Slashdot Mirror
N-Gage - Success Claimed, Unofficial Price Drop
Mirkon writes "After non-specific claims of high sales, Nokia's Ilkka Raiskinen has now stated that the Nokia N-Gage's first two weeks have seen massive success, with sales of over 400,000 units worldwide. Analysts are skeptical, firstly because 400,000 is not an exceptionally great amount, and secondly because the number 'refers to models Nokia has sold to shops and other retail outlets', not the amount sold to consumers." Also, drewqmn writes "I noticed on the GameStop website that they are already selling the N-Gage at $199.99 [GamerFeed has a story on this currently unofficial, store-specific price cut, though there are rumors it may be official soon.] Has any console/platform dropped in price so fast?"
Since the stores have already paid for the units does that mean that it's a good thing for Nokia but a bad thing for the stores who rushed out and stoked up?
Ignoring its efforts to pretend it's a game console, it does have some nice features (decent screen as far as cell phones go, MP3 player, etc.), and since I'm currently pricing new cell phones I could see myself getting one for $200 if it weren't for one small detail: I'm happy with Sprint and don't see any reason to change providers (especially since it would mean another "6-8 weeks" for a new provider to process my opt-out request). Unless they broaden their provider support or release some damn good games for it, I don't think I could justify spending more than $100 for it.