." and, for all those expats, english t9. i'm sure they'd sell. oh well...
What a beautiful day!
And I though my 6630 WAS kool!!
Hmm...interesting. It looks like they are still using the basic 6630 UI. That's too bad, the 6680 and N70 have better interfaces. Which also makes me wonder why Nokia is trying to push "older" phones into the Japanese market. The 6630 was launched by Voda-JP about the time the 6680 was released, the 6680 was released by Voda-JP after the N70 was released.
I would think that if Nokia and the Voda-JP / Docomo were really interested in bringing Series 60 smart phones to the Japanese market, they would start with some of the new hardware. I suppose they are primarily targeting business users who make frequent trips overseas, but still, the 6630 has been out for more than 18 months already.
Looks like this might be the first-ever unlockable DoCoMo phone.
The reason for this handset is for international use, and purely this.
The previous international handset, the N901iG was very popular, but expensive to develop.
The reason DoCoMo chose to take Nokia for this, is simply because it's far cheaper to buy old technology than re-create it.
Coming from a western market to the japanese market, even the high-end western handsets simply cant compare. There's no point in selling "high-end" handset form europe in Japan for twice the price of something that's better.
Simply, no-one would buy them.
Make sense?