Eldar Murtazin over at mobile-review has chimed in on those alleged Nokia
N97 Mini shots that leaked last week -- and as anyone who follows the mobile industry knows, when the ridiculously well-connected Eldar speaks, folks tend to listen. The dude says that the N97 Mini is very much real, as is the name, which -- get this -- he claims was leaked by Nokia itself in an effort to stave off an unnamed competitor who'd also been planning to release a smaller version of one of its handsets with a "Mini" label slapped on the name. At any rate, the N97 Mini apparently isn't pulling any punches -- it's said to be exactly what you see, little more than a smaller N97 with a reconfigured keyboard and no camera lens cover. That sounds like a tough sell at first, especially when you throw in Eldar's claim that it'll step down to 8 and 16GB versions from the N97's 32GB, but the good news is that Espoo's seemingly looking to get this on the market for about €100 less ($144) than the N97. As for an official announcement, Eldar says that Nokia's planning to unveil it at Nokia World next month; the original model was revealed at last year's show, and frankly, we're hoping for a little bit more innovation than this by the time they're done unveiling the new lineup.
Rover, perhaps?
[Via
Unwired View]
posted Aug 4th 2009 2:29PM
I wish they'd make a CDMA version, cus I'd probably get one if Sprint would subsidize it. The fact that these Nokias get no carrier subsidies makes for poor market share. :)
agreed
ive always wondered why Nokia never wised up and tried to work a deal with carriers to subsidize their good phones. In the US, Nokia is known for their shitty phones. When people see I have a N85 they just think its a run of the mill free crap phone that carriers have.
Doax and Wako,
I wonder why the American consumer never wised up to realize that carrier subsidized phones in the US come with carrier crippled features. Look at the AT&T subsidized Nokia E71x, for example. AT&T has removed much of the phone's best functionality, and instead packed in some of their own pay-per-subscription services.
Look, in the rest of the world, in Asia, about 80 percent of phones are sold unlocked, independently of a carrier, and in Europe 70 percent. But in the US it’s only 5 percent, and even less in Canada. Analysts and phone manufacturers both agree that *eventually* the US will begin to follow the same model as everybody else (i.e. most phones are sold unlocked), but it seems to still take quite a while for the American consumer to wake up.
An unlocked phone without carrier subsidies costs more up front, true, but over a 2-year term it becomes cheaper, or about the same price, as a locked, subsidized handset, and it comes with all the features that the manufacturer of the phone intended it to come with, not just with what AT&T, Verizon or any of the other American carriers "allow" it to have.
"An unlocked phone without carrier subsidies costs more up front, true, but over a 2-year term it becomes cheaper, or about the same price, as a locked, subsidized handset"
how is that? the plan cost the same either way.
and whats the percentage of people that realize that with a little work they can take off and put on whatever they want on the phone that they bought for less than half of what the unlocked one costs?
Hey Meat thanks for pointing that out, I read KOs response while I was in a hardware store and didn't have time to respond, then forgot about it till you commented.
The idea of unlocked phones is great in theory but not in reality(at least not here). I used to think, "why the hell cant I just buy everything unlocked?" But as I became more familiar with the USAs cellular industry I realized that if we imported all the cool GSM phones used throughout the world they would only work with AT&T. Because we have a large mixture of technologies being used. We have Sprint and Verizon on CDMA which most of those overseas phones don't have CDMA radios in them. Nextel and Boost are on the iDen network, which I've never seen an unlocked iDen phone, maybe they are all unlocked for all i know. Then we have GSM T-mobile with its special 1700mhz & 2100mhz 3g service, which means that these nifty N97s wont work at 3g speeds on them either. I'm left with AT&T. So unless the rest of the world all uses the exact same technology having unlocked phones does no good, but luckily it seems the whole world works in unison just like they all use the metric system and here we use imperial standard...backwards USA.
So then just like Meat pointed out, lets say I do have AT&T service, I go purchase a $500-600 Nokia unlocked phone. I turn to AT&T, take the sim card out of my old phone and plop it into the Nokia. I still have to pay for the same exact plan as I would if I had bought one of their subsidized phones at $100. I still get the same dollar per minutes on my plan, and I still would have to pay for data. So where is the savings on an unlocked phone? The lack of a early cancellation penalty? All I have to do to avoid that cost is ride out my contract.
I don't know, I actually like Sprint, and I like the stuff that they push into their phones. I enjoyed my Instinct S30, I really like Sprint Mobile Mail, and Sprint Messenger. Oddly the Instinct S30s Brew OS with those two Sprint applications added into it worked more seamlessly, and quicker than my G1s email clients, or IM programs. I preferred to use it over my G1 till I had reception problems and returned it. Of course reception problems have nothing to do with our discussion of locked vs unlocked, or manufacturer loaded software vs carrier forced software. Well its arguable whether the forced software could have done it, but I highly doubt that would ruin handset reception to the surrounding towers.
So my point is, KO your opinion sounds good, but it just wont work in todays cellular industry in the USA. It works elsewhere cus the world seems to be standardized, but the USA is full of competing technologies which make it a nightmare for unlocked phones.
Except that in the case of CDMA there are plenty of nifty high-tech phones to be had from Japan, Korea, and China if only Verizon would also open up and use R-UIM cards like most of the Asian CDMA carriers do. Notice how Verizon's current G'zone model is a model that was discontinued from Japan ages ago? And Sprint's Sanyo phones- compare to what they're selling in Japan, and the difference is night and day.
And that's the annoying thing about American cellphone subsidies. In Hong Kong, for example, when you get a subsidized phone the cost of your plan rises for the duration of the contract. In Japan, they don't even pretend- you get a "repayment surcharge" tacked onto your bill every month proportional to the cost of your phone (but the upfront cost is very often nothing). In China, there's a "minimum payment" you have to make depending on what phone you get at a discount or for free- the nicer the phone, the bigger the minimum payment per month. Minimum payment meaning plan and overage costs have to equal this number else they just charge you that amount anyway if you come up short in usage.
I hope they will annonce the N97 Mini... and Symbian^2 on both N97 models (it would be nice to give it to the 5800 too) !!
Hi
I got N97 on contract (Orange, UK) but had to return due to problems with contract. Now i have the option to retake the phone
on same contract. TBH Iliked the phone and wdnt mind getting the same contract/phone.
However the d-pad seriously pisses me off...plus the fact that many ppl complaining abt the camera lens cover scratching the lens.
So anyway...if this mini version is coming out might be better to wait a bit. If nokia are "planning" to announce it next month, does it become
availabe from next monht itself...or is there a longer wait coz i cant wait more than a month without contract
Thanks