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Nokia Admits N-Gage Sales Below Expectations
Thanks to the UK Financial Times for its article discussing Nokia's first public acknowledgment that the Nokia N-Gage 'mobile game deck' has not performed to expectations. According to the article: "'The sales are in the lower quartile of the bracket we had as our goal,' Jorma Ollila, the Finnish group's chairman and chief executive told the FT.", and it was further noted that "Nokia has set a target of selling 9m of the devices in the first two years, but the company has now corroborated early evidence from game stores that sales have been sluggish." Nokia had previously reported positive results in the short post-launch period, despite apparent evidence to the contrary, but the FT article ends with the Nokia chairman's comments that "the N-Gage had to be given until November 2005 before it could be judged a success or failure."
Forget it. 'Cause it'll only get worse as people start to forget about the taco phone. So unless they start selling those at below $100 people won't buy them. And even then they'll only buy it for the phone, not the gaming.
Give it a total redesign. Get rid of the taco shape, make the cartridges easier to swap in and out, drop the price to near free once you sign the phone contract and then maybe it might sell.
If it makes them feel any better, it sold considerably better than my expected 0 units.
"Well, we sorta kinda sold less than 25% of what we thought we would, but as far as it being a success or failure... just give us another um, 21 months. Then we'll be able to judge."
Use Ctrl-C instead of ESC in Vim!
How can they expect mass appeal whenever they're offering these things for $380? I can go buy a freakin gamecube and a PS2 for less than that, then go sign up for a phone plan and get a phone for free.
The pricing point in this article can't be correct. I just can't possibly fathom how they would expect people to run screaming into the stores for these things when they're charging this much.
"the N-Gage had to be given until November 2005 before it could be judged a success or failure."
for $100k , I'd tell them a year and nine months in advance that it was a complete failure.
Cloud City Digital: DVD Production at its cheapest/finest
As in, yes we promise that we won't screw Symbian up as badly as we screwed up this whole N-Gage thing...
- Neil Wehneman
My legal education, in nifty podcast format
For those unknowing (the websites don't really cover this.)
There is a nice FAQ about the NGage here
N-Gage Specifications
CPU: 104Mhz ARM processor 12-bit CPU
Maximum Simultaneous Colors: 4096
Resolution: 176 x 208 pixels
Size: 133.7 x 69.7 x 20.2 mm
Weight: 137 g
Operating System: Symbian OS with Java 2 Micro Edition support
Memory: 4MB internal
N-Gage Features
High performance mobile 3D gaming
Gaming-optimized design and functionality
Bluetooth
Digital music player and recorder
Stereo FM radio
Nokia Audio Manager PC software
New design concept, new UI experience
Multimedia messaging
Full email support (IMAP4, POP3, SMTP, MIME2)
Content with XHTML browser
Tri-band EGSM 900/GSM1800/GSM 1900
Series 60 UI enabling application multitasking
Slave USB 1.1. for digital music download from PC
MP3, AAC, Midi, WAV ringing tones
WAP over GPRS
The author of this was: Scott Tsukamoto
- Focussing on gamers while producing patronising advertising for that very group.
- DRM -- specifically, rigging games to only play on the N-Gage, from an MMC card with no way to install them on a bug MMC flash card or play them on other perfectly capable phones in the same family
The N-Gage's layout is perfect for games, while its Symbian Series 60 OS is a really nice smartphone OS. For some, it's the best S60 option because you can buy it off-plan and unlocked. For others it's the best S60 because it's the cheapest.If Nokia had just released it quietly as a gaming-oriented S60 phone and the games had been available on CD and MMC, then it would probably have exceeded all expectations and been the homebrew (game) programmer's phone of choice.
I was so shocked to read this.
I really thought the phone was cool, untill you I saw someone use one, they hold it like a taco. WTF was Nokia thinking!? Same with the Nokia 3300, nice display and full keypad, but its a Taco phone.
:(
Really, great features, but you fell like a dork using one. I think the best phone from Nokia right now is the 3620, normal dialpad, cameraphone, and tons of features.
Myself, I want a sony P900, no thumb board (for ssh).
Pope is catholic!
I am one of many. My idea is not unique, nor do I expect my voice alone to sway you. I speak in a chorus of opinion.
Console makers should give them (without any cost) for developers, this way console will be popular. And there aren't so many developers to make it expensive for company.
But I'm not going to declare it DOA just yet. Yeah, the N-Gage had so many design flaws and stupid decisions I can't even begin to count them (and I gotta wonder what those finnish engineers were smoking), but the idea is still sound. I played Pandemonium on one of these monsters a few days ago, and... it's not too shabby. The N-Gage sucks - I agree - but you have to keep in mind that phone companies roll out new models OFTEN. I think the people at Nokia have learned a few lessons and unless they get cold feet from this debacle and terminate the N-Gage, version 2.0 will probably be quite nice. As long as they stick to their standards (as in 100% backwards compatibility) and keep improving the model, it could really turn into something nice. Integrating phone/pda/handheld gaming isn't such a bad idea, really, but the devil is in the details and Nokia screwed up. If they can listen to consumer feedback and improve the phone, they might end up with a winner.
Whoa! Who saw this coming?! ;)
Is that most phones aren't designed to support having multiple keys pressed (and understood) at the same time. This will make games like Tony Hawk a lot trickier, since you won't be easily able to do tricks.
Still, I'd be happier if Nokia had actually put some sort of video processor in the N-Gage which wasn't standard on all other S60 phones.
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Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
The MMC cards that the N-Gage uses (non-SD kind) top out at 128mb. It makes it somewhat useless compared to my iPod for music playback.
:)
The good thing about that much space is that it can hold a lot of Atari, Nintendo, Gameboy, and Neo Geo Pocket Color roms. Emulation is the killer app of the N-Gage, not MP3s
--
Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
...the sky is blue, water is wet.
Woah...they actually expected to sell these things?
-Mark
Dovie'andi se tovya sagain.
Hell, I'd put up with the taco part if they fixed the game swap and got a better screen. The vertical orientation is great for space invaders and tetris, but not so much for side-scrollers or 3D games. Switch to a gameboy orientation.
If they threw in a split thumboard (half on each side) so I could IM, i'd ditch my t600 in a heartbeat for it. Unfortunately, it's just not a replacement.
Pot: Hello Kettle.
Kettle: Wzup!
Pot: You're black!
Kettle: [dial tone]
Sorry, had to do that! Seriously, if Nokia is serious and has some guts, they should be able to have a redesigned N-Gage out in time to compete with the Sony PSP. That's when the real fun begins.
They really only need to
1) Get better games.
2) Design a sane way to install and remove game cartridges. Just copy from Nintendo and everyone else who ever manufactured a portable gaming system...duh!
3) Design and pack in a cool headset that can be used for both playing games and making phone calls without looking like an idiot. Maybe the ear buds or the cord could have pressure sensitive control buds on them along with voice control of course.
To the making of books there is no end, so let's get started
This is where I took a bath on Nokia stock.