Nokia's N-Gage - Savaged By Online Opinion

Thanks to CNN for their column discussing how the Internet has changed the way 'bad' products are viewed, with reference to Nokia's N-Gage 'mobile game deck'. The columnist argues: "Ten years ago you might have quietly withdrawn [an 'awkward' product] from store shelves", but times have changed: "The Internet provides an instant, widespread referendum on products... And the Net crowd, for obvious reasons, tends to eye high-tech products. But the things that do get interest, usually negative, watch out." He then gives the immensely popular, N-Gage-related Side Talkin' site as an example of this backlash, quoting a Nokia spokesman as saying of the site: "It's better to have some reaction than no reaction at all."

Comments

But it was a bad product.

[Anonymous Coward]

The internet sure as hell didn't help, but it didn't single-handedly destroy the N-Gage. All the online presence did was magnify the customer response. It's easy to express yourself in a public forum, and it's easy for Nokia to listen in.

Nokia should have *ASKED THEIR TARGET AUDIENCE* about it and taken their opinions seriously. Besides the game loading problem and the sideways talking: it uses an anti-widescreen format and has useless features (3D hardware is useless on a portable - games can't really be designed effectively for it). It also just looks dorky (look at the sexy Gameboy SP) and is a game machine from a company who has never published a game before. I could have told them just from looking at the "life-size" pictures that appeared in a few magazines.

Re:Opinion is just as baseless.

[NanoGator]

"The N-Gage is just everyone's favourite whipping boy."

So everybody was just making up the $300 price tag and the need to remove the battery to insert new games?